World briefs

SYRIA At least 23 civilians were killed in renewed government airstrikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said yesterday, as the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the spiraling violence in Syria. More on FT

CHINA The world’s largest radio telescope began searching for signals from stars and galaxies and, perhaps, extraterrestrial life yesterday in a project demonstrating China’s rising ambitions in space.

THAILAND A homemade bomb planted in a road killed three police officers Friday in insurgency-plagued southern Thailand, officials said. Police said they believe Muslim separatist insurgents were behind the attack.

INDONESIA announced Friday its candidacy for membership on the U.N. Security Council, saying its commitment and contribution to the world’s body make it a true partner for world peace.

PHILIPPINES and the U.S. have scheduled military drills next month in the Southeast Asian nation, the U.S. embassy in Manila said, days after President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged that his country did need American troops in the South China Sea.

SOMALIA’s Foreign Minister Abdisalam Omer says that as a result of successful joint operations by the Somali military and the African Union’s peacekeeping force “we have militarily defeated the evil that is al-Shabab.”

US The California Highway Patrol said 12 people were injured when a tour bus carrying Chinese teens struck a tree near Yosemite National Park and went down an embankment. Twenty two people were on the bus, most of them 12- to 15-year-old Chinese students and their adult chaperones who were heading to their hotel in Fresno after visiting the park.