World briefs

CHINA Two state-owned companies plan to develop floating nuclear reactors, a technology engineers have been considering since the 1970s for use by oil rigs or island communities. Chinese media say plans call for the deployment of 20 reactors there, though neither developer has mentioned the area. More on p10

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte calls off a five-day-old cease-fire after communist guerrillas killed a government militiaman and failed to declare their own truce by a Saturday deadline, in an early setback to his efforts to end one of Asia’s longest-raging rebellions.

THAILAND’s royal palace says that 83-year-old Queen Sirikit suffered a lung infection but her condition has improved. An announcement issued Saturday night says Sirikit was moved on July 24 from Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital, where King Bhumibol Adulyajej has been living for most of the past few years, to Chulalongkorn Hospital for treatment of minor lung inflammation and blood infection.
India  Police in northern India say they have detained 15 suspects after a woman and her teenage daughter were gang-raped off a busy highway. According to the police, the attack took place Friday night near the town of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh state after the car the women were traveling in was attacked by a gang of men with an iron rod.

USA At least 16 people died in the hot air balloon crash in Central Texas, the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday, adding that investigators are still trying to determine the exact number of passengers and what caused the accident. It’s apparently the worst such disaster in U.S. history, and one of the worst ever in the world.

SOMALIA Extremists attacked a heavily fortified police center in the capital yesterday, killing at least five people before security forces ended the assault, police said. Four attackers, including two suicide bombers, were also killed in the attack suspected to be by the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, said police Capt. Mohamed Hussein.

TUNISIA’s parliament passed a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Habib Essid on Saturday, effectively disbanding the government of the U.S.-trained agricultural economist. The no-confidence motion was passed by 118 votes, easily crossing the country’s 109-vote threshold after a debate that stretched late into the night.

EU It seems that the strong start to the year was another false dawn for the eurozone economy and that the European Central Bank will have more to do in the months ahead to shore up growth. New figures released Friday confirmed that the Eurozone suffered a sizeable slowdown in the second quarter of the year despite a number of stimulus measures that the European Central Bank has thrown at it.