World Briefs

CHINA A fire high in the mountains of Sichuan province has killed 30 firefighters and others, the government said yesterday. The deaths occurred after a change of wind Sunday as the firefighters were battling the blaze in a rugged area at an altitude of 3,800 meters. Among the dead were 27 firefighters and three local residents recruited to help fight the blaze, the ministry said.

SOUTH CHINA SEA The Philippines has protested the presence of more than 200 Chinese vessels that were sighted from January to March near a Philippine-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea, officials said.

PHILIPPINES Two Muslim militants have been arrested with guns, explosives and Islamic State group-style black flags in a northern Philippine province far from the traditional territory of Muslim militants in the volatile south, police said yesterday.

NEPAL Survivors of a powerful rainstorm that killed at least 28 people and injured hundreds in southern Nepal searched for food and shelter yesterday as rescuers struggled to reach remote areas. High winds during the storm Sunday night flipped cars and blew a bus carrying at least 40 people off a highway.

SRI LANKA authorities publicly destroyed 770 kilograms of cocaine yesterday as the president announced that dates have been set for the country’s first executions in 43 years amid rising alarm over drug-related crime.

UKRAINE Volodymyr Zelenskiy has no political experience, but that’s no problem for the people of Ukraine who have already seen that working for him. In a striking example of fiction morphing into reality, the 41-year-old comedian and actor seems set to take the top office for real.

BRITAIN’s Parliament gets another chance yesterday to offer a way forward on Britain’s stalled divorce from the European Union, holding a series of votes on Brexit alternatives in an attempt to find the elusive idea that can command a majority.