World briefs

SRI LANKA With election results still incomplete, Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declares victory over the country’s former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was seeking a political comeback eight months after losing the presidency. After earlier reports that he had conceded defeat, Rajapaksa said in a tweet that he would wait until the official results are out before making a statement.

BANGLADESH Authorities say they have arrested three men, including a British citizen, for alleged involvement in the murders of two secular bloggers. Maj. Maksudul Alam, a spokesman for the country’s Rapid Action Battalion, said one of the arrested men, Touhidur Rahman — a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin — was the mastermind and financier of the attacks on bloggers Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das, who were killed earlier this year.

AUSTRALIA’s beleaguered prime minister faces a political test next month, with an opinion poll showing his center-right party faces a large swing against it in a by-election in the nation’s most conservative state.

PAKISTAN Gunmen riding on a motorcycle open fire in the southern port city of Karachi, seriously wounding a senior leader of a political party and killing his driver.

INDIA Suspected rebels open fire at a police post in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, killing a police constable and a civilian.

TURKEY Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears a shadow of his former self after his party suffered major losses in June elections — embattled and no longer in control of his political fate.

USA Faced with escalating aggression from Russia and China, the Pentagon is planning to increase its use of drones by about 50 percent over the next several years, using the U.S. Army and civilian contractors to put more of the unmanned aircraft in the air.

NORWAY’s USD870 billion sovereign wealth fund has excluded four Asian companies over environmental concerns linked to their palm oil activities in Indonesia. Acting on a recommendation from its ethical council, Norway’s central bank on Monday said the fund would divest from South Korean steelmaker Posco, its subsidiary Daewoo International Corp. and Malaysian companies Genting Berhad and IJM Corporation Berhad. The council said the companies may be responsible for environmental damage linked to the conversion of tropical forests into oil palm plantations in Indonesia.

ZIMBABWE has charged a man on whose land the well-known Cecil the lion was shot by American dentist Walter James Palmer in July. Charges have not been filed against Palmer, according to prosecutors, while in Minnesota the dentist has reopened his practice. Prosecutors yesterday accused Honest Ndlovu, whose property is near the vast Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe, of allowing an illegal hunt on his land.