World Briefs

KOREA U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that his country has “made clear” to South Korea that progress on disarming North Korea should not lag behind the expansion of relations between the two Koreas. 

AUSTRALIA’s prime minister accused senior Muslim community leaders yesterday of “continuing down a path of denial” after they refused an invitation to a meeting to discuss the threat posed by Islamic extremists.

PAKISTAN A Christian woman recently acquitted of blasphemy charges after eight years on death row in Pakistan wants to leave her homeland for any Western country willing to issue visas for her and her family, her lawyer said.

AFGHANISTAN A suicide bomber targeted a gathering of hundreds of Islamic scholars in the Afghan capital, killing at least 50 people as Muslims marked the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

US-SAUDI ARABIA President Donald Trump declared he would not further punish Saudi Arabia for the murder of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi — making clear that the benefits of good relations with the kingdom outweigh the possibility its crown prince ordered the killing. 

SOUTH SUDAN A child bride auction has gone viral in South Sudan, marking the largest dowry ever paid in the civil war-torn country. The highest bidder was a man three times the 17-year-old’s age. At least four other men in Eastern Lakes state competed, including the state’s deputy governor.

KOSOVO’s government says it will put a 100 percent import tax on all goods imported from Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina as diplomatic tensions rise.

BRITAIN Prime Minister Theresa May told skeptical lawmakers yesterday that rejecting her divorce deal with the European Union would mean uncertainty and division, before a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to help finalize the Brexit agreement.

BRAZIL A civil society organization says greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil dropped last year mainly due to a 12 percent reduction in Amazon deforestation as a result of increased inspections by Brazil’s environmental protection agency.

GUATEMALA Thousands of Guatemalan villagers are beginning to return home a day after being evacuated due to an eruption of the Volcano of Fire.

MEXICO’s former top security chief and another law enforcement official who once worked under the country’s new president-elect took millions of dollars in bribes from the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel in the mid-2000s, a witness testified Tuesday at the U.S. trial of kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.