World news briefs

JAPANUtility held liable for suicide

A court in Fukushima has ruled that Tokyo Electric Power Co., the nuclear power plant operator, can be held responsible for the suicide of a woman who became depressed after the 2011 disaster. The court ordered Tepco to pay $470,000 to Mikio Watanabe and his children after Hamako Watanabe, 58, killed herself a few months after the nuclear meltdown that followed the earthquake and tsunami forced them out of their home and destroyed their livelihoods.

SOUTH SUDANUN copter seen as shot down

The UN mission in South Sudan said one of its helicopters has crashed, and a UN official told The Associated Press it appears the aircraft was shot down. The mission said on Twitter that an Mi-18 cargo helicopter crashed yesterday near Bentiu, which is hotly contested by the government and rebels. A UN official said contact with the helicopter was lost about 3:19 p.m. South Sudan has seen widespread violence between rebels and the army since December.

ICELANDVolcano threat eases

Iceland lowered its aviation alert level to orange from red, saying there was no sign of an imminent eruption at the Bardarbunga volcano. And scientists at the Icelandic Meteorological Office said their announcement Saturday that the volcano had experienced a subglacial eruption was wrong. But the office cautioned that seismic activity at the volcano, hit by thousands of earthquakes in the past week, was not slowing, and an eruption remained a possibility.

FRANCECabinet dissidents ousted

Socialist President François Hollande has reshuffled his cabinet to silence dissidents who had openly criticized his economic policy. Emmanuel Macron took over the economy ministry, replacing Arnaud Montebourg, who had railed against government policy as too austere and even unjust to the French. Finance Minister Michel Sapin stayed in the limited reshuffle announced yesterday.