NATION/WORLD

BRIEFING

Obama sets rule on coal mines, streams

Washington — The Obama administration on Monday set final rules designed to reduce the environmental impact of coal mining on the nation’s streams, a long-anticipated move that met quick resistance from Republicans who vowed to overturn it under President Donald Trump.

The Interior Department said the new rule will protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests, preventing debris from coal mining from being dumped into nearby waters. The rule would maintain a buffer zone that blocks coal mining within 100 feet of streams, but would impose stricter guidelines for exceptions to the 100foot rule.

Interior officials said the rule would cause only modest job losses in coal country, but Republicans and some coalstate Democrats denounced it as a job-killer being imposed during President Barack Obama’s final days in office.

Probe says Malaysia jet in different area

Sydney — A team of international investigators hunting for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 says it has determined the plane is unlikely to be found in the area search crews have been combing for two years, and may instead have crashed in a stretch of ocean farther to the north.

The conclusion raises the prospect that the search for the Boeing 777 could continue beyond next month. That’s when crews are expected to finish their deep sea sonar hunt of the current search zone west of Australia in the Indian Ocean.

The latest analysis on the plane’s whereabouts comes in a report released Tuesday by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the search for the aircraft.

No misconduct for judge in sex case

San Francisco — A California judge was cleared of misconduct Monday for sentencing a former Stanford University swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus, a punishment decried as too lenient by critics across the country.

There was no evidence that Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky displayed bias in his treatment of Brock Turner, according to the California Commission on Judicial Performance, which investigates complaints of judicial misconduct and disciplines judges.

The panel said it received thousands of complaints demanding Persky be punished over Turner’s sentence, which required the now-21-year-old to register as a sex offender for life.

Cave rescue: Seven people who became trapped by high waters while exploring a southern Indiana cave were rescued after 39 hours underground, officials said Monday. The last of the cavers were brought above ground about 3 a.m. Monday after entering Binkley’s Cave near Corydon about noon Saturday.