World briefs

CHINA’s booming electric vehicle industry, a flagship for Beijing’s technology ambitions, has been rocked by scandal after five companies were caught collecting millions of dollars in subsidies for buses they never made. The affair of the phantom buses has prompted questions about whether it might disrupt the ruling Communist Party’s financial support to an industry it is spending heavily to promote.

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte says he won’t allow government forces to conduct joint patrols of disputed waters near the South ChinaSea with foreign powers, apparently scrapping a deal his predecessor reached with the U.S. military earlier this year.

INDIA New clashes left two anti-India protesters dead and scores injured in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir yesterday, police said, as a security lockdown marred Eid festivities in the troubled region.

MALAYSIA plans to spend about USD1 billion over the next five years to refurbish and expand its airports as the Southeast Asian country paces infrastructure growth with a surge in passenger traffic, its main airport operator said.

USA The mosque that Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen attended was heavily damaged in an arson fire that Muslim leaders said was the latest incident in an escalating campaign of harassment and violence against the house of worship and its members.

BRAZIL The once-powerful speaker of Congress’ lower house is the latest top politician to fall before the mammoth corruption scandals that have caused widespread anger among Brazilians. More on p15

SPAIN A small group of local people and anti-bullfighting activists scuffled and exchanged insults at a centuries-old Spanish festival where for the first time in its history the gory killing of a bull was banned, and the beast was unharmed.
Mounted police intervened before hundreds of people ran alongside a lone bull and taunted it in the town of Tordesillas 200 kilometers northwest of Madrid.

SOUTH AFRICA An American pastor who has made anti-gay comments has been barred from entering South Africa. Steven Anderson and members of the Faithful Word Baptist Church of Tempe, Arizona will not be allowed to travel to South Africa because they allegedly promote hate speech and “social violence,” said Malusi Gigaba, the home affairs minister.

SOMALIA yesterday hosted its first regional summit of African heads of state in 30 years, a source of pride in this Horn of Africa country after decades of chaos and deadly attacks by al-Shabab extremists. On social media, people marveled that their country was trending for something other than explosions.