■KAZAKHSTAN
Dozens die in flooding
Heavy rain and melting snow have caused severe floods across a region neighboring China, flooding villages and killing about two dozen people, officials said on Friday. The south was affected by unusually intense snowfalls this winter and fast-rising temperatures are causing major flooding and mudslides across the region. A dam at the Kyzyl-Agash reservoir in the eastern Almaty region ruptured on Thursday, pouring water into several nearby villages and affecting 3,000 residents, the Emergency Services Ministry said. At least 25 deaths have been confirmed, Almaty regional government spokesman Ilyas Biyakhmetov said. Officials say residents in the affected district have been evacuated in buses sent from the regional capital, Taldykorgan. Some people have been put up in hotels and dormitories in Taldykorgan, Biyakhmetov said.
■RUSSIA
Nation to cut time zones
Two regions may get closer to Moscow, in time if not in space, after lawmakers took up a proposal by President Dmitry Medvedev to cut the country’s number of time zones. The regional assemblies in Samara and Chukotka both approved Friday measures, despite advice from experts and divided public opinion, to shift to one time zone later, news agencies reported. The change, if approved by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, would put the Samara region to the southeast of the capital in the same time zone with Moscow. Chukotka, in the extreme northeast of the country along the Bering Strait, would move to being eight hours ahead of the capital. Medvedev suggested last November cutting the number of time zones — the country currently spans 11 from Kaliningrad to Chukotka — in order to improve coordination across the country.
■AUSTRIA
Nazi mass graves found
At least two mass graves containing dozens of people killed by the Nazis have been found on property used by the army, government officials said on Friday. An army statement suggested some of the remains may be that of US pilots shot down and imprisoned during World War II. Police Colonel Rudolf Gollia, an interior ministry spokesman, said his ministry has planned talks with the owners of the site to discuss exhumation, adding that it was not yet clear whether the army owned the property or was renting it. The mass graves are located in bomb craters underneath an army sports field in the southern city of Graz. Officials said they contain about 70 bodies of victims killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived.
■UNITED STATES
Jackson furniture on auction
Luxury furniture Michael Jackson commissioned before his death will go under the hammer in June in Las Vegas along with other personal items from the King of Pop, Julien’s Auctions said on Friday. The 22 pieces of furniture Jackson ordered from Italy’s Colombostile Artisans to fill the home where he was to live during his “This is It” London concert series will be featured in the June 25 “Music Icons” auction at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. Before the event, the furniture and a recreation of Jackson’s home in Kent, England, will be exhibited at Newbridge Silverware’s Museum of Style Icon’s, in Ireland, from Tuesday to May 30, Julien’s said in a statement. The exhibit will then be shown in Las Vegas from June 14-25.
■PERU
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