World Briefs

CHINA The last of the Yangtze River shipwreck victims was cremated Tuesday morning in Jianli county, Hubei Province, where the tragedy took place, the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) announced yesterday. All the 2,347 relatives who had traveled to Hubei after the cruise ship disaster have now returned home, with the final few leaving yesterday morning, the MCA said.

CHINA Beijing and its surrounding areas will draft a regional plan for air pollution prevention and treatment. The blueprint, assigned to the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, will set goals for regional air quality by 2030, said Li Lixin, an official with the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, at an air pollution treatment seminar on Tuesday.

USA-CHINA The agency that allowed hackers linked to China to steal private information about nearly every U.S. government employee — and detailed personal histories of military and intelligence workers with security clearances — failed for years to take basic steps to secure its computer networks, officials acknowledged to Congress on Tuesday. China denies involvement in the cyberattack, and no evidence has been aired publicly proving Chinese involvement although the government says it has “moderate confidence” China was involved.
Cambodia  Cambodian police have arrested a French national, Bernard Louis Francois, 55, on suspicion of sexually abusing 13 underage boys, the National Police’s website reported yesterday. The suspect was arrested on Monday in southern Kandal province following complaints by the parents of two victims, the website said, citing Lieutenant Colonel Lao Lin, chief of the Juvenile Protection Bureau of the National Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department.

TURKEY  Suleyman Demirel, Turkey’s former president who has died at age 90, dominated his nation’s politics for much of the past half-century, serving seven terms as prime minister and surviving two coups in a time of rapid development and sometimes violent turmoil. Demirel died at 2:05 a.m. yesterday at Ankara’s Guven Hospital of heart failure and a respiratory tract infection, doctors said in an announcement broadcast on Turkish television.

YEMEN  Saudi-led airstrikes hit a convoy of civilians fleeing the fighting in southern Yemen, killing at least 31 people, medical officials say, making it among the deadliest single attacks since the air campaign against Shiite rebels and their allies began nearly three months ago.

CUBA-USA  Six months after presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama declared they were moving toward normalization after a half-century of hostility, the embassies in their countries have not been reopened, showing just how slowly change comes to Cuba.

UK The BBC says its hit automotive TV show “Top Gear” will return to the airwaves with a new host replacing scandal-tainted Jeremy Clarkson. The broadcaster says radio and TV personality Chris Evans has signed a three-year deal to lead a new lineup for the show, which has won a huge following with its mix of car tips, driving stunts and jokey banter.

HUNGARY  The Hungarian government is considering building a 4-meter-high fence along the border with Serbia to stop the flow of migrants reaching the country, the foreign minister said yesterday. The government has asked Interior Minister Sandor Pinter to prepare the plan by next Wednesday.

USA A high-level panel urged a major overhaul of U.N. peacekeeping operations Tuesday that would make political solutions the paramount goal, speed up deployment of peacekeepers, and require the naming and shaming of countries whose troops commit acts of sexual abuse. The panel’s chairman Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and East Timor’s former president, called the news of sexual misconduct “the saddest for the U.N.,” saying it “undermines the most important power the U.N. possesses — its unquestionable integrity.”