World Briefs

CHINA More than 120 people, including senior officials, were responsible for deadly blasts in the Chinese city of Tianjin last year, investigators have said. According to a Xinhua report the warehouse blasts were caused by hazardous materials improperly or illegally stored.

SOUTH KOREA says it has agreed to begin talks with Washington on possible deployment of a US missile defense system.

INDIAN authorities have deported an Australian man on suspicion of being an Islamic State supporter. The man was detained by India’s security agencies for questioning after he landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

AFGHANISTAN Taliban forces are on the verge of overrunning the key area of Sangin district in the north of the country’s notorious Helmand Province. Government officials in the country have repeatedly asserted that the opium-rich region is safe.

SYRIA The mother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Anisa, has died at the age of 86 in the country’s capital, Damascus, his office announced. Reports said she was ill for many years and travelled frequently to Germany for treatment before 2012, when she was blacklisted by the EU.

ALGERIA has reinstated a two-term limit on its presidency, seven years after it was lifted so President Bouteflika could run for a third term.

EUROPEAN UNION  officials have urged Turkey to let in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees trapped on its border at Kilis, after fleeing fighting in the war-torn country in the Middle East. Turkey says the refugees are receiving food and shelter inside Syria and there is no need to allow them to cross.

USA A white Chicago police officer who fatally shot a black 19-year-old college student and accidentally killed a neighbor has filed a lawsuit against the teenager’s estate, arguing the shooting left him traumatized.

HAITIAN leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States announced.

EL SALVADOR Police have arrested four former soldiers wanted in Spain for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests that sparked international outrage during the Salvadoran Civil War.