World Briefs

CHINA’s foreign ministry urged Canada to free an executive of telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies held for more than a year as she awaits an extradition trial. Canada arrested Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, on Dec. 1 last year at Vancouver’s airport at the request of the U.S., which is seeking her extradition on fraud charges.

PHILIPPINES Luzon is under a tropical cyclone warning for a typhoon forecast to hit early today. Local governments told thousands of people to evacuate vulnerable areas such as coastal communities. The worst conditions are forecast for southeastern provinces on Luzon, the most populous island in the archipelago. Officials said Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport would close from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. today.

INDIA At least 25 people have died in recent monsoon rains that inundated low-lying areas in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and hundreds more have been evacuated to relief camps, the state government said yesterday. Heavy rain toppled a wall in the city of Coimbatore, killing 17 people, and eight others have died in various other rain-related incidents since Nov. 29.

INDIA Hundreds of people gathered in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and other Indian cities yesterday to demand justice in the case of a veterinarian who was gang-raped and killed last week. The protesters demanded a fast-track investigation of the case and stringent laws for the safety of women in India.

UN The incoming head of the U.N.’s atomic watchdog agency said he will take a “firm and fair” approach toward inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, and plans to visit Tehran in the near future. Argentine diplomat Rafael Mariano Grossi’s (pictured) comments came after he was confirmed as the new director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency unanimously at a special session. His four-year term begins today.

RUSSIA Russian scientists yesterday showed off a prehistoric puppy, believed to be 18,000 years old, found in permafrost in the country’s Far East. Discovered last year in a lump of frozen mud near the city of Yakutsk, the puppy is unusually well-preserved, with its hair, teeth, whiskers and eyelashes still intact.

US President Donald Trump accused Argentina and Brazil of hurting American farmers through currency manipulation and said he’ll slap tariffs on their steel and aluminum imports to retaliate. Trump also called on America’s central bank to take action to prevent other countries from devaluing their currencies.

US A storm that snarled Thanksgiving travel across much of the country brought a messy mixture of rain, snow, sleet and wind to the East, slowing yesterday’s commute, closing schools and offices, and canceling or delaying hundreds of flights. The storm dumped one round of snow on parts of the region over the weekend and could drop 10 to 20 inches total by today from Pennsylvania to Maine.