World briefs

THAILAND Southeast Asian leaders yesterday pressed their call for self-restraint in the disputed South China Sea and renewed their alarm over the U.S.-China trade war, with one leader warning it may spiral out of control. The first of three rounds of talks on South China Sea proposed pact was expected to be completed this year. More on p11

CAMBODIA Prime Minister Hun Sen said Sunday that he was heading to the seaside resort town where a seven-story building under construction collapsed, killing at least 18 workers and injuring 24. Hun Sen said he would oversee the rescue operation at the site in Sihanoukville, where the building collapsed early Saturday.

INDIA India Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his concern over the collapse of a large tent at a religious ceremony that news reports said killed at least 14 people yesterday. Modi said in a tweet on his office’s official account that the incident in Rajasthan state was “unfortunate.

NORTH KOREA U.S. President Donald Trump sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un an “excellent” letter, the North’s state-run news agency reported yesterday, quoting Kim as saying he would “seriously contemplate” the content. The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said Trump sent a letter and “correspondence between the two leaders has been ongoing.”

USA Press secretary Sarah Sanders (pictured) seems to be in an enviable position as she leaves the White House for a possible run for governor in her home state of Arkansas. She has the tacit endorsement of a president popular in the state and political connections that go back to her dad Mike Huckabee’s more than 10 years as governor.

ETHIOPIA’s government foiled a coup attempt in a region north of the capital, Addis Ababa, and the country’s military chief was shot dead, prime minister Abiy Ahmed said yesterday.

TURKEY Voters in Istanbul cast ballots yesterday in a re-run mayoral election ordered up by authorities after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party narrowly lost the mayor’s office in Turkey’s largest city for the first time in 25 years. Initial results from the closely watched contest were not expected for several hours after polls closed early today (Macau time).

GERMANY Hundreds of climate activists called an end to their protest yesterday inside one of the country’s biggest open-pit mines after police repeatedly ordered them to leave, citing life-threatening danger, and authorities pulled some protesters out. The Garzweiler lignite coal mine has been the focal point of environmental protests in Germany’s Rhineland region since Friday, when 40,000 students rallied for more government action against climate change.