World briefs

MYANMAR Dozens of corpses have washed to shore in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in the last month, an advocacy group and villagers said yesterday. Some were believed to be Rohingya Muslims trying to escape trafficking ships, while others were Bangladeshi.

JAPAN-PHILIPPINES The Philippine president is on his sixth visit to Japan in less than five years, signaling his country’s deepening ties with Tokyo amid increasing concerns by both sides about China’s assertiveness in regional seas.

INDIAN shopkeepers withdrew a popular brand of Nestle instant noodles from their shelves yesterday after tests revealed the snack contained unsafe levels of lead. India’s states have either ordered the withdrawal of Maggi noodles from shops or are carrying out further tests on noodle samples before taking action in conjunction with the federal government.

INDONESIA has raised the alert status of Sinabung volcano in the western part of the country to the highest level following a sharp increase in activity, an official said yesterday.

THAILAND A senior Thai army officer has turned himself in over his alleged involvement in a human trafficking scandal, marking the first arrest of a military official since the investigation started last month.

UK Buckingham Palace has taken the unusual step of confirming that Queen Elizabeth II went to a hospital for her annual medical checkup after social media comments touched off speculation on her health. The palace said in a statement yesterday that the 89-year-old monarch attended her annual medical checkup at King Edward VII Hospital in London, and left after the routine exam. Speculation started after a tweet posted on a BBC account said the queen was being treated at the hospital.

UK Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was cleared of perjury yesterday after a judge said the alleged lies he told under oath were not relevant to the trial in question. Judge David Burns told jurors at Edinburgh High Court that “not every lie amounts to perjury.” Coulson, who edited the now-defunct Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid between 2003 and 2007 and later served as Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications chief, had been charged with lying in a 2010 trial of former Scottish lawmaker Tommy Sheridan.

UKRAINE At least three civilians have been killed in east Ukraine in a further surge in shelling in several locations along the front line, government and rebel officials said yesterday. Reports of casualties among government and separatist fighters have continued unabated since a cease-fire agreement was reached in February, but deaths among noncombatants had almost ceased.

USA U.S. doctors completed surgery on Secretary of State John Kerry’s broken leg at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and predicted he would make a full recovery.

USA The IRS failed to implement dozens of security upgrades, some of which could have made it more difficult for hackers to steal tax information of 104,000 taxpayers from an IRS website, a government watchdog tells Congress.