World Briefs

CHINA A court in northern China sentences a former vice minister of public security to 15 years in jail for accepting bribes. Li Dongsheng is the latest senior figure to fall in President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive.

INDONESIA The jailed radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, 77, appealed yesterday to an Indonesia court to have his conviction for funding a terror training camp overturned, arguing that his support for the camp was an act of worship. The leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network filed a judicial review of his 2011 conviction, when he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for setting up the camp in Aceh province. A higher court later cut the sentence to nine years.

IRAN’s state TV says that an Iranian Phantom fighter jet has crashed close to the Pakistan border, killing two pilots. It reported that the crash took place yesterday some 45 miles west of Konarak Air Base, around 900 miles southeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran. The report said that the cause of the crash was unknown but investigations were ongoing. The pilots were on a training assignment.

CAMBODIA Two trucks transporting Cambodian garment workers to their factory crashed yesterday, killing five of the workers and injuring 65 others, officials said. The accident occurred early Tuesday morning as one truck sped up to overtake the other but collided with it, causing the vehicles to spiral out of control, said Ma Savath, a district governor in Kampong Speu province, about 40 km southwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.

GERMANY wants to ease the rules for deporting foreign criminals in the wake of the New Year’s Eve assaults in Cologne, two senior officials said.

MEXICO Actor Sean Penn tells AP he has ‘nothin’ to hide,’ after photos published yesterday indicate Mexican agents apparently kept a very close watch on the actress who led Penn to a meeting with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman — and may have even followed and photographed the Hollywood figures as they set out for the supposedly secret meeting.

USA Natalie Cole was remembered as a loyal friend, “the best and bossiest big sister,” and a worthy successor to her famous father’s legacy in a joyous and music-filled funeral highlighting her Baptist faith yesterday. The two-hour, 50-minute service at West Angeles Church of God in Christ was filled with affection for the daughter of crooner Nat King Cole, who established her Grammy-winning career before intertwining her father’s musical legacy with her own in their hit “Unforgettable.”