World Briefs

INDONESIAN police have rescued 45 Burmese fishermen, believed to be trafficking victims, from a hotel in central Jakarta where they were taken after traveling on fake documents, officials and the men say.

PAKISTANI authorities say the nationwide death toll from monthlong flooding has risen to 169, as rescuers use helicopters and boats to move stranded residents to higher ground.

MYANMAR opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expresses concern that massive flooding in much of the country might be used as a pretext to undermine November’s general election.

EGYPT unveils a major extension of the Suez Canal that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi bills as an historic achievement that will boost the economy following years of unrest, but the ceremony has been overshadowed by an Islamic State affiliate’s threat to kill a Croatian hostage kidnapped on the outskirts of Cairo last month.

SYRIA The Islamic State group yesterday seizes a key town in central Syria following heavy clashes with President Bashar Assad’s forces, in the militants’ biggest advance since capturing the historic town of Palmyra in May, Syrian activists say.

UK Commuters faced a day of disruption yesterday after a strike shut down the London Underground system for the second time this summer. Union members walked off the job amid a dispute about how to implement a new 24-hour service on weekends.

USA A man armed with a hatchet and gun unleashed a volley of pepper spray at audience members inside a movie theater Wednesday, exchanging fire with a responding officer. What initially appeared to be another mass shooting at a movie theater ended up being an attack by a disturbed homeless man who wasn’t armed with a real gun and was eventually shot and killed by police.

USA Police in southwest Florida say vandals spray painted the words “lion killer” on the garage door of the vacation home owned by a Minnesota dentist who has been identified as the hunter who killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe.

ITALY Military vessels and aircraft from a multi-nation operation are searching waters off Libya for a second day for any more survivors from an overturned boat crowded with migrants. With seas warm and calm, rescuers have expressed hopes others might be alive a day after a 20-meter long fishing boat capsized as rescuers approached.