World briefs

CHINA A court sentenced nine fentanyl traffickers yesterday in a case that is the culmination of a rare collaboration between Chinese and U.S. law enforcement to crack down on global networks that manufacture and distribute lethal synthetic opioids.

MALAYSIA The government released Sam Rainsy (pictured), the No. 2 official of a banned Cambodian opposition party and two other activists yesterday in a surprise U-turn that could bolster plans by other political exiles to return to their homeland in a challenge to an autocratic leader.

SOUTH KOREA In an extremely unusual case, the country deported two North Korean fishermen yesterday after finding they had killed 16 other crew members on their boat and then fled to South Korean waters, Seoul officials said. More on p13

IRAN injected uranium gas into centrifuges at its underground Fordo nuclear complex yesterday, taking its most-significant step away from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

POLAND will soon expel a Swedish right-wing radical who came to Poland for training on weapons similar to those used in the March shooting attack on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The man in his early 20s, identified as Anton T., is considered highly dangerous to public security. Authorities say he came to Poland to participate in illegal weapons training and is under arrest pending the expulsion, expected this week.

FRANCE President Emmanuel Macron claimed that a lack of U.S. leadership is causing the “brain death” of the NATO military alliance, insisting in an interview published yesterday that the European Union must step up and start acting as a strategic world power.

FRANCE An Albanian boy who was taken to Syria by his mother when she joined the Islamic State group has been freed from a crowded detention camp in northeastern Syria and is on track to return home with his father in Italy, Red Cross and Red Crescent officials said yesterday.

UK Police say they have formally identified all the 39 people found dead in a shipping container last month in southeastern England and notified their families. British authorities have been working with Vietnamese police and the coroner to identify the bodies found Oct. 23 in an industrial park in the town of Grays.

US Bernie Sanders (pictured) is adding his support to a call by some of his fellow presidential hopefuls for decriminalizing illegal border crossings, a proposal that’s further exposing deep ideological divides in the Democratic primary and may prove politically treacherous for the party in the general election. The Vermont senator released a detailed immigration policy proposal  yesterday, writing, “Unauthorized presence in the United States is a civil, not a criminal, offense.

US New York company has been charged with illegally importing and selling Chinese-made surveillance and security equipment to U.S. government agencies and private customers. The U.S. attorney’s office for eastern New York says seven current or former employees of the company are also charged.