World Briefs

CHINA At least 75 people in northern China have died or gone missing since Monday in some of the worst flooding in years, the government said yesterday. The figures released by the Civil Affairs Ministry come amid continuing heavy downpours that have caused havoc across usually dry regions, including the capital Beijing. Already, 576 people have been recorded as dead or missing nationwide in the first half of the year.

MALAYSIA’s prime minister says he is serious about good governance and his administration will “fully cooperate” with the U.S. Department of Justice in its probe into a USD3.5 billion scandal into a Malaysian state fund. Najib was speaking to reporters yesterday, a day after the U.S. Justice Department said it has initiated action to seize more than $1 billion of the stolen money that was allegedly used to buy assets in the U.S. by people close to Najib.

AUSTRALIA A man was arrested after igniting accelerant inside his car and crashing it into the gate of a parking garage at a suburban Sydney police station yesterday, police said. There was no indication the incident had any links to terrorism.

TURKEY’s deputy prime minister says his country is to suspend European human rights convention under new state of emergency. Lawmakers in the country convened yesterday to endorse sweeping new powers for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that would allow him to expand a crackdown in the wake of last week’s failed coup.

LIBYA France acknowledged yesterday the killing of three of its officers and for the first time said that its forces are operating in eastern Libya.

US Republican nominee Donald Trump hinted at a new world order if he becomes president, saying the United States, under his leadership, might not come to the defense of some NATO members if Russia were to attack them. Trump said he would decide whether to protect the Baltic republics based on whether those countries “have fulfilled their obligations to us,” shortly before accepting the Republican nomination for president.

UN The U.N. Security Council holds its first informal poll yesterday on the dozen candidates competing to succeed Ban Ki-moon as secretary-general on Jan. 1. The 15 council members have decided to keep the vote secret — a sharp contrast to the informal “straw” polls 10 years ago which were made public and led to Ban’s election to the world’s top diplomatic post.