In brief: New quake hits Turkey; three die, many trapped

Ankara, Turkey – An earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Wednesday night, killing at least three people and leaving dozens trapped in the rubble of toppled buildings damaged in a previous temblor, which had killed 600 people.

About two dozen buildings collapsed in the provincial capital of Van following a 5.7-magnitude quake, though most of them were empty or had been declared unfit because they were weakened by the earlier quake, according to media reports.

In a grim replay of scenes from last month’s quake in the same region, men climbed onto piles of debris and frantically clawed at twisted steel and crumbled concrete in an attempt to find survivors.

Jailed blogger’s mother begins hunger strike

Cairo – The mother of a prominent blogger jailed by Egypt’s ruling generals has gone on a hunger strike to protest her son’s detention and the military’s increasingly heavy-handed approach against critics.

The strike by Alaa Abdel-Fattah’s 55-year-old mother could turn into a major embarrassment for Egypt’s military three weeks ahead of landmark parliamentary elections, the first since the uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak nine months ago.

Military prosecutors ordered Abdel-Fattah, 29, detained for 15 days on Oct. 30 after he refused to answer questions over his alleged role in sectarian clashes three weeks earlier that killed 27 people, mostly Christians.