World briefs

CHINA Four boys drowned off the coast of southern China this weekend while searching for duck eggs in a bay, officials said. The city of Beihai in the southern province of Guangxi said in a statement online that the four boys — three of them aged 12 and one of them 11 — were searching in a city bay Saturday afternoon when they drowned. They were part of a group of eight boys that went egg hunting. Two of them drowned and two went missing, prompting a search. Later, authorities found two additional bodies.

NORTH KOREA says it is willing to cooperate with the U.N. and other international organizations on human rights, but is bristling at what it views as politicization of the issue by its arch enemy, the US.

MYANMAR A rescue helicopter from Thailand has lost contact with ground control during a search for two climbers who scaled Southeast Asia’s highest peak a month ago, officials say. The helicopter was carrying three people, including a Thai pilot.

SYRIA Airstrikes likely carried out by the U.S.-led coalition struck an oil refinery in Syria held by the Islamic State group yesterday, shaking buildings and sending flames shooting into the air near the Turkish border, a witness and activists said.

IRAN First there were three nations negotiating with Tehran over its nuclear program. Then six. And now, mostly one. Washington insists that the Iran-six nation negotiations are alive and well. But with a deadline only eight weeks away, the U.S. is increasingly turning the talks it joined five years ago into a series of bilateral meetings with Iran as the two nations with the greatest stakes race to seal a deal.

RUSSIA The Russian foreign minister issues a blistering attack on the West and NATO, accusing them of being unable to change their Cold War “genetic code” and saying the United States must abandon its claims to “eternal uniqueness.” Sergey Lavrov’s assault appeared to be an extension of the increasingly anti-Western stance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is riding a wave of popularity at home with his neo-nationalist rhetoric and policies.

FRANCE Air France’s leading pilots union says it has ended a 14-day strike that crippled air traffic and led to stern shows of frustration by the French prime minister.

SPAIN The president of Spain’s powerful northeastern region of Catalonia formally calls an independence referendum, the latest secession push in Europe and one of the most serious challenges to the Spanish state in recent years.