In brief: Mudslide in Bolivia buries half of village

CHULLPA KHASA, Bolivia – Persistent heavy rains have forced Bolivians to suspend the search for victims in a mudslide that buried half of a village in the central part of the country.

Fears that more loose earth and rock could further overwhelm the hillside Quechua-speaking village of Chullpa Khasa in Cochabamba state halted the rescue effort Monday.

Families buried three victims of the Saturday night slide, but 11 others are still missing, most of them children. The slide also swallowed up crops and sheep.

Large swaths of Bolivia have been soaked by heavy downpours that have sent rivers over their banks.

Authorities say more than 47,000 families have been affected and 42 have died since the rainy season began at the end of November.

Yemen to have six federal states

CAIRO – Yemen is to be divided into six federal states, a committee chaired by President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi decided Monday.

Two states will be formed in the south, which until 1990 was the independent Marxist republic of South Yemen, state news agency Saba reported. The remaining four will be in the smaller but more populous and politically dominant north.

The decision comes three weeks after a national dialogue conference agreed that the Arabian republic should be transformed into a federation but was unable to agree on whether it should be made up of two states or six.