World briefs

CHINA A Chinese lawyer was sentenced to seven years in prison in the third in a series of subversion trials demonstrating the ruling Communist Party’s determination to silence independent human rights activists and government critics.

DUBAI Video footage of the evacuation scene on the Emirates flight that crash landed in Dubai showed some travelers collecting luggage before they escape. In the worst scenarios, nonsense such as this can end with injury or death, especially through delaying the evacuation of other passengers.

MYANMAR At least 30 children have died in northwestern Myanmar since mid-June from an unknown disease that causes breathing difficulty, officials said yesterday. A local administrator said the deaths have been recorded in Nanyun and Lahe towns in the Naga region, one of the poorest in the country, about 1,300 kilometers from Yangon.

BANGLADESH Two men who had not been heard from since last month’s restaurant attack in Bangladesh were arrested yesterday on allegations they were involved in the deadly siege carried out by radical Islamists.

AUSTRALIA Two men have been charged with drug smuggling after methamphetamine valued at 115 million Australian dollars (USD90 million) was shipped to Sydney from Africa hidden in wooden logs, officials said yesterday.

TURKEY A court in Turkey issued a formal warrant yesterday for the arrest of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government accuses of being behind the failed July 15 coup that left more than 270 people dead. The government says Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, masterminded the failed coup attempt by renegade officers in Turkey’s military and wants him extradited to Turkey. Gulen has denied involvement or prior knowledge of the coup attempt.

CYPRUS’ justice minister says authorities have arrested a 28-year-old Austrian man on suspicion of having links to terrorist organizations. Ionas Nicolaou said yesterday that Cypriot authorities received a tip-off from Poland’s Interpol that the man was seeking to come to Cyprus after Polish authorities deported him.

NIGERIA’s Boko Haram Islamic extremists have a new leader who is threatening to bomb churches and kill Christians while ending attacks on mosques and markets used by ordinary Muslims. He also says there is a Western plot to Christianize the region and has accused charities of using their aid for that purpose.