WORLD BRIEFS

UNITED NATIONS: Russia unmoved on Syria

Russia shot down suggestions from some Security Council members of an imminent deal on a draft resolution aimed at stopping Syria's bloody upheaval, warning it would veto the current text if it were put to a vote Friday. Pakistan's UN envoy said Thursday the council was "two words away" from agreement and the council chairman from Togo said a consensus was near on an amended version of a draft backing an Arab League plan for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. But Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told a closed-door session of the world body that Moscow would veto the draft if it were submitted on Friday with a phrase saying the council "fully supports" the plan, several Western diplomats told Reuters.

SERBIA: 11,000 stranded in cold, snow

At least 11,000 villagers have been trapped by heavy snow and blizzards in the mountains, authorities said Thursday, as the death toll from Eastern Europe's weeklong deep freeze rose to 123, many of them homeless people. The harshest winter in decades has seen temperatures dropping to minus 22 Fahrenheit, and has caused power outages, traffic chaos and the widespread closing of schools, nurseries and airports. The stranded in Serbia are stuck in some 6,500 homes in remote areas that cannot be reached through icy, snow-clogged roads with banks reaching up to 16 feet. Helicopters were dispatched to some particularly remote areas in Serbia and neighboring Bosnia.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: 110 missing in sinking of ferry

Rescuers battling big waves and winds have pulled nearly 250 people from the sea off the east coast after a ferry sank. More than 110 people remained missing. Some victims may have been trapped inside the sunken ferry. Owners of MV Rabaul Queen, Papua New Guinea-based Rabaul Shipping Co., said Friday there had been 350 passengers and 12 crew aboard the 22-year-old Japanese-built ferry when it went down Thursday morning en route from Kimbe on the island of New Britain to the coastal city of Lae on the main island. Most of the passengers were students, a police official said.