World briefs

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte decides to declare a lagoon in China-controlled waters to be a marine sanctuary where Filipinos and Chinese will be prohibited from fishing. More on p11

HONG KONG’s leader said Chinese President Xi Jinping has affirmed his handling of a political dispute in the Chinese-ruled territory in which two recently elected legislators were barred from taking their seats.

INDONESIA Authorities said yesterday they believe a protest planned by Muslim hard-liners next month in the capital may be a guise for treason and are warning the organizers against holding the rally. The protest planned for Dec. 2 is to demand the arrest of Jakarta’s minority-Chinese governor who is being investigated for alleged blasphemy after he spoke about a passage in the Quran that prohibits Muslims from electing non-Muslims as leaders.

MYANMAR Human Rights Watch says satellite images show 820 newly identified structures destroyed this month in five Rohingya Muslim villages in the Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state where the military is carrying out counter-insurgency operations.

JAPAN-US A top defense policy adviser for Japan’s government proposes using U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s demand that Tokyo contribute more to its own defense as a chance to update the countries’ security alliance to reflect Japan’s greater military capability and today’s harsher security environment.

PAKISTAN’s powerful army chief begins a farewell tour of various army outposts across the country, ending public speculation that he might seek an extension of his term in office.

AFGHANISTAN A suicide bomber struck a Shiite mosque in the Afghan capital yesterday, killing 32 people, the U.N. office said, the second large-scale attack targeting minority Shiites in Kabul in just over a month. 

GERMANY’s main center-left party pushed back yesterday against pressure to decide quickly on a challenger to Angela Merkel in next year’s election after the chancellor announced she will seek a fourth term, insisting that it will wait until January.

BRAZIL Investigators so far have found no bullet holes in a crashed Brazilian military helicopter or in the bodies of four police officers who died when the chopper went down during an anti-drug operation.

APEC SUMMIT Leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific nations have ended their annual summit with a call to resist protectionism amid signs of increased free-trade skepticism. They announced a joint pledge to work toward a sweeping new free trade agreement that would include all 21 members as a path to “sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.”