World briefs

INDONESIA Police arrested nine suspected militants following a tipoff about a possible attack during the announcement of presidential election results next week. The counterterrorism squad arrested suspected militant instructor Joko Supriono in East Java’s Madiun town and eight others were apprehended separately in Central Java province. Seven of the suspects had just returned from Syria.

THAILAND’s Election Commission recommended that the leader of the Future Forward party, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit (pictured), opposed to military rule be barred from taking his seat in the soon-to-be-convened parliament because he is accused of violating electoral rules.

INDIA’s Election Commission cut off campaigning early in the eastern state of West Bengal yesterday after days of clashes in the final stretch of the country’s marathon elections, a drastic and unprecedented action in the world’s largest democracy.

PAKISTAN  A court has upheld death sentences for three Muslims but acquitted two others in the 2014 mob killing of a Christian couple accused of blasphemy in the eastern city of Lahore. The ruling comes five years after Shahzad Masih and his wife Shama Bibi were beaten to death and thrown into a brick kiln in a town in Punjab province.

AUSTRALIA Bob Hawke, Australia’s longest-serving Labor Party prime minister, whose charisma and powers of persuasion earned him near-folk hero status among many Australians, died yesterday, his wife said. He was 89.

ISRAEL Facebook says it has identified a private Israel-based influence campaign aimed at disrupting elections in various countries and has canceled dozens of accounts that engaged in spreading disinformation. Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policysaid the tech giant had purged 65 accounts, 161 pages and dozens of groups.

EU They are strikingly young, but emphatic that they should not be considered newcomers. Rather, they are claiming the mantle of Old Europe at its most traditional. Several of this year’s far-right candidates in Europe are well under 30 – as are some of their most ardent supporters.