World Briefs

TAIWAN President Tsai Ing-wen convened a meeting of top defense officials and urged them to be on a lookout for military developments concerning China following a helicopter crash that killed the island’s top military officer and other prominent personnel.

JAPAN said it would tighten immigration procedures in the wake of Carlos Ghosn’s dramatic escape from the country after skipping bail, and ordered an investigation on how the former Nissan Motor Co. chief disappeared.

IRAN Thousands took to the streets of Baghdad for the funeral procession of Iran’s top general Saturday after he was killed in a U.S. airstrike, as the region braced for the Islamic Republic to fulfill its vows of revenge.

VENEZUELA Opposition leader Juan Guaidó faces a major test of his leadership today as he asks lawmakers to re-endorse his flagging campaign to oust President Nicolás Maduro. The opposition-controlled National Assembly will decide whether to keep Guaidó as its leader for a second year in a special session inaugurating the final year of its 2015-2020 legislative period.

AUSTRALIA American pop singer Pink says she is donating $500,000 to help fight the deadly wildfires that have devastated parts of Australia. The death toll in the wildfire crisis is now up to 23 people.

AUSTRIA’s Foreign Ministry says its IT systems are the target of a “serious cyberattack” and authorities have taken counter measures. The ministry said yesterday that “due to the severity of nature of the attack it cannot be ruled out that this is a targeted attack by a state actor.”

RUSSIA Belarus has reached an agreement with Russia for limited oil supplies after Moscow earlier this week stopped supplying crude amid stalled talks on strengthening economic ties between the neighboring countries.

ITALY A drunken driver plowed into a group of young German tourists in northern Italy yesterday, killing six people and injuring 11 others, Italian authorities said. The deadly crash occurred in a village of Valle Aurina, northeast of Bolzano in the Alto Adige region, shortly after 1 a.m. as the Germans gathered to board their bus. They were between the ages of 20-25.

FRANCE The French general overseeing the reconstruction of fire-devastated Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is not saved yet because there’s still a risk its vaulted ceilings might collapse.