World briefs

HONG KONG A British banker was convicted of murder yesterday for killing two Indonesian women in Hong Kong, torturing one of them over three days while using cocaine in a gruesome case that shocked the Chinese financial hub. The nine-person jury returned unanimous verdicts against Rurik Jutting after a two-week trial in the High Court.

LAOS has notified its Southeast Asian neighbors that it’s moving ahead with a third contentious hydroelectric dam on the Mekong River’s mainstream.

THE PHILIPPINES’ Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos can be buried at a heroes’ cemetery, a decision that opponents said rolled back the democratic triumph of the “people power” revolt that ousted the strongman three decades ago. “While he was not all good,” the 15-member court said, “he was not pure evil either.”

SOUTH KOREA Scrambling to defuse a massive scandal, South Korean President Park Geun-hye concedes to lawmakers the power to name her new prime minister, a move that could seriously hurt, or even destroy, her ability to govern. More on p13

AUSTRALIA Gay rights advocates welcome Australia’s Senate voting down a government plan to hold a nonbinding public vote on recognizing gay marriage and call on Parliament to legislate for marriage equality soon.

INDIA Officials were trying yesterday to restore the websites of seven Indian embassies in Europe and Africa that were hacked and had data dumped online.

JAPAN Parts of a main street collapsed in the heart of a major city in southern Japan yesterday, creating a massive sinkhole and cutting off power, water and gas supplies to parts of the city. Authorities said no injuries were reported from the pre-sunrise collapse in downtown Fukuoka, which created a sinkhole more than half the size of an Olympic pool in the middle of the business district.

RUSSIA-TURKEY A Russian deputy says that a boat service has been restored between Turkey and the Crimean region annexed by the Kremlin. Relations between Moscow and Ankara have warmed in recent months after the two country’s leaders settled a spat over Turkey shooting down a Russian jet over Syria.

SYRIA Kurdish-led Syrian fighters are pushing ahead with an offensive aimed at isolating and encircling the Islamic State group’s stronghold of Raqqa, making small advances in villages north of the extremists’ de facto capital.