News in brief

By The Associated Press

About 8,000 N. Korean troops at Ukraine’s border

WASHINGTON | The Biden administration says some 8,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia near Ukraine’s border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight against Ukrainian troops in the coming days.

The new figure announced Thursday is a dramatic increase from a day earlier, when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would only say some of the 10,000 troops North Korea has sent to Russia had moved toward Ukraine’s border in the Kursk region. That’s where Moscow’s forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion. That also would mean most of the North Korean troops that the U.S. and its allies say have been sent to Russia are now on the border with Ukraine.

Spain searches for bodies after flooding

BARRIO DE LA TORRE, Spain | Crews are searching for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings as residents salvage what they can from ruined homes following monstrous flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives, with 155 people killed in one region alone.

The death toll could rise more as search efforts continue Thursday. An unknown number remains missing.

Spain’s transport minister says dead bodies remain inside some of the hundreds of stranded vehicles. Wrecked vehicles, tree branches, downed power lines and household items are mired in a layer of mud covering the streets of Barrio de la Torre, just one of dozens of localities in the hard-hit eastern region of Valencia. Officials say 155 people have died in Valencia.

—From AP reports