World Briefs

CHINA A U.N. human rights expert has criticized China for its lack of transparency in handling a chemical blast in Tianjin. Baskut Tuncak says the disaster might have been prevented if authorities had provided more information. The U.N.’s expert on hazardous waste yesterday also criticized Chinese press restrictions in the aftermath of last week’s disaster. More on p11

SRI LANKA’s prime minister invites all political parties in the island nation to work together after his party won the most seats in parliamentary elections and thwarted a political comeback bid by the country’s former strongman president.

INDONESIA’s Search and Rescue Agency says it is still searching for one of the two “black boxes” from a passenger plane that crashed into a mountain over the weekend, killing all 54 people on board.

BANGLADESH A court in Bangladesh’s capital allows police to hold three suspects, including a British citizen, for seven days for interrogation in the murders of two secular bloggers.

BANGLADESH Authorities in Bangladesh they have arrested three lawyers for funding a newly founded militant group.

INDIA Two brothers in northern India beheaded their teenage sister and carried her head through their village because they disapproved of her romantic relationship with a cousin, police say.

VIETNAM allows its currency to weaken by at least 1 percent following the devaluation of the Chinese yuan and the expectation of a possible U.S interest rate hike.

ISRAEL’s Supreme Court is hearing a petition to immediately release a high-profile Palestinian detainee who has been on a hunger strike for 65 days. Mohammed Allan’s lawyer says the state has proposed a compromise under which Allan would be released in November, if he agrees to end his hunger strike.

YEMEN  The United Nations says the war in Yemen has pushed the country to the brink of famine, with both commercial food imports and aid deliveries held up by the fighting and millions of hungry women and children facing possible starvation.

USA Hackers say they’ve leaked the massive database on millions of spouses who signed up to the cheating website Ashley Madison to the Internet. A message posted by the hackers alongside a massive trove of leaked files accused Ashley Madison’s owners of deceit and incompetence and said the company had refused to bow to their demands to close the site. “Now everyone gets to see their data,” the statement said.

USA Federal health officials yesterday approved the first-ever prescription drug intended to treat women suffering from a lack of sexual desire, ending a vigorous debate over the drug’s fate. The daily pill, called Addyi, is a milestone long sought by a pharmaceutical industry eager to replicate the blockbuster success of impotence drugs for men.