World briefs

NORTH KOREA yesterday called the U.S. seizure of a North Korean cargo ship involved in banned coal exports a “robbery” and demanded that the vessel be returned immediately.

SAUDI ARABIA Drones attacked one of its oil pipelines as other assaults targeted energy infrastructure elsewhere in the kingdom on yesterday, shortly after Yemen’s rebels claimed a coordinated drone attack on the Sunni power.

ISRAEL’s government went on a spending binge in its West Bank settlements following the election of President Donald Trump, according to official data obtained by The Associated Press.

RUSSIA U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday arrived in Russia for talks that are expected to focus on an array of issues including arms control and Iran. 

GERMANY The European Union’s top court ruled yesterday that EU countries must make employers set up a system to measure the time worked every day by each worker to ensure that labor laws are complied with.

GERMANY Google opened a privacy focused engineering center in MWorld brifsunich yesterday – its latest move to beef up its data protection credentials as tech companies’ face growing scrutiny of their data collection practices.

USA Spyware crafted by a sophisticated group of hackers-for-hire took advantage of a flaw in the popular WhatsApp communications program to remotely hijack dozens of phones, the company said yesterday.

USA Attorney General William Barr has appointed a U.S. attorney to examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was “lawful and appropriate,” according to a person familiar with the issue.

ALASKA A team of federal accident investigators is expected to arrive in Alaska today to try to piece together what caused a deadly midair collision between two sightseeing planes.