World briefs

SYRIA U.S. Senator John McCain has accused Russia of having cooperated with Syria in a chemical weapons attack that has killed more than 80 people, including more than a dozen children. The Republican senator said yesterday at a press conference in Belgrade that he believes “the Russians knew about chemical weapons because they were operating exactly from the same base.”

CAMBODIA Police are seeking to arrest a woman who was seen on a video clip on Facebook showing her throwing a shoe at a billboard of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. The government has been aggressively prosecuting critics and political opponents ahead of nationwide local elections this June, and a general election next year.

PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte wants the U.S. to actively promote security and cooperation in the South China Sea, according to acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, who downplayed the friction between the longstanding military allies. 

INDIA Four suspected rebels were killed in fighting with the Indian army in Kashmir, as businesses and schools shut in the disputed region yesterday in response to a separatists’ call to protest the killing of eight civilians by government forces during a weekend by-election, officials said.

GEORGIA’s breakaway province of South Ossetia has elected a new president. Russian news agencies yesterday quoted local election chief Bella Pliyeva as saying that Anatoly Bibilov, speaker of the local legislature, won nearly 58 percent of the vote while the incumbent got 30 percent.

GERMANY Police say they’ve found what they believe to be 384 kilograms of cocaine in cases of bananas shipped from Ecuador. The cases were shipped to Hamburg and then taken by truck to Leverkusen.

SPAIN-FRANCE Spain is asking French authorities to share information on the weapons surrendered by Basque separatist group ETA over the weekend. A Spanish judge wants to use the information to clarify hundreds of unresolved crimes.

BRAZIL Seven inmates have died in a penitentiary in a northern Brazilian state where riots left dozens of prisoners dead earlier this year, according to authorities. The circumstances surrounding all of the deaths are under investigation. One of those killed had been decapitated; another appeared to have been asphyxiated.

SPACE Three astronauts from the International Space Station have successfully landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan — two from Russia and one from the United States.