World briefs

CAMBODIA’s parliament will consider legislation to allow politicians banned from political activity to have the ban lifted, a measure that long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government is touting as a step “to strengthen democracy and political space.”

INDONESIA Fishermen rescued a wooden boat carrying 20 hungry, weak Rohingya Muslims yesterday after it was found adrift off Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh, an official said.

INDIA Authorities in northern India have arrested four people for their alleged involvement in an attack on police over rumors of cow slaughter that left two people dead, including a police official.

BANGLADESH A special tribunal has begun the trial of eight suspected Islamic militants in an attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh’s capital in which 22 people were killed, including 17 foreigners.

IRAN President Hassan Rouhani has threatened again to close the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea.

ISRAEL The military launched an operation yesterday to “expose and thwart” tunnels built by the Hezbollah militant group that stretch from Lebanon into northern Israel.

LIBYA An official says at least 14 migrants have died off the North African nation’s coast while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

UKRAINE Shipping traffic has resumed to and from Ukraine’s ports on the Sea of Azov following a standoff with Russia, a Ukrainian minister said yesterday.

ITALY Authorities said yesterday they had dismantled the rebuilt upper echelons of the Sicilian Mafia by arresting 46 people including the presumed new regional boss who took over after the death of the “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina.

SPAIN Two imprisoned members of the Catalonia region’s previous government have joined two secessionist colleagues in a hunger strike to protest what they say is unfair treatment by Spanish courts.

MEXICO’s newly inaugurated president kicked off his first week in office with something not seen in recent history — a news conference and a pledge to hold one every working day of his six-year term to keep the people informed. 

ECUADOR’s President Lenin Moreno has suspended his vice president, who faces allegations that as a congresswoman she took kickbacks from a staff member.