World briefs

CHINA In halting televised confessions and emotional courtroom testimony, Chinese lawyers and activists held in a government crackdown have voiced the same ominous message: Shadowy foreign forces are funding, directing and encouraging activities bent on destabilizing China’s government and smearing its reputation.

PHILIPPINE president has publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers and military personnel to illegal drugs, revoked their gun licenses and asked them to surrender for investigation.

INDONESIA’s counter-terrorism police on Friday arrested six suspected militants who were allegedly planning to launch a rocket attack on downtown Singapore from nearby Batam island. He said the arrests, which included the 31-year-old alleged leader of the group, highlight the continued threat posed by extremists in Indonesia despite a sustained crackdown by authorities.

JAPAN marked the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Saturday by renewing calls for a nuclear weapons free world and urging leaders to follow the example of President Barack Obama and visit the bomb sites.

INDIA Gunmen opened fire on a busy market place in the north-eastern state of Assam on Friday, killing 13 people according to officials. The government is blaming the attack on the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, a rebel organization that seeks to carve out an area of Assam as an independent state for the Bodo ethnic group.

BELGIAN authorities are still investigating an attack by a machete-wielding man on two policewomen but are treating it for now as an act of terror, the country’s prime minister said yesterday. Prime Minister Charles Michel said the attacker’s shouts of “Allahu akbar!” as he slashed at the officers outside the Charleroi police station on Saturday were a notable factor in the authorities’ decision.

MACEDONIAN police say the capital of Skopje has been hit by torrential rain and floods that left at least 15 people dead, six missing and 22 others sent to the hospital.

YEMEN The Security Council has failed to agree on a statement supporting the U.N. special envoy to Yemen who is trying to get Shiite rebels to back a peace deal and end the 17-month civil war in the Arab world’s poorest country. Yemen’s internationally recognized government has approved the U.N.-proposed deal but Houthi rebels have so far rejected it.