World Briefs

CHINA’s official media reaffirmed the Communist Party’s longstanding judgment that the Cultural Revolution was a catastrophic mistake.

MYANMAR The Obama administration lifted sanctions against 10 state-run Myanmar companies and banks yesterday in response to the nation’s historic transition to democracy, but it retained restrictions on trade and investment with the still-powerful military.

INDONESIA Three Thai fishing boat captains have escaped from custody in Indonesia after their vessels were seized with dozens of trafficked foreign fishermen on board, an official said yesterday.

PHILIPPINES Nine years ago Father Amado Picardal helped bury a teenager from a slum family who was gunned down by motorcycle-riding assassins in the southern city of Davao. He says it was whispered that the man behind the killing was none other than Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who was running an anti-crime campaign in the vast port city.

NEPAL detained a British man over his alleged participation in an anti-government protest, just two weeks after expelling a Canadian for criticizing the government on social media. The detentions have sparked concerns over the Himalayan country’s democracy.

SINGAPORE’s Minister for Trade and Industry, S Iswaran, launched yesterday the Singapore Center for 3D Printing, a research body of Nanyang Technological University that will conduct research and develop innovations for manufacturing technologies and precision engineering. 3D printing, or Additive Manufacturing, is the way that three-dimensional objects are “printed” layer by layer by a machine.

SRI LANKA’s government says the death toll from floods and landslides across the country has risen to 11, with six others reported missing.

PERUVIAN presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori rejected allegations her party’s general secretary is involved in money laundering and accused her political adversaries of trying to sabotage her campaign less than three weeks before the presidential runoff.

AUSTRIA’s new Chancellor Christian Kern said he’ll concentrate on winning back voters to the political center after the populist right won a surprise victory last month in the first round of the presidential election.