World briefs

TURKEY declared a national day of mourning, launched a full investigation and paid tribute to the dead yesterday after two bombings in Istanbul killed 38 people and wounded 155 others near a football stadium. The attack was claimed by a Turkey-based Kurdish militant group. In a statement posted on its website, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons said two of its members had sacrificed their lives in the Saturday night attack that targeted security forces outside a stadium.

PHILIPPINES Three Filipino soldiers have been killed and 17 others wounded in nearly two hours of fighting with about 150 Muslim militants in the south, the military says.

INDONESIAN police say they safely detonated a bomb on the outskirts of the capital after arresting a female would-be suicide bomber and other suspected Islamic militants who were allegedly planning to attack the presidential palace this weekend. 

SOUTH KOREA Prosecutors said yesterday that they have indicted a former senior aide to impeached President Park Geun-hye in their investigation into the massive political scandal that led to Park’s downfall, local media reported.

SRI LANKA The country’s naval troops fired warning shots to break up a protest by striking dock workers who have held up a Japanese vessel for four days at the island’s southern international port.

IRAN has proposed the formation of a bloc of Muslim countries to fight terrorism and boost economic cooperation that would include its regional rival Saudi Arabia. 

SYRIA Hundreds of Syrians stood in long lines Sunday, some getting on government buses, to flee the ever shrinking rebel-held enclave of eastern Aleppo as military troops and allied militias continued their push to regain full control of the opposition stronghold.

RUSSIA will accept an International Olympic Committee plan to retest all drug test samples given by its athletes at the 2012 and 2014 Olympics, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said yesterday.

ITALY Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni was tapped Sunday to form a new, Democrat-led government and end a political crisis so the country can quickly tackle pressing problems, which include troubled banks, an economy resisting growth and an electoral reform aimed at finally making the nation more governable.

GUYANA Officials in Guyana say the South American nation will post record gold production this year. Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman says production has surged 22 percent over last year to nearly 700,000 troy ounces.