World Briefs

CHINA  An early morning fire killed 13 people in an apartment building in central China yesterday, state media said. The fire erupted on the ground level of the seven-story building in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, but did not spread far on a rainy night, CCTV reported. It said the deaths occurred on the top floor, meaning the victims likely died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Multiple people were hospitalized with burn injuries, the broadcaster said. The Zhengzhou No. 1 People’s Hospital confirmed that four people were under urgent medical treatment for burns.

HONG KONG Regulators reject an application for a budget airline joint venture involving Australia’s Qantas and China Eastern Airlines after local carriers objected.

NORTH KOREA Instagram appears to be back to normal in North Korea after a week of warnings on user accounts saying the popular photo-sharing app had been blacklisted for harmful content.

NEPAL Foreign donors and agencies announce billions of dollars in aid for Nepal, but it falls short by half of what the Himalayan nation wants to rebuild from the devastating earthquakes that killed more than 8,800 people and made millions homeless.

INDONESIA’s Foreign Ministry says a French citizen sentenced to death for drug offenses has exhausted all options in his legal fight to avoid execution.

PAKISTAN A cool wind from the sea and pre-monsoon rains brought the first signs of respite to southern Pakistan yesterday as the death toll from a scorching heat wave climbed to 838 a high figure even for a nation accustomed to sizzling hot summers. Temperatures in hard-hit Karachi, the country’s largest city and its commercial hub where the overwhelming majority of the deaths were reported, dropped to 34 degrees Celsius, meteorologist Abdur Rasheed said.

IRAN With significant gaps standing in the way of an Iran nuclear deal, foreign ministers at the seven-nation talks are adding their diplomatic muscle to the negotiations ahead of a June 30 target date for an agreement. France announced yesterday that Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is joining the talks in Vienna on Saturday. Iranian media reported earlier that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will fly to Vienna today. That’s the day U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry departs Washington for the Austrian capital.

USA Emanuel African Methodist Church, the site of an unspeakable crime a week ago, is being reclaimed by parishioners who are pledging to remember the loved ones they lost in a shooting massacre while carrying on the work of the beloved pastor who was slain beside them.

USA A maximum-security prison guard who delivered frozen meat with tools hidden inside to two inmates before they escaped will be arraigned on charges of promoting prison contraband and other offenses.