World Briefs

JAPAN-PHILIPPINES A tiny military exercise in the Philippines this week may presage something much bigger: the entry of Japan into the tussle for control of the South China Sea. A Japanese surveillance plane and about 20 troops conducted the first of two days of joint training with the Philippine navy yesterday off the coast of Palawan, a strategically important island not far from contested islands claimed by several countries including China and the Philippines.

JAPAN Heckled by local residents opposed to the presence of U.S. bases, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe joins about 5,000 people including the U.S. ambassador in a memorial service marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest conflicts of World War II.

JAPAN A strong earthquake struck off an island chain south of Tokyo yesterday, but officials said there was no danger of a tsunami.

S KOREA The heir of the Samsung business empire bows deeply in apology as criticism mounts over a Samsung hospital’s role in spreading Middle East respiratory syndrome in South Korea. More on p13

AFGHANISTAN A new offensive against the Afghan government and people is being compounded by “an unprecedented convergence” of Taliban insurgents, more than 7,000 foreign fighters, and violent groups including the Islamic State, Afghanistan’s U.N. ambassador says.

NEW ZEALAND All of New Zealand’s international and domestic flights are temporarily grounded by the failure of a nationwide radar system.

AUSTRALIA Reports that an Australian terrorist, notorious for holding up the severed heads of Syrian victims, has been killed fighting in Iraq have raised the potential for his young family to be repatriated from the Middle East, Australia’s foreign minister says. Australian intelligence agencies were attempting to verify the recent deaths of Australians Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar in the Islamic State-held city of Mosul in Iraq, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

INDIA The Indian nun who replaced Mother Theresa as head of the Missionaries of Charity dies at age 81.

USA Items recovered from a remote hunting cabin have been sent to labs for DNA testing to determine if they are linked to a pair of convicted killers who escaped from a nearby prison more than two weeks ago, authorities said as searchers converged on a wooded area in the hamlet in far northern New York.

USA A plane registered to Oscar-winning “Titanic” composer James Horner has crashed in Southern California, but the identity of the one person who died has not been released. Jay Cooper, an attorney for Horner, said the plane was one of several owned by the 61-year-old composer, and that no one has heard from him since the crash.