World briefs

CHINA An activist says one of China’s best-known rights lawyers and fiery government critics has been released from prison but appears to be under close supervision by the authorities. Hu Jia said attorney Gao Zhisheng was freed yesterday from a prison in a remote far-western county and is with his brother. Hu said it appears the brothers are accompanied by minders who are preventing them from saying much.

CHINA In the cat-and-mouse game of free flow and control of information, China has made its move against the latest information-sharing technology. China’s Internet Network Information Office yesterday announced new rules on public accounts for instant messaging services, which say that only established media companies and news portals can release and repost political and social news.

AUSTRALIA Dozens of Jewish children have been traumatized by a gang of teenagers who stormed a Sydney school bus and allegedly hurled racial abuse and threats. New South Wales state police said five juveniles were arrested early yesterday over the incident on Wednesday afternoon.

IRAQ Officials say a suicide car bomb targeting a security checkpoint in Baghdad has killed 17 people in the capital. Police say a driver rammed his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint in Baghdad’s northern district of Kazimiyah yesterday, killing 17 people including six policemen and wounding 31 people.

NEW ZEALAND The crew aboard a New Zealand fishing boat has hauled in a surprising and gruesome catch: a small plane with a body in the wreckage.

EGYPT-GAZA Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas begin in Cairo, with Egyptians shuttling between the two sides. Israel says Hamas disarmament is its condition for any easing of Gaza’s closure.

NIGERIA Authorities rush to obtain isolation tents to help treat Ebola in anticipation of more people becoming infected with the gruesome disease. The virus has proven difficult to contain and now appears to have a toehold in Africa’s most populous county, a place with poor infrastructure that’s also rife with corruption. The outbreak, the worst of its kind, has so far been blamed for at least 932 deaths in four countries.

UKRAINE Sustained shelling in the main rebel stronghold in eastern Ukraine struck residential buildings and a hospital, killing at least four people and wounding 10 others, officials said, as government forces pressed forward in their campaign to rout the separatists.

ISRAEL Davis Cup match against Argentina next month is being moved out of the country because of the conflict in Gaza. The Sept. 12-14 World Group playoff will not go ahead as scheduled in Tel Aviv “due to concerns arising from the military conflict between Israel and Hamas,” the International Tennis Federation said yesterday.

RUSSIA bans most food imports from the West in retaliation for sanctions over Ukraine — a sweeping move that will cost Western farmers billions of dollars but could also lead to empty shelves in Russian cities.

AFGHANISTAN U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Afghanistan late yesterday on an unannounced visit to press the country’s two feuding presidential candidates on the urgency of ending a bitter dispute over June elections and forming a new government by early September.