World Briefs

VIETNAM One-party rule in communist Vietnam is a far better alternative to authoritarianism disguised as democracy, the country’s newly elected leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, said yesterday.

SOUTH KOREA Samsung Electronics reports a bigger-than-expected decline in fourth quarter earnings as its mainstay smartphone and semiconductor business suffered from weakening global demand for consumer electronics.

INDONESIA‘s state-owned telecommunications company says its has blocked the Internet video service Netflix in a possible setback to the US company’s expansion in Asia.

MYANMAR’s pro-democracy party led by Aung San Suu Kyi announces ethnically diverse choices for leadership of the legislature as it prepares to take over the government from a military-backed party.

HONG KONG Controversial comedian Dieudonné has been detained at the Hong Kong International Airport for reasons that are not immediately clear. His production company has said that it is likely that he will be deported. Dieudonné has previously been convicted in France for anti-semitic remarks.

PAKISTAN Diplomats from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US are due to meet in Islamabad next month, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced, to discuss how to resume the stalled peace process between the Kabul government and the Taliban.

INDIA Suspected Maoist rebels killed seven policemen and injured six others, a top police official in India said yesterday, after they detonated a land mine in Jharkhand state. The rebels operate mostly in central and eastern India, demanding a greater local share in the region’s natural resources.

AUSTRALIA A teenage suspect discussed with a British accomplice packing a kangaroo with explosives before setting it loose on Australian police officers, prosecutors allege. The suspect is believed to be connected to an IS-inspired terrorist attack at a Veteran’s Day ceremony in April last year.

BRAZIL New figures released by Brazil’s Health Ministry as part of a probe into the Zika virus have found fewer cases of a rare birth defect than first feared.

FRANCE An activist from international women’s rights organization, Femen, staged a mock hanging of herself from a bridge in Paris to protest the visit of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani yesterday. She had an Iranian flag painted on her chest.

FRANCE A man with two handguns and a Quran was detained yesterday along with his female partner at Disneyland Paris, Europe’s most-visited tourist attraction, police said. No one was hurt in the incident and the park remained open after the arrests.