World briefs

SYRIA Top American and Russian diplomats joined together yesterday in a last-ditch bid to save Syria’s week-old truce, on a day the pair once envisioned as the start of a new military partnership against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. Instead, they went into their talks unsure what cooperation could be maintained to stop the Arab country’s five-year civil war.

HK In an interview with China Daily, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying talked about independence activists in the city, stressing that they share “the view or the proposition of a very small minority.” He also said that, as the HKSAR is an inalienable part of China, “there is no room for discussion [on the matter].”

THAILAND A Thai court found a British labor activist guilty yesterday of defaming a fruit canning company, and gave him a suspended prison sentence in a case that has raised serious concerns among human rights workers and free speech advocates.

NORTH KOREA’s leader Kim Jong Un oversees a ground test of a new rocket engine and orders a satellite launch preparation, state media say, an indication the country might soon conduct a prohibited long-range rocket launch.

NEPAL Small bombs explode outside two schools in Nepal’s capital, but no injuries and only minor damage are reported. Unexploded bombs are found at five other schools in the city.

INDIA-PAKISTAN The Indian army says Pakistani troops fired bullets at an Indian military position in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir two days after suspected rebels killed 18 Indian soldiers in an audacious attack on a military base.

BRITAIN-SPAIN Gibraltar’s financial-services minister, Albert Isola, said he hopes the British territory’s economic relationship with Spain won’t be changed by Brexit, but its most important ties are still with the U.K.  “There is a modern democracy in Spain and we should be able to have a normal relationship,” Isola said in an interview yesterday.

URUGUAY’s government has rejected an ultimatum from a former Guantanamo prisoner who is on a hunger strike demanding to leave the South American country. Abu Wa’el Dhiab has been on a hunger strike for more than a month to press his demands to leave Uruguay, as he wants to join his wife and children in Turkey, where they are refugees.