News in Brief

2 French soldiers killed in CAR
BANGUI

 
Two French soldiers have been killed in the Central African Republic, officials said yesterday, on the second day of an operation to disarm fighters sowing sectarian violence in the country.
The deaths come as the UN-mandated military operation there is being expanded with US logistical help. They were the first deaths suffered by French troops since they entered the African nation, an unstable former colony, last week to quell an upsurge in violence.
Although 1,600 French soldiers have been deployed, mostly to Bangui and mostly -- until now -- to little resistance, lawlessness reigns beyond their positions.
Hollande is to visit the Central African Republic late Tuesday, after attending a memorial service with world leaders in South Africa honouring Nelson Mandela.

Coldest place on earth
Tnn, New Delhi

 
Nasa satellites have found the coldest place on earth. At a desolate and remote ice plateau in East Antarctica, temperatures hit a "soul-crushing" -93.2 degrees Celsius. This beat the previous record of -89.2 degrees Celsius measured at the Vostok Research Station in East Antarctica on July 21, 1983.
The hottest recorded spot on Earth - again by satellite sensor - is the Dasht-e Lut salt desert in southeast Iran, where it reached 70.7 degrees Celsius in 2005.

Kremlin dissolves RIA Novosti
CNN Online

 
RIA Novosti, Russia's state-run news agency, reported on its own demise Monday after a decree by President Vladimir Putin created a new agency called Rossiya Segodnya.
The new agency, whose name means "Russia Today," combines RIA Novosti and state-owned Voice of Russia radio. RIA Novosti was founded in 1941, just after Nazi Germany invaded Russia, and has grown to a network of reporters in 45 countries and services in 14 languages.