World briefs

US-CHINA President Donald Trump has issued belated well-wishes to China for the Lunar New Year, saying he hoped to work with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to build a ‘constructive relationship.’

JAPAN A remote-controlled cleaning robot sent into a damaged reactor at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant had to be removed yesterday before it completed its work because of camera problems most likely caused by high radiation levels.

It was the first time a robot has entered the chamber inside the Unit 2 reactor since a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami critically damaged the Fukushima Da-ichi nuclear plant.

THAILAND Police have charged an Australian man with negligence resulting in the death of his girlfriend when their personal watercrafts collided at high speed off a resort island. Thomas Keating was charged yesterday in the death of Emily Jayne Collie near the island of Phuket. Collie was not breathing when rescuers brought her to shore after the crash Sunday. Keating was unharmed.

AFGHANISTAN NATO drone strikes reportedly killed 11 Islamic State militants, including two senior commanders, in the eastern Nangarhar province. Mohammad Hussain Mashraqiwal, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, identified the two commanders killed in Wednesday’s strikes as Mohammed Omar Sadiq and Omar Farooq, adding that another six people were wounded.

FRENCH police are reporting another 26 arrests overnight in further unrest in suburban Paris towns rocked by arson attacks and other violence following the alleged rape of a young black man by police

GERMANY’s central bank has completed an effort to bring home 300 tons of gold stashed in the United States, part of a plan to repatriate gold bars kept abroad during the Cold War.

KOSOVO police say they have taken into custody an opposition lawmaker wanted for questioning over suspicions of disrupting the parliament with the use of tear gas. A statement yesterday said Aida Derguti of the Self-Determination Movement has been taken to the court in the capital, Pristina.

TURKEY’s state-run news agency says police have detained four Islamic State suspects who were allegedly planning to carry out a “sensational” attack. The suspects were detained in an operation in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria. Police seized 24 suicide attack belts made with some 150 kilograms of explosives, two automatic rifles and other material, it said.