ASEAN A summit of Southeast Asian countries issued a mild rebuke of China yesterday over its expansionist activities in the disputed South China Sea, and indirectly urged it to show restraint and not raise tensions.
PHILIPPINES The Philippine government yesterday released what it says are surveillance pictures of Chinese coast guard ships and barges at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, in an apparent diplomatic gambit to publicize its concerns of China’s growing territorial ambitions.
RUSSIA The Russian interior ministry says six people have been killed in the restive region of Dagestan in clashes with security forces. The dead militants were suspected of various crimes including an attack on patrol officers and an attempt to blow up a railroad, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement.
IRAN’s president yesterday called on the Muslim world to “punish” Saudi Arabia following last year’s hajj crush and stampede that killed over 2,400 people — sharp criticism as multitudes poured into the kingdom for this year’s pilgrimage.
YEMEN A minister with the internationally recognized government on Tuesday accused the country’s Shiite rebels of forcing children to fight in Yemen’s civil war, saying the rebels have recruited as many as 4,800 boys over the past six months.
TURKEY said yesterday it expelled 73 more personnel from its armed forces as part of an ongoing effort to rid the military of what it says are followers of the alleged mastermind of the failed July 15 coup. The Ministry of Defense said on its official Twitter account that the expelled personnel belonged to the air force.
GREECE Floods caused by heavy overnight rain hit parts of southern and northern Greece yesterday, leaving four people dead in the southern Peloponnese region and a fifth person missing, authorities said.
GERMANY Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday strongly defended her government’s handling of migrants, but conceded that more still needs to be done and that concerns that have led to increasing support for an anti-immigrant nationalist party need to be taken seriously.
BRAZIL Dilma Rousseff moved out of Brazil’s presidential palace on Tuesday, six days after senators voted to impeach and remove her from office. A crowd of supporters cheered the country’s first female president outside the Alvorada Palace in the capital of Brasilia, some giving her flowers and other gifts.
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