World Briefs

SRI LANKA The U.N.’s top human rights official is urging the creation of a special court to look into atrocities committed during Sri Lanka’s long civil war, which left tens of thousands dead.

INDIA As India’s capital struggles with its worst outbreak of dengue fever in five years, officials threaten to cancel private hospitals’ licenses if they turn away patients.

AFGHANISTAN Taliban insurgents say the family of late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has announced their support for Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as his successor.

NEPAL A set of small explosions at two churches and a police station lead Nepal to step up security amid parliamentary voting on a new constitution that has sparked weeks of protests and left more than 40 people dead.

AUSTRALIA New Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says more women will be included in his first Cabinet to be sworn in Monday.

AUSTRALIA The Australian government says it will pass a law that would withhold child care and other payments from families that fail to immunize their children.

PHILIPPINES A popular Philippine senator and adopted daughter of one of the country’s most famous movie couples announces she will run in next year’s presidential election.
PHILIPPINES Riot policemen disperse dozens of left-wing students who storm past a police cordon after dawn and splatter red paint on the seal of the U.S. Embassy in Manila to protest the American military presence in the country.

PHILIPPINES Metropolitan Manila’s notorious traffic jams are costing the Philippine economy at least 3 billion pesos (USD64 million) a day and infrastructure projects need to be fast-tracked to address the problem, the country’s chief economic planner says.

USA Four people are still missing after flash flooding killed 12 people in a Utah-Arizona border community and four others in nearby Zion National Park.

USA Fire crews are gaining ground against a devastating Northern California wildfire that has destroyed hundreds of homes and sent thousands of residents fleeing.

EGYPT-MEXICO Mexico’s foreign minister arrives in Egypt in the wake of the deaths of eight Mexican tourists after Egyptian security forces mistakenly attacked a desert safari.

FRANCE-SYRIA The Islamic State group is training extremists in Syria to attack in Europe, France’s defense minister said yesterday, announcing that French airstrikes would begin within weeks. Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French jets would start bombing “as soon as we have well-identified targets.”

UK Newly elected Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn used his first appearance at “prime minister’s question time” yesterday to call for an end to the sometimes rude and stagy confrontations between the British government and opposition.