World Briefs

CHINA’s leaders yesterday affirmed plans to double the size of the country’s economy by 2020 from 2010 levels, a goal that sets up a potential clash with efforts to nurture more self-sustaining growth.

CHINA-USA China’s military will take “all necessary” measures in response to any future U.S. Navy incursions into what it considers its territorial waters around man-made islands in the South China Sea, a Defense Ministry spokesman says.

PHILIPPINES Smoke was billowing from a fire at a slum area yesterday in Paranaque City in the Philippines. The fire razed 50 shanties, rendering 150 families homeless.

MALDIVES The Maldives passes a law allowing authorities to install cameras in the homes of people they suspect of being sympathetic to the Islamic State group and arrest them if they try to join the militants overseas.

JAPAN resumes construction work needed to relocate a U.S. air base from one area of Okinawa’s main island to another, overriding vigorous protests by local residents.
S KOREA’s highest court sentences the head of a ferry operator to seven years in prison over a ship sinking last year that killed more than 300 people.

INDIA Prime Minister Narendra Modi described India and Africa as bright spots of hope and economic opportunity and offered technology and credit to match rival China at a summit with more than 40 African leaders yesterday.

BELGIUM French far-right leader Marine Le Pen faces a parliamentary probe over voting irregularities at the European Union’s legislature. Le Pen acknowledged yesterday she left her voting card at her desk and that a Dutch group colleague voted in her place during the plenary in Strasbourg, France, this week. Voting is strictly personal at the European Parliament and infractions must be investigated.

USA Republicans rallied behind Rep. Paul Ryan (pictured) to elect him to the powerful post of House speaker yesterday as the splintered party turned to the youthful but battle-tested lawmaker to mend its self-inflicted wounds and craft a conservative message to woo voters in next year’s elections. In a roll call, 236 Republicans called out the Ryan — a former Republican vice presidential candidate — as their pick for the top job.

GERMANY A 32-year-old German man arrested in the disappearance nearly a month ago of a 4-year-old Bosnian migrant has confessed to killing the boy, authorities said yesterday. Prosecutor Michael von Hagen told reporters that the man, whose identity wasn’t released, was turned in by his mother after she recognized him in video released by police. Police were interviewing the mother at her home in the state of Brandenburg, outside Berlin, when the suspect showed up there yesterday morning and confessed, telling police that he had the child’s body in the car.