World Briefs

OBAMA–LAMA President Barack Obama will meet at the White House with the Dalai Lama in a get-together that the Chinese government assailed.

SOUTH CHINA SEA Even before a ruling, China may have lost by refusing to cooperate with a U.N. arbitration tribunal over its South China Sea claims. Yet Beijing seems prepared to absorb the cost to its reputation, confident that in terms of territory and resources, it won’t lose a thing.

CHINA-N. KOREA China bans exports to North Korea of technology and materials that might be used in weapons production in a new response to the North’s development of nuclear weapons and missiles.

FRANCE 2016 Police and anti-terrorism investigators have been alerted to the possibility that small groups of extremists have left Syria for France and Belgium with plans to stage attacks. France is already under high alert because IS extremists have threatened violence during the Euros.

JAPAN The governor of Tokyo submits his resignation, ending a weeks-long bid to stay in power despite a mounting scandal over his alleged use of political funds for personal purposes.

PUERTO RICANS held somber vigils and prepared to bury many of their own after authorities said nearly half of those killed at a gay nightclub in Florida had ties to the U.S. territory.

AUSTRALIA grants early release to an Australian businessman who was convicted in China of financial crimes and transferred home under a prisoner exchange agreement.

JAPAN A top engineer at Toyota says the automaker plans to get as bullish as its rivals in pushing plug-in hybrids with the introduction of its new Prius Prime. Toyota leads the industry in hybrids. It has sold 9 million hybrid vehicles around the world.

VIETNAM rescues one of the two pilots who went missing on a training flight on a Russian-made jet fighter.

INDIA’s government approves a new civil aviation policy aimed at increasing regional connectivity, boosting cargo operations and making it easier — and possibly cheaper — for passengers to fly.

INDIA A city of nearly 7 million people in southern India has declared a “high alert” for polio after an active strain of the virus was found in samples of sewage water.

COFFEE The World Health Organization’s research arm has downgraded its classification of coffee as a possible carcinogen, declaring there isn’t enough proof to show a link to cancer.