News in Brief

High winds, rain lash Europe
Afp, Paris

High winds and heavy rain battered parts of Europe, leaving at least two people dead and one man lost at sea off France, and disrupting travel a day from Christmas. Across north and northwest France, about 90,000 homes lost electricity, said French utility ERDF.

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Iran mulling capital change
Ap, Tehran

The Iranian parliament is considering a proposal to pick another city as the nation's capital and move the seat of the government from the overcrowded and heavily polluted Tehran. There was no indication in the proposal what locations could be considered.

Nigerian troops kill 50 Islamists
Reuters, Abuja

Nigeria's military yesterday said it had killed at least 50 Islamist rebels fleeing towards Cameroon in a battle in which 15 of its own soldiers and five civilians also died. Nigerian forces have stepped up an offensive in the volatile northeast in the past few days, after Boko Haram fighters  attacked an army barracks in the town of Bama on Friday.

Obama signs up for Obamacare
Afp, Washington

US President Barack Obama has signed up for health insurance to promote his own controversial health care reform legislation, a White House official said Monday. The gesture was a "symbolic" one, the official said, as Obama receives health care from the military, as all presidents do. He also has a White House medical team at his disposal.