In brief: 787 probe shifts to monitor system

TOKYO – The joint U.S. and Japanese investigation into the Boeing 787’s battery problems has moved from the battery-maker to the manufacturer of a monitoring system.

Transport ministry official Shigeru Takano said today the probe into battery-maker GS Yuasa was over for now as no evidence was found it was the source of the problem.

Ministry officials said they would be inspecting Kanto Aircraft Instrument Co. as part of the ongoing investigation.

It makes a system that monitors voltage, charging and temperature of the lithium-ion batteries.

All Boeing 787s are grounded after one of the jets made an emergency landing in Japan earlier this month when its main battery overheated.

Britons warned of threat in Somalia

LONDON – British citizens should immediately leave the breakaway Somaliland region of Somalia because of a specific threat to Westerners, British diplomats said Sunday.

In a statement emailed to reporters, Britain’s Foreign Office did not go into any further detail about the nature of the threat but noted that “kidnapping for financial or political gain, motivated by criminality or terrorism” is an issue throughout Somalia.

Somalia has endured years of civil war, and Britain – along with the United States and a host of other countries – has long advised against all travel to the Horn of Africa nation.

Sunday’s travel warning applies specifically to the northwest territory of Somaliland, which declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 and has since been a haven of relative peace amid the chaos and bloodshed of the country’s south.

Inmates moved after deadly riot

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan authorities finished evacuating more than 2,000 inmates on Sunday from a prison where the government said 58 people were killed in one of the deadliest prison clashes in the nation’s history.

More than two days after the bloodshed, Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela released an official death toll and said 46 wounded victims remained hospitalized.

She said the evacuation of Uribana prison in the city of Barquisimeto was completed on Sunday morning. Inmates were loaded aboard buses and driven to other prisons.

Varela said that the violence erupted on Friday when groups of armed inmates began firing shots at National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection.