World Briefs

CHINA While the global economy will dominate at this weekend’s summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging-market nations, politics and security issues form the backdrop to the gathering of world leaders in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte rejected proposals yesterday for him to declare a state of emergency on a violent southern island to more rapidly defeat Abu Sayyaf extremists, who killed 15 soldiers in his government’s largest single-day combat loss so far. He also said government troops and police would not enforce an arrest warrant for prominent Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari, so they could talk.

NORTH KOREA has executed a vice premier and banished two other top officials to rural areas for re-education, South Korean officials say. If confirmed, they would be the latest in a series of killings, purges and dismissals carried out since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011.

SRI LANKA United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon began a visit to Sri Lanka yesterday during which he is expected to discuss post-civil war reconciliation and human rights accountability with the country’s leaders. Ban is to hold talks with the president, the prime minister and Tamil leaders, traveling to both the ethnic Sinhala-majority south as well as the Tamil-dominated north.

INDIA Protests against Indian rule erupted at many places in Kashmir yesterday after authorities lifted a curfew throughout the disputed Himalayan region for the first time in 54 days. A young man was killed and several others were injured in clashes

CYPRUS-EGYPT The two countries signed an agreement yesterday that paves the way for the supply of gas to the Arab nation via an undersea pipeline that officials hope will create a regional energy hub.

CANADA’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday hailed a new era in relations with China during his first official visit to a key trading partner, saying he aims to boost “stability and regularity” in their ties.

CUBA The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century landed in the central city of Santa Clara yesterday, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War.