World Briefs

JAPAN Japanese police arrest an American serviceman for alleged drunken driving on Okinawa, days after the lifting of an off-base drinking ban imposed after other alcohol offenses and the arrest of a former Marine in a high-profile murder case.

PHILIPPINES Police have seized about 180 kilograms of high-grade methamphetamine worth 900 million pesos (USD19.2 million), officials said, in a major haul for the government of new President Rodrigo Duterte, who has promised to wipe out crime and corruption within six months.

MALAYSIA Police say a grenade blast at a bar last week that injured eight people was the first attack in the country by the Islamic State militant group, and that 15 people have been detained.

PAKISTAN Parveen Rafiq closed her hands around the neck of her youngest daughter, Zeenat, and squeezed until the girl was almost dead. Then she doused the 18-year-old with kerosene and set her on fire. Zeenat’s crime: She married for love. It was the latest in a series of gruesome “honor killings” in Pakistan.

SE ASIA A U.S. Navy official says the United States is concerned about a series of attacks and abductions of tugboat crewmen by Abu Sayyaf extremists in Southeast Asian waters and is willing to lend a hand if needed.

AUSTRALIA With the government in chaos after a dramatic national election that failed to deliver an immediate winner, the country’s opposition leader called for the prime minister to resign, dubbing him “the David Cameron of the southern hemisphere.” The dig by opposition leader Bill Shorten comes as the country faces up to a month of uncertainty while officials scramble to count the millions of mail-in and remaining ballots to determine who, if anyone, won Saturday’s knife-edge election.

MALDIVES A court in the Maldives has barred a group of journalists from working for their newly formed media organization for two years, threatening its closure in a move they criticized as an assault on media freedom in the archipelago nation.

IRAQ Iraqi authorities yesterday raised the death toll to 142 from Sunday’s devastating truck bombing at a bustling Baghdad commercial street as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered new security measures in the country’s capital.

NEPAL‘s mountaineering authorities are investigating a climbing claim by an Indian couple who are accused of altering photographs of themselves on the summit of Mount Everest.

MARKETS Asian stocks rise while European benchmarks decline amid expectations central banks might ease monetary policy following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.