World Briefs

CHINA A bus plunged into a sinkhole on a city street in northwestern China, killing at least six people and leaving four missing, authorities said. Some 1,000 emergency workers and 30 vehicles were sent to the site, the emergency management bureau in the city of Xining said. A crane was called in to lift the bus above the sinkhole so rescue workers could look for victims.

CHINA Shanghai ended all official relations with the city of Prague yesterday after the Czech capital chose to partner with Taipei instead of Beijing. The foreign affairs office of the Shanghai municipal government snapped that they “strongly condemn (Prague’s decision) and solemnly protest!” Shanghai will immediately suspend relations and all official contact with Prague, the municipal government said in a notice.

AUSTRALIA Smoke haze and poor air quality caused by wildfires temporarily suspended practice sessions for the Australian Open at Melbourne Park yesterday, but qualifying began later in the morning in “very poor” conditions and amid complaints by at least one player who was forced to forfeit her match.

EGYPT Officials said yesterday they would investigate the death in custody of a U.S. citizen who had gone on a hunger strike as part of a six-year battle against what he insisted was wrongful imprisonment. Mustafa Kassem, 54, an Egyptian-born auto parts dealer from Long Island, New York, died late Monday of heart failure after a hunger strike he began last year, his lawyers said.

IRAN The foreign ministry has warned of a “serious and strong response” to a European move toward possible sanctions as the nuclear deal they negotiated unravels. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, however, that Iran is “fully ready to answer any good will and constructive effort” that preserves the nuclear deal.

RUSSIA-LIBYA‘S rival leaders have left Moscow without reaching agreement on a cease-fire deal, with Russia trying to downplay the talks’ failure yesterday. The deal was proposed by Russia and Turkey in an effort to bring an end to the north African country’s long-running civil war.

FRANCE President Emmanuel Macron tried yesterday to calm nationwide tensions and salvage support for his overhaul of the country’s retirement system, as France faced day 41 of crippling strikes. Clutches of union activists gathered in Paris and other cities to demand that the government scrap the pension reform altogether. The plan’s toughest opponents were unmoved by the prime minister’s unexpected weekend decision to suspend a central measure: raising the full pension eligibility age from 62 to 64.

GERMANY Chancellor Angela Merkel is inviting world powers to a summit in Berlin on Sunday to discuss efforts to broker peace in Libya. Merkel’s office said in a statement yesterday that the German leader had decided to host the meeting after consulting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.