World Briefs

CHINA President Xi Jinping yesterday hailed a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron as giving a boost to multilateralism and free trade, amid ongoing economic tensions with Washington. The two countries also pledged continued support for the Paris Agreement as the U.S. begins its withdrawal from the landmark climate deal.

THAILAND An American man who was among three prisoners who staged a violent escape from a courthouse in Thailand shot and wounded himself and his Thai wife yesterday as police surrounded them.

PHILIPPINES The vice president of the Philippines yesterday accepted President Rodrigo Duterte’s offer for her to play a lead role in his deadly crackdown against drugs, even though she’s been critical of the campaign and has been warned it could be a political ploy to destroy her. Leni Robredo said that by agreeing to the unusual offer, she may be able to save lives under the campaign, which has left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead in purported gunbattles with police, alarming Western governments and rights groups.

MOROCCO White House adviser Ivanka Trump has arrived in Morocco to promote women’s economic empowerment in the North African country. During the three-day visit, Ivanka Trump will promote the U.S. government’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative

MALDIVES A banned activist group asked the Maldives government yesterday to reverse its decision and reinvestigate allegations that it published content against Islam in a report on religious radicalization.

TURKEY has captured a wife of the slain leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.

MEXICO The eight children, some mere infants, who survived the ambush in northern Mexico not only escaped the drug cartel gunmen who killed their mothers but managed to hide in the brush, with some walking miles to get help despite grisly bullet wounds.

RUSSIA President Vladimir Putin says Russia’s new weapons have no foreign equivalents but he insists the country will not use them to threaten anyone. Speaking during a meeting yesterday with senior military officers, Putin said no other countries have hypersonic, laser and other prospective weapons that have been commissioned by the Russian military, adding that “it’s not a reason to threaten anyone.”

UK Britain’s five-week election campaign officially began yesterday, when Parliament was dissolved ahead of the Dec. 12 vote. There are 46 million eligible voters in the UK.

UK British backpacker Grace Millane met her killer on the dating app Tinder and he calmly went on a date with another woman while Millane’s body was stuffed in a suitcase at his hotel apartment, prosecutors at the New Zealand murder trial said yesterday. Defense lawyers said Millane died accidentally as the result of a consensual sex act that went wrong.