World Briefs

CHINA Mothers of some of those killed in the bloody crackdown on China’s 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement say they have lived through 27 years of state-led “terror and suffocation” and vow to continue pushing for the truth ahead of this weekend’s anniversary of the events.

CHINA Beijing prosecutors say they are investigating the death in police custody of a young college graduate and new father who had been picked up on suspicion of visiting prostitutes, the latest development in a case that has highlighted public complaints about police abuses.

MALAYSIA gov’t has fired 15 immigration officers it says helped international syndicates sabotage online passport checks for years in a way that allowed some travelers to move freely in and out of the country. Suspicions were raised by frequent collapses of the online system at the country’s main international airport that is linked to Interpol’s lost and stolen passport database. The sabotage likely started in 2010 and was headed by foreign agents.

PHILIPPINES Leni Robredo was a college student three decades ago when she rose with multitudes of Filipinos in a largely peaceful revolt that ousted Ferdinand Marcos as the world watched in awe. Now a neophyte 52-year-old politician, Robredo defeated Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son and namesake of the late dictator, in a cliffhanger race for vice president last month.

THAILAND Forty dead tiger cubs are found in a freezer at a Buddhist temple that operated as an admission-charging zoo. The discovery happened while authorities were removing mostly full-grown live tigers from the temple following accusations that monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals.

EGYPT said that a French ship has picked up signals from deep under the Mediterranean Sea, presumed to be from black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, killing all 66 passengers and crew on board.

GREEKS have woken up to a new wave of price hikes that have been demanded in return for more international bailout loans, with the highest increases targeting the main ingredients of the country’s cafe culture: Coffee and beer. Greece’s main sales tax rate, or value added tax, went up from 23 to 24 percent. Taxes were also raised on services used heavily by Greeks forced to cut back on leisure activities due to the financial crisis. Charges increased on internet, fixed telephone and pay TV subscriptions.