World Briefs

CHINA A state-owned utility says it has bought 49% of the power distribution grid in the Gulf nation of Oman. State Grid Corp. described the purchase as part of China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative to build trade-related infrastructure across Asia to Europe.

BELARUS has reached an agreement with China to receive a $500-million loan, officials in the ex-Soviet country said. Belarus’ Finance Ministry said the loan will be provided by the Shanghai office of the China Development Bank. The Chinese credit offers much-needed cash to Belarus amid a dispute with its main sponsor and ally, Russia.

INDIA Student protests that turned into violent clashes with police galvanized opposition nationwide yesterday to a new law that provides a path to citizenship for non-Muslim migrants who entered the country illegally from several neighboring countries.

AUSTRALIA Police said yesterday that an Australian teenager and a New Zealand tour guide are the two people presumed dead but whose bodies have not been found after last week’s volcanic eruption on White Island that killed 18.

NEW ZEALAND police said the bodies of Winona Langford, 17, of Sydney and New Zealander Hayden Marshall-Inman, 40, have yet to be accounted for.

UNITED NATIONS António Guterres is urging the Security Council to authorize the delivery of critically needed humanitarian aid across borders and conflict lines in Syria for another year, saying this aid mainly to rebel-held areas “has staved off an even larger humanitarian crisis inside Syria.” Over 1 million people receive cross-border assistance every month.

IRAN A Princeton University scholar who was freed from Iran this month said that his release “is a victory of humanity and diplomacy across nations and political differences.” Xiyue Wang and his wife, Hua Qu, said to AP that the family is doing well and overjoyed by the support they have received. They say their joy is tempered by the fact that other prisoners remain in Iran.

BRAZIL With the failure of the U.N. climate conference to produce an agreement, some Brazilians who participated in previous climate meetings say their country is now part of the problem in efforts to forge an international approach to global warming. Others, taking a cue from Brazil’s Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, are blaming the world’s wealthy nations.

US A small group of President Donald Trump’s fiercest conservative critics, including the husband of the president’s own chief adviser, is launching a super PAC designed to fight Trump’s reelection and punish congressional Republicans deemed his “enablers.” The new organization, known as the Lincoln Project, represents a formal step forward for the so-called Never Trump movement.