World Briefs

NORTH KOREA causes a new stir by publicizing a purported mock-up of a key part of a nuclear warhead, with leader Kim Jong Un saying his country has developed miniaturized atomic bombs that can be placed on missiles.

JAPAN A court issues an unprecedented order for a nuclear reactor in western Japan to stop operating and directs a second one to stay offline.

MYANMAR Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s decades-long battle to bring democracy to Myanmar is likely to come to fruition today — but she most likely will not become her country’s leader due to a constitutional barrier.

INDIA Officials are launching a program to protect people from extreme heat in two high-risk regions, after a devastating heat wave killed at least 2,500 people across the country last year.
INDIA A 15-year-old girl who was raped and set on fire this week dies at the hospital where she was being treated for severe burns.

AUSTRALIA hopes to send thousands of Iranian asylum seekers back to their homeland under a new deal with Tehran, Australian officials said yesterday. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s negotiations with her Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif were well advanced on a deal expected to be signed next week.

TUNISIA Security forces have killed seven gunmen in further clashes near the Libyan border, bringing the number of assailants killed in two days to 43.

ZIKA Sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously thought, the World Health Organization said, citing reports from several countries. After a meeting of its emergency committee, the U.N. health agency also said there is increasing evidence that a spike in disturbing birth defects and neurological problems are caused by Zika, which is mostly spread by mosquito bites.

USA A New York City student from China who prosecutors say plunged into the dark side of the Internet was sentenced to 16 years in prison for trying to acquire ricin so he could sell “simple and easy death pills.” Cheng Le, 22, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court after his conviction by a Manhattan jury in August on charges he tried to acquire ricin as a weapon, postal fraud and identity theft.