In brief: Four siblings dead in apparent suicide

BEIJING – Police are investigating the apparent suicides of four young siblings ages 5 to 13 who’d been abandoned by their parents in one of China’s poorest regions.

State media report the four were found Wednesday night at home on the outskirts of the city of Bijie after ingesting liquid pesticide.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the children’s mother had abandoned them three years ago and their father had moved away to find work. It said they had dropped out of school and their only sustenance was corn flour ground from last year’s crop.

Convicted American seeks family for child

CHICAGO – An American woman convicted in her mother’s death in Indonesia is considering having a local family raise her baby daughter until she is released from prison, her attorney said.

Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, both from Chicago, were convicted in April of killing Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, while vacationing last August on the resort island of Bali.

Mack gave birth to Stella, the couple’s baby girl, in March.

Nepal landslide leaves 15 dead

KATHMANDU, Nepal – A landslide triggered by heavy rainfall has buried six villages in Nepal’s mountainous northeast and at least 15 people were believed to have been killed.

Government administrator Surendra Bhattarai said the landslide hit the villages in Taplejung district at night when people were at home sleeping.

He said another 12 people were believed to be missing but details were sketchy because of the remoteness of the area.

The Himalayan nation is still recovering from earthquakes in April and May that killed more than 8,700 people and caused massive damage.

S&P downgrades Greece credit rating

NEW YORK – Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday downgraded Greece’s credit rating one notch further into junk territory, saying it’s likely the country will default on its commercial debt within a year if it can’t strike a deal with its creditors.

Greece has shown it is giving higher priority to its pensions and other domestic spending than making debt payments on time, the rating agency said. The country has delayed making a June 5 debt payment to the International Monetary Fund and must pay the group 1.6 billion euros by month’s end.