World briefs

JAPAN An earthquake shook southwestern Japan yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of damage and a tsunami watch was lifted within an hour.

THAILAND Authorities suspended ferry services and began evacuations yesterday ahead of a powerful tropical storm that is expected to pound the Southeast Asian nation’s famed southern beach resorts during a peak tourism season. 

BANGLADESH While Sheikh Hasina is set to begin her third consecutive term as Bangladesh’s prime minister following a landslide election victory, critics say having such an overwhelming majority in Parliament could create space for her to become even more authoritarian.

INDIA Hindu hard-liners shut shops and businesses and clashed with police in a southern state yesterday to protest the entry of two women in one of India’s largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.

SAUDI ARABIA announced yesterday it will seek the death penalty against five suspects in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a killing that has seen members of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage implicated in the writer’s assassination. 

TURKEY Official figures show that Turkey’s inflation rate eased slightly for the second consecutive month in December to 20.3 percent, helped by tax cuts and discounted prices on consumer goods.

DENMARK Two more bodies have been found in the wreckage of a crashed train on a Danish bridge, raising the death toll to eight in Denmark’s deadliest train accident in 30 years, police said yesterday.

BRITAIN Officials say two men have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling migrants from France to England by sea.

BRAZIL Newly installed President Jair Bolsonaro targeted Brazil’s indigenous groups, descendants of slaves and the LGBT community with executive orders in the first hours of his administration, moving quickly after a campaign in which the far-right leader said he would radically overhaul many aspects of life.

PERU’s attorney general has reversed his dismissal of the lead investigators in a sweeping corruption probe into top officials, retreating in the face of a growing public outcry and a bid by the president that could remove him from office.