World briefs

SINGAPORE Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has named a deputy in a Cabinet reshuffle, in a possible indication of his successor. His office said yesterday that Heng Swee Keat would be promoted to deputy prime minister. Heng has been finance minister since 2015. He will keep that post when the appointment takes effect on May 1.

SRI LANKA The Islamic extremist group blamed for Easter attack that killed over 320 people began posting videos online three years ago calling for non-Muslims to be “eliminated,” faith leaders said yesterday. Much remains unclear about how a little-known group called National Thowfeek Jamaath allegedly carried out six large nearly simultaneous suicide bombings striking churches and hotels on Sunday. 

RUSSIA-N. KOREA A Kremlin adviser says that President Vladimir Putin will meet the North Korean leader in Russia’s Far East tomorrow. Yuri Ushakov told Russian news agencies yesterday that the much-anticipated talks between Putin and Kim Jong Un would be held in Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean and would focus on North Korea’s nuclear program. 

MYANMAR More than 50 people are believed to have died in a mudslide at a jade mining site in northern Myanmar, a lawmaker representing the area said yesterday. Tin Soe said three bodies have been recovered and 54 people remain missing after the accident Monday night in the Hpakant area of Kachin state.

NORTHERN IRELAND Police Service said they have arrested a woman under the Terrorism Act in connection with the slaying of journalist Lyra McKee (pictured). The arrest of the 57-year-old under the Terrorism Act came as an Irish Republican Army splinter group admitted that one of its “volunteers” killed journalist McKee.

US A man regularly volunteered to fly sick people in remote parts of the country to hospitals in Houston and Dallas was at the controls of a twin-engine airplane that crashed Min the Hill Country of central Texas, killing all six aboard. Jeffrey C. Weiss, 65, was a senior vice president for investments at Raymond James and Associates in Houston.

MALAWI The World Health Organization says Malawi has become the first country to begin immunizing children against malaria, using the only licensed vaccine to protect against the mosquito-spread disease. The parasitic disease kills about 435,000 people every year, the majority of them children under 5 in Africa.