World briefs

TAIWAN Prosecutors say they have detained 10 people, including a former staff member of the China-friendly opposition party, and are investigating them on suspicion of falsifying documents to bring thousands of mainland Chinese to Taiwan, possibly including some who spied on the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.

MYANMAR Lawyers seeking to halt what they allege is ongoing genocide in Myanmar have slammed leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s defense of her country’s armed forces, saying yesterday that the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former pro-democracy icon chose to ignore “unspeakable” crimes targeting Muslim civilians.

INDIA Supreme Court yesterday dismissed petitions seeking a review of its recent ruling in favor of the building of a Hindu temple on a disputed site in northern India where a 16th century mosque was torn down by Hindu hard-liners in 1992.

NEW ZEALAND A team of eight New Zealand military specialists will land on a small volcanic island today to attempt to retrieve the bodies of eight victims of an eruption that claimed eight other lives. Police said yesterday the recovery attempt will go ahead even though scientists believe another eruption is possible on White Island.

ISRAEL Exasperated Israelis came to grips yesterday with the dreaded reality that they will be heading to the polls for the third time in a year, pondering whether there was any way out of the seemingly endless stalemate after parliament dissolved itself once again and extended over a year of stubborn political paralysis.

RUSSIA A fire on Russia’s only aircraft carrier injured 10 people and seven of them remain in a local intensive care unit, Russian news agencies reported yesterday, citing unnamed officials in the country’s emergency services.

SPAIN United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged countries and companies yesterday tackle climate change, saying failure to do so would mean “economic disaster.”

GERMANY The European Central Bank has left its key interest rate benchmarks and stimulus programs unchanged. The decision came yesterday at a meeting of the bank’s officials at its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. 

UK Voters were deciding yesterday who they want to resolve the stalemate over Brexit in a parliamentary election seen as one of the most important since the end of World War II.

US Investigators are looking to pinpoint what prompted a deadly attack on a Jewish market in Jersey City amid fears that it was motivated by anti-Semitism. A gunbattle and standoff at the JC Kosher supermarket this week turned the neighborhood into a virtual war zone and left six people dead — the two attackers, a police officer and three people who had been inside the store.