IN BRIEF

United States

Climate change meeting delayed

The White House has postponed a Tuesday meeting to discuss whether the United States should withdraw from the landmark international climate deal struck in Paris under president Barack Obama's administration. This is the second time a meeting of top aides on the issue has been delayed. The Paris accord, signed by nearly 200 nations in 2015, was never ratified by the Senate due to the staunch oppositions of Republicans.

France

Hundreds cleared from tent camp

Paris police on Tuesday evacuated a tent camp where some 1,000 migrants, mostly from Afghanistan and Sudan, were living in squalid conditions. Police moved in at dawn to remove the migrants, camped between major access roads into the capital. The settlement was located just meters from a new refugee transit center set up by Paris city authorities late last year to take asylum seekers off the streets but which has limited space available.

Iran

Death toll in mine blast rises to 42

Iranian state TV said that search crews have found seven more bodies at the site of a coal mine explosion last week, bringing the total death toll in the incident to 42. Tuesday's report quotes Reza Morovati, an official in the Golestan government, as saying that the bodies have been taken to "forensics experts for identification". He also said it's possible that one miner remains trapped inside the coal mine.

Norway

2,000 reindeer to be killed, govt says

The government on Monday authorized the slaughter of a herd of 2,000 reindeer in a bid to eradicate a brain-destroying disease, after several cases were detected in the country for the first time in Europe. The wasting disease, a cousin of mad cow disease, causes deer brains to turn spongy, leading the animal to lose weight and die.

Australia

Polar bear cub dies at Sea World

A female polar bear born at Sea World on Australia's Gold Coast has died after just nine days, media said on Tuesday. Staff at the theme park are "taking it very, very hard as you can imagine", a statement said. The tragedy reportedly occurred on Saturday night when staff discovered the cub was not getting enough milk.

India

Junk food banned in school canteens

The western state of Maharashtra has become the first in the country to impose a ban on the sale of junk food in school canteens. A Maharashtra government resolution said that potato chips, noodles, carbonated soft drinks, pizzas, burgers, cakes, biscuits, buns and pastries can't be sold in the canteens of government schools across the state.