World briefs

UAE The Philippines ambassador to the United Arab Emirates says a wanted man named by President Rodrigo Duterte as a major drug kingpin has been arrested in the Arab country’s capital. Ambassador Constancio Vingno Jr. told yesterday that Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr. was arrested Sunday night in an apartment in Abu Dhabi.

PHILIPPINES-CHINA  The new Philippine president is making a state visit to China in a charm offensive that will help define how far he wants to shift allegiance from treaty ally the U.S. to an Asian superpower locked in a territorial standoff with his small, impoverished country. It’s a high-stakes gamble for brash Duterte.

THAILAND A Thai woman accused of insulting the country’s late king is forced to kneel before his portrait at a police station on the tourist island of Samui as several hundred people bay for an apology.

KOREAS North Korea says it wants Britain to pull out of upcoming military exercises in South Korea, calling the drills a “hostile act.” Britain has announced that it will send fighter jets and support planes to Asia, and that it will take part in exercises in South Korea together with South Korean and U.S. forces in early November.

INDONESIA  Prosecutors in Indonesia seek an eight-year prison term for a Chinese Uighur accused of involvement in plots to attack government officials and minority Shiite Muslims.

JAPAN  The Japanese government expects to raise 416 billion yen from the initial public offering of 160 million shares of Kyushu Railway Co., or JR Kyushu, the latest in the privatization of the nation’s prized train operations.

ISRAEL A book about Israel’s character and the “turning points” in its history that Nobel laureate Shimon Peres completed just weeks before he died will come out next spring. The HarperCollins imprint Custom House said that Peres’ “No Room for Small Dreams” will be published April 4. Peres, whose previous books included the memoir “Battling for Peace,” died last month at age 93.

AUSTRIA The government says it plans to demolish the house where Adolf Hitler was born and erect a new building in its place in efforts to erase any link to the Nazi dictator’s birthplace. Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said that “a thorough architectural remodeling is necessary to permanently prevent the recognition and the symbolism of the building.”

SOUTH AFRICA  African protesters demanding free university education broke windows, forced open doors and threw human excrement in an effort to disrupt the resumption of classes, said an official from the University of Cape Town. In Johannesburg, students blocked a road during the morning rush hour and threw stones at the University of the Witwatersrand.