World Briefs

CHINA-N KOREA China’s ambassador to the United Nations is opposing further discussion of North Korea’s human rights situation by the U.N. Security Council, telling reporters that “the Security Council is not about human rights.”

CHINA-USA The U.S. could consider criminal charges or sanctions against China if the U.S. determines hackers there are violating an agreement not to conduct economic cyber espionage on American industry, a senior Justice Department official said yesterday.

INDIA With the simple act of cooking causing some 4.3 million premature deaths worldwide, India is hoping to get everyone using clean-burning stoves by 2030. The effort should improve public health by clearing the air of lung-clogging soot. It could also help the climate by cutting back black carbon emissions, though that potential impact is hardly clear.

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was reminded of some harsh criticism he made of Prince Charles as the first in line to the British throne visited the Australian capital.

AUSTRALIA A shark has seriously injured a 20-year-old surfer in an attack off the Australian east coast. Sam Morgan’s left thigh was mauled before sunset Tuesday at East Ballina, 745 kilometers north of Sydney.

MALDIVES The political crisis in the Maldives deepened with lawmakers voting to fire the country’s chief public prosecutor after he refused to press corruption charges against the country’s sacked vice president.

AFGHANISTAN A large demonstration is taking place in the Afghan capital Kabul to protest the killing of seven ethnic minority Hazaras, allegedly by the Taliban. Hundreds of people gathered in the rain west of the city yesterday and organizer Daud Naji said they would carry the bodies to the Presidential Palace. More on p13

FRANCE Officials and citizens are gathering at memorials across Europe to pay tribute to the millions of soldiers killed during World War I on the 97th anniversary of the war’s end. Thousands of people lined Paris’ Champs Elysees boulevard to see President Francois Hollande lay a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe, where an eternal flame marks France’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

ISRAEL Two Palestinian boys, aged 11 and 14, stab and wound an Israeli guard on a train who responds by firing and wounding one of them. Meanwhile, Israeli security forces kill two other Palestinians who carried out knife attacks, police say, as violence returns to Jerusalem after a two-week lull.

ISRAEL-EU Relations between the European Union and Israel took a dive yesterday after Israel derided a decision by the 28-nation bloc to specially label products made in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the EU has taken an “exceptional and discriminatory step” for “political reasons.” The EU move, which came after months of procrastinating, underscores the bloc’s unhappiness over Israel’s continued expansion of settlements on territory  that Palestinians seek for their future state.

EGYPT-RUSSIA Moscow’s ban on all flights to Egypt in the wake of a Russian plane crash will last for at least several months, the Kremlin says, dealing a severe blow to Egypt’s struggling tourism industry.