World Briefs

IRAN‘s top diplomat has cancelled his trip and will not be attending the Davos Forum, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said yesterday amid a crisis with Washington and disputes with Europe over Iran’s nuclear steps. The summit in the Swiss resort also comes after Iran earlier this month shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.

NEPAL Special Nepalese army and government rescue personnel continued searching yesterday for four South Korean trekkers and their three Nepali guides missing since since an avalanche swept across popular mountain trekking route.The avalanche hit part of the Mount Annapurna trekking route on Friday after heavy snowfall earlier in the week.

AUSTRALIA Dust storms, hail and flash floods have battered beleaguered Australian cities in recent days, extreme weather that has diminished the threat from scores of wildfires that continue to blaze across the country’s southeast. A hail storm in the national capital Canberra yesterday damaged public buildings, businesses, homes and cars, cut power to some suburbs, brought down trees, caused flash flooding and injured two people.

UKRAINE has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to expand its monitoring mission in the country, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko [pictured] said yesterday after a meeting with the organization’s chairman. The OSCE’s special monitoring mission has been present in Ukraine since 2014, when fighting between Ukrainians and Russia-backed separatists broke out in the country’s eastern regions after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

GERMANY A German-Afghan man who worked for years as an interpreter and adviser for the German military went on trial yesterday on charges of spying for Iranian intelligence. The 51-year-old man, who has been identified only as Abdul S. in line with German privacy rules, is charged with “a particularly serious case” of treason and with breaching official secrecy laws in 18 cases.

FRANCE President Emmanuel Macron is hosting 180 international business leaders at the Palace of Versailles in a bid to promote France’s economic attractiveness despite over six weeks of crippling strikes over his government’s planned pension changes. Top executives from Google, Netflix, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Samsung and General Electric were among those attending the annual event yesterday.

UK British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Harry touted the UK as an ideal business partner for Africa yesterday as their country prepares for post-Brexit dealings with the world. But Britain faces tough challenges as it seeks to assert itself on a continent with several of the world’s fastest-growing economies and whose youthful 1.2 billion population is set to double by 2050.

USA Diplomats yesterday oversaw the signing of an agreement between Serbia, Kosovo and German airline Lufthansa on the resumption of commercial flights intended to help improve economic ties between the Balkan nations. Serbia and Kosovo have remained uneasy neighbors ever since their 1998-99 war that claimed more than 10,000 lives and left over 1 million people homeless.