World Briefs

PORTUGAL Four days after his release from jail on bail, former Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates has endorsed Socialist Party candidate Antonio Costa to lead the country following an Oct. 4 general election.Socrates gave his backing to Costa in a statement published yesterday in the Jornal de Noticias newspaper. Socrates was Portugal’s center-left Socialist premier from 2005 to 2011. A Portuguese judge last Friday released him to house detention from jail, where he spent over nine months on suspicion of corruption, money-laundering and tax fraud.

CAMBODIA A large fire engulfs a popular nightclub in the Cambodian capital, killing at least five women who were trapped in one of the rooms. Two men are critically injured.
PAKISTAN-INDIA A senior Pakistani official expresses optimism that recent tensions with neighboring India over the bitterly disputed Kashmir region can be defused.

AUSTRALIA A surfer says he was lucky not to lose an arm when a shark bit his board off Australia’s most populous state.

NEPAL Police search the river where the body of a 27-year-old teacher from Austin, Texas, was thrown after she was hammered to death.

UK Britain’s defense secretary says further drone attacks against suspected jihadis in Syria are possible in the coming weeks if plots against Britain are being planned. Michael Fallon told BBC Radio yesterday that the government would not hesitate to use drones to prevent attacks against Britain from coming to fruition.

SYRIA An unseasonal sandstorm swept across the Mideast yesterday, covering Beirut and Damascus with a blanket of yellow dust, sending hundreds of people to hospitals with breathing difficulties and causing the deaths of two women, officials said.

GERMANY Lufthansa is canceling 1,000 flights today because of a pilot strike. Some 140,000 travelers will be affected by the grounding, the airline said yesterday. “Lufthansa deeply regrets the resulting inconvenience to its customers,” it said. The pilots union, Vereinigung Cockpit, began its strike on long-haul flights yesterday, forcing the cancellation of 90 flights. Today it is extending the strike to include medium- and short-haul flights.