World Briefs

TAIWAN A powerful typhoon approaches eastern Taiwan, churning up huge waves and wind that ground fishing boats, commercial ships and planes.

CHINA Water levels start to recede in central and eastern China following a week of heavy downpours that broke levees, flooded cities and villages, halted public transportation, and left at least 181 people dead or missing.

PHILIPPINES The military says government forces, backed by rocket-firing helicopters and artillery fire, have killed up to nine Abu Sayyaf extremists as they battled hundreds of militants in two southern provinces.

PHILIPPINES The Philippines is the only Asia-Pacific country where the rate of teen pregnancies rose over the last two decades and the slow decline of its overall fertility rate may deprive the country of the faster economic growth expected in places that have more working-age people than younger and older dependents, the U.N. Population Fund says.

CAMBODIA Visitors who dress immodestly will not be allowed to enter the famed Angkor temple complex, the agency that oversees the site says. From August 4, local and foreign tourists will be required to wear pants or skirts below the knees and shirts that cover their shoulders.

BANGLADESH Islamic extremists hurl homemade bombs and engage in a gunbattle with police guarding an Eid prayer service attended by hundreds of thousands of people at the end of the holy Muslim month. Two officers, a woman and one suspected militant are killed, and at least 12 other people are injured.

AUSTRALIA A former Australian army chief warns Australia against “blindly going along with” the United States after an inquiry was critical of Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war.

NATO President Barack Obama’s decision to slow the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan will be welcomed at the NATO summit this weekend, providing aid for allied forces in the country and bolstering U.S. efforts to get more pledges of support for the war from U.S. allies.

USA A black man has been shot dead by police in the US state of Minnesota as protests continued over the police killing of a black man in Louisiana. According to the BBC, he was shot as he reached for his driving license, she said. The protests follow the death of Alton Sterling, who was shot by police during an incident in Baton Rouge earlier this week.

EU The European Union says Spain and Portugal have missed deadlines to get their financial houses in order. The EU’s executive Commission said yesterday that the two failed to take “effective action” to rein in their excessive deficits over the last two years. Spain is likely to miss its goals in 2016 as well.

RUSSIA A Russian space capsule is launched at the beginning of a two-day trip to the International Space Station carrying Russian Anatoly Ivanshin, NASA’s Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of the Japanese space agency JAXA.