World briefs

China President Xi Jinping told Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli that those attempting to split China will be crushed and that any external force backing the split of China will be considered as delusional by Chinese people. 

Malaysia said a property measure announced last week that allows foreigners to buy cheaper homes is temporary and applies only to unsold units.

Philippines The top diplomat apologized yesterday for Twitter posts on Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, including referring to the revolutionary leader as “burnt rice.”

South Korea Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon will travel to Japan next week for the Emperor’s enthronement ceremony, the first high-level visit by a Korean official after a history and trade dispute re-emerged in recent months.

Japan Helicopters, boats and thousands of troops were deployed across Japan yesterday to rescue people stranded in flooded homes as the death toll from a ferocious typhoon climbed to at least 33 with more missing.

Bangladesh A court in Bangladesh’s capital has indicted eight suspected Islamist militants tied to a banned group over the 2015 killing of a man who published books on secularism and atheism.

Iran Pakistan’s prime minister says that his country is opposed to any war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as he tries to mediate skyrocketing tensions between the U.S.-allied kingdom and its regional archrival.

Ecuador’s army took to the streets after President Lenín Moreno ordered the first 24-hour curfew in decades in response to a day of attacks on government buildings and media offices.

Tunisia Tunisians voted for president yesterday in an unusual contest pitting a populist tycoon who just got out of jail against a conservative professor backed by resurgent Islamists.

Turkey Turkish forces approached a key Kurdish-held town in northern Syria yesterday, setting off clashes that allowed hundreds of Islamic State supporters to escape from a camp for displaced people and prompted U.S. soldiers to withdraw from a nearby base.

Italy Humanitarian groups yesterday said they have rescued 74 migrants on a rubber boat in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya while Tunisian authorities reported blocking a smuggling boat carrying 110 migrants from setting off for Italy.

USA President Donald Trump said that he is an “island of one” for removing U.S. forces from northeastern Syria.