World briefs

CHINA Police shoot and kill six would-be bombers in the latest violence to strike the restive far northwestern region of Xinjiang, a local government spokesman and official website say.

SOUTH KOREA LG Display said yesterday two people were killed and four others sickened by a nitrogen leak at its factory north of Seoul. LG Display Co. said in a statement that the victims, employed by a LG contractor, were carrying out a regular repair and maintenance work when the nitrogen leak occurred not long after midday at the factory in Paju city.

SRI LANKA Less than a week after its longtime president was surprisingly voted out of office, Sri Lanka welcomes Pope Francis today, with the island nation’s Catholic minority hoping he can help heal the lingering wounds of the country’s 25-year civil war. The war between minority Tamil rebels, who are mostly Hindu, and the central government ended in 2009.

AFGHANISTAN  The Afghan government is announcing its full list of Cabinet nominees after months of delays and missed deadlines. Abdul Salaam Rahimi, chief of staff for President Ashraf Ghani, read a list of 25 cabinet nominees yesterday, as well as nominees for director of the Afghan intelligence service and governor of the central bank. Salahuddin Rabbani, the former head of the country’s high peace council, is nominated for foreign minister.
Afghanistan Afghanistan national football coach Mohammad Yasouf Kargar was recovering from stab wounds after being attacked by four men outside his house in the Afghan capital. Afghan criminal investigation police chief Mohammad Farid Afzali said that Kargar was in good condition at a Kabul hospital after being injured in his head and waist.

EGYPT An Egyptian court acquitted 26 men arrested in a televised raid last month by police looking for gays at a Cairo public bathhouse, a ruling that set off deafening cheers and jubilation inside the courtroom as some of the defendants uncovered their faces and cried with relief. Same-sex relations are not explicitly prohibited in Egyptian law but homosexuality is a social taboo in the conservative, Muslim-majority country.

SPAIN Spanish police have arrested 16 people, including 12 lawyers, for alleged ties with the armed Basque separatist group ETA. The Interior Ministry yesterday said the 16 are being charged with membership of a terrorist organization. Twelve are also charged with money laundering and tax fraud. Besides the lawyers, four treasurers for a group that represents ETA prisoners were arrested.

MOZAMBIQUE’s government declared three days of mourning after 69 people died from drinking contaminated traditional beer at a funeral over the weekend. Northeast Tete province Health, Women and Social Welfare Director Paula Bernardo said yesterday that 196 others have been admitted to hospitals there. Pombe, a traditional Mozambican beer, is made from millet or corn flour.