World briefs

CHINA A well-known 81-year-old Chinese writer is taken from his Beijing home and detained by police after he wrote several articles critical of a senior politician, his wife says.

SINGAPORE Private home sales fell 15 percent on-month in August, as developers continued to scale back new launches, according to statistics released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday. Some 490 new units were sold in August, down from 560 units in the previous month. Private homes are those developed by private developers. About 80 pct of the resident households in Singapore live in spacious public housing units built and sold by the government.

NEW ZEALAND  Former National Security Agency systems analyst turned leaker Edward Snowden says the NSA is collecting mass surveillance data on New Zealanders through its XKeyscore program and has set up a facility in the South Pacific nation’s largest city to tap into vast amounts of data.

INDONESIA Four suspected Islamic militants arrested in Indonesia over the weekend are members of China’s ethnic Uighur minority community and were trying to meet Indonesia’s most wanted extremist, authorities say.

JAPAN Reaching the century mark remains a relative rarity for humans, but it is increasingly less so, and perhaps nowhere more than in rapidly aging Japan. The number of Japanese who are at least 100 years old, known as centenarians, has reached 58,820, according to the latest government estimate.

THAILAND Two British tourists were found battered to death yesterday on a beach on Koh Tao, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand. Police said they had no immediate suspects and were checking more camera footage in search of the attacker.

HONG KONG Authorities support the new global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information which can enhance tax transparency and combat cross-border tax evasion, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury KC Chan said yesterday. “It is crucial for Hong Kong to adopt the latest global standard on tax transparency in order to maintain our international reputation and competitiveness as an international financial and business center,” he said.

VENEZUELA Chronic shortages have begun to encroach on a cultural cornerstone: the boob job. Beauty-obsessed Venezuelans face a scarcity of brand-name breast implants, and women are so desperate that they and their doctors are turning to devices that are the wrong size or made in China with less rigorous quality standards.

NIGERIA Rescue workers say 45 people died and they have rescued 105 survivors from a collapsed guesthouse at the campus of renowned Nigerian preacher T.B. Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations.

UKRAINE Shelling killed six people and wounded 15 others in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, the city council said yesterday — the worst reported violence since a cease-fire between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops took effect on Sept. 5

SWEDEN The Social Democrat-led bloc officially begins the struggle to form a government yesterday    , a day after it ousted the center-right ruling coalition in parliamentary elections but fell short of a majority.