World Briefs

CHINA Shares plunged yesterday, with a gauge of smaller companies sinking 5.5 percent, as people familiar with the matter said the China Banking Regulatory Commission is discussing stricter curbs on wealth-management products. The market’s exaggerated response shows what’s at stake for China’s watchdogs as they attempt to reduce risk in the financial system while avoiding going too far and provoking another crash.

PHILIPPINES The top U.S. diplomat shared a working lunch yesterday with the new Philippine president, who has criticized U.S. security policies and publicly made friendly overtures to China. President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed a range of issues, including the South China Sea disputes, battling terrorism and personal interests like motorcycles and hunting.

SYRIA A twin bombing struck a crowd in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria yesterday, killing 44 people and wounding dozens more. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

VIETNAM’s prime minister vowed to defend the country’s sovereignty in the South China Sea as he was re-elected by the rubber-stamp National Assembly. In his acceptance speech, Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on parties to respect and comply with international law and not to further complicate the situation.

GERMANY Bavaria’s top security official says it’s unclear whether the man who blew himself up at a bar in the town of Ansbach meant to detonate it at the moment he did. State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said yesterday that further investigation into the case is needed.

ICELAND’s airport authority says the country briefly closed its airspace to flights because of a technical problem at its air traffic control center. Gudni Sigurdsson of airport operator and air navigation service Isavia said yesterday that “we did not let more traffic into our area” while a problem with the flight data processing system was being resolved. He said the problem has been fixed and services are returning to normal.

UNITED NATIONS Plummeting economies in Venezuela and Brazil are expected to drag Latin America into negative growth again this year, the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean reported on Tuesday. The commission projected a 0.8 percent slide in the region’s overall gross domestic product for 2016, a bit worse than last year’s 0.5 percent dip.