World Briefs

CHINA’s second-ranking general recently visited the country’s man-made islands in the South China Sea, underscoring defiance in the face of calls by the U.S. and others to cease construction work that they say is raising tensions in the region.

HONG KONG The world’s only museum chronicling the Chinese government’s brutal 1989 crackdown on student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square say it faces closure because of a legal dispute.

ECUADOR The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast, sending the Andean nation into a state of emergency. As rescue workers rushed in, officials said yesterday at least 233 people were killed, over 580 injured and the damage stretched for hundreds of miles to the capital and other major cities.

BURUNDI Four members of the country’s ruling party were killed in an attack in continuing violence associated with the extended tenure of President Pierre Nkurunziza. The attack was on supporters of the ruling party who had gathered for an environmental clean-up exercise, said Jerome Ntakarutimana, chief of Mugamba district in Buriri province.

CHILE Heavy rains have caused severe flooding and cut water service to millions of people in the country’s capital, Santiago. Authorities say the Rio Mapocho flooded several districts of the city and landslides killed at least one person.

GREECE’s creditors are considering proposing additional austerity measures that would kick in if the nation missed budget targets, according to a European official familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified.

GREECE Pope Francis made an emotional visit to the Greek island of Lesbos Saturday, plucking 12 Syrian refugees to take back to Rome with him and draw attention to what he called Europe’s most serious humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II.

SYRIA Ten children have been killed by rebel shelling in Aleppo this weekend, as the U.N. warned of “desperate” conditions inside a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

MYANMAR’s new president pledged to continue efforts to release remaining political prisoners as part of the sweeping democratic changes his government envisions after a half-century of military control.