World Briefs

CHINA Yu Shaolei, a cultural editor at Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily, has announced his resignation through social media, saying that he could no longer follow the Communist Party line. His post, which was published on a Sina Weibo microblog account, added what appeared to be a tongue-in-cheek message to censors, wishing those responsible for censoring his social media account well.

INDONESIA-PHILIPPINES  Indonesia says that 10 of its citizens are being held hostage in the Philippines after their ship was hijacked in the often-insecure border region between the two countries.

THAILAND’s new proposed constitution is unveiled to the public amid criticism that the charter is undemocratic and gives too much power to the military that staged a coup two years ago.

MYANMAR’s outgoing government lifts a nearly four-year curfew in the western state of Rakhine, where clashes between the minority Rohingya Muslims and majority Buddhists left more than 200 people dead, mostly Muslims.

THE KOREASNorth Korea fired a short-range projectile from an area near its eastern coast, South Korean officials say, in what appears to be another weapons test in response to ongoing military drills between Washington and Seoul.

AUSTRALIA Evidence that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its worst coral bleaching on record has renewed calls for the United Nations to list it as “in-danger”. The organization voted no to put the reef on its World Heritage in Danger list last year, but some groups want the decision reassessed.

PAKISTAN Hundreds of Islamic extremists, who earlier violently protested in Islamabad over the hanging of a man who killed a secular governor, continued their demonstrations in Pakistan’s capital, despite warnings from the government.

U.S. President Barack Obama will be meeting with Asian leaders in Washington this week as fears grow that long-smoldering tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the South China Sea risk flaring into conflict.

BRAZIL‘s tourism minister has resigned in a move that adds pressure to embattled President Dilma Rousseff. Her popularity has plummeted amid corruption allegations around senior members of the governing Workers’ Party.