World Briefs

CHINA’s ruling Communist Party’s newspaper has published surveillance video, which it says proves the guilt of a former British Consulate employee in Hong Kong who was detained for 15 days on a charge of soliciting prostitution.

THAILAND Pope Francis called yesterday for women and children to be protected from exploitation, abuse and enslavement as he began a busy two days of meetings in Thailand, where human trafficking and forced prostitution help fuel the sexual tourism industry. Francis pleaded for action against one of the region’s greatest scourges at the start of his weeklong visit to Asia.

MYANMAR The government said leader Aung San Suu Kyi will head the legal team contesting a genocide case filed against it in the International Court of Justice over the crackdown on Rohingya Muslims two years ago that set off their exodus to Bangladesh.

IRAN  Six conservationists working to save the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah have been sentenced to prison on internationally criticized espionage charges in Iran, activists said yesterday, even as protests and unrest continue in parts of the country amid a government-imposed internet shutdown.

ISRAEL For the first time in Israeli history, the country’s ceremonial president has announced that no candidate has been able to form a government. Reuven Rivlin informed parliament yesterday that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [pictured] nor his chief challenger, retired military chief Benny Gantz, have completed the task of building a coalition in the time allotted to them.

GERMANY Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to visit the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz for the first time in her 14 years in office. The Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported yesterday that Merkel has accepted an invitation to attend the 10th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation on Dec. 6.

ITALY Rescue services say a blast at a fireworks factory in Sicily has killed five people and seriously injured two others. Italian firefighters and Carabinieri police said that the 71-year-old wife of the owner of the family-run factory in the Sicilian town of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto was among the victims.

UK  Lawyers for the victims of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein say Prince Andrew should speak to U.S. investigators immediately, after the senior British royal withdrew from public duties over what he called his “ill-judged association” with the convicted pedophile. U.S. attorney Gloria Allred said Andrew should contact American authorities “without conditions and without delay.”

UK Former Scottish leader Alex Salmond [pictured], one of the country’s best-known politicians, has appeared in court accused of sex crimes including attempting to rape a woman at the leader’s official residence. Salmond faces a total of 14 charges of attempted rape, sexual assault and indecent assault against 10 women.