World briefs

TAIWAN Officials and media reports blame a cold spell for the deaths of more than 150 people, most of them elderly and sick, over the past several days. 

SOUTH KOREA Prosecutors again summon Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong for questioning over bribery allegations, less than a month after a Seoul court rejected their request for his arrest. Samsung is suspected of providing tens of millions of dollars in money and favors to President Park Geun-hye and her jailed friend Choi Soon-sil.

JAPAN-US Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he stressed common goals, not differences, during his weekend meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, whom he called a “good listener.” Abe returned yesterday from the meetings in Washington and a round of golf with Trump at one of his courses in Florida.

JAPAN’s economy expanded at a steadily slowing pace in 2016, though a modest recovery in exports helped offset sluggish spending by households and businesses.

AUSTRALIA Several homes are destroyed and two firefighters injured by huge wildfires that tore across Australia’s most populous state over the weekend. More than 2,500 firefighters fought nearly 100 fires as temperatures climbed to 47 degrees Celsius.

PAKISTAN In a scathing indictment of Pakistan’s treatment of Afghan refugees, a human rights group charges that the country is forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees back to their homeland, which is still beset by war and crushing poverty.  

TURKMENISTAN’s president won re-election in a widely anticipated landslide victory. Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (pictured) garnered nearly 97.7 percent of the vote in the gas-rich Central Asian nation, the Election Commission said.

PORTUGAL A former interior minister, Miguel Macedo, and other senior government officials are standing trial in a major case centered on residence permits granted to investors from outside the European Union. The officials are charged with corruption, influence-peddling and misconduct in public office in the trial which began yesterday and is expected to last several months.

THE EUROPEAN UNION expects British economic growth to slow as the country negotiates its exit over the next couple of years, but forecasts an improvement for the bloc as a whole despite a range of uncertainties. In its Winter Economic Forecast released yesterday, the 28-nation EU said it predicts British economic growth will slump to 1.5 percent this year and 1.2 percent in 2018.