World Briefs

SOUTH KOREA An AP investigation shows that rapes and killings of children and the disabled three decades ago at a South Korean institution for so-called vagrants, the Brothers Home, were much more vicious and widespread than previously realized.

CHINA The world’s largest wireless carrier, reported an increase in profit after adding as many 4G subscribers as there are people in the U.K. China Mobile’s net income gained 0.5 percent to 23.9 billion yuan (USD3.7 billion) in the three months ended March 31, the company said yesterday.

LAOS, one of the world’s last communist nations, has elected its top government leaders at a meeting of its newly seated National Assembly.

JAPAN Searchers found a man’s body yesterday in a landslide-hit area in southern Japan, bringing the death toll to 48 from two powerful earthquakes last week. Three people remain missing.

PHILIPPINES Representatives of women’s groups file a complaint at the Commission on Human Rights against the front-runner in the Philippine presidential race for his remark about wanting to rape an Australian missionary who was assaulted and killed by prisoners during a hostage-taking in 1989.

ZAMBIA Calm returned to Zambia’s capital following two days of riots and looting targeting mainly Rwandan shop-owners that left two people dead, the government said. The authorities sent in the army to support the more than 1,000 police officers deployed to prevent further unrest.

AFGHANISTAN The Interior Ministry says the death toll from Tuesday’s Taliban attack in Kabul has risen sharply overnight to 64. The previous official death toll on Tuesday had been 28.

PAKISTAN Gunmen on motorcycles killed seven police officers in two separate attacks in the port city of Karachi, police says.

USA Reassuring an anxious ally, President Barack Obama sat down yesterday for a meeting with King Salman as he opened a trip to Saudi Arabia shadowed by the kingdom’s deep opposition to his Iran nuclear deal and skepticism about his approach to Syria.

GERMANY The government says it’s trimming its growth forecast for 2017 due to fragilities in the global economy. Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said yesterday that Berlin now expects Europe’s biggest economy to grow 1.5 percent, down from the 1.8 percent it had predicted in October. The forecast for 2016 is unchanged at 1.7 percent.