World briefs

CHINA-N.KOREA North Korea has issued a rare direct criticism of China through a commentary saying its “reckless remarks” on the North’s nuclear program are testing its patience and could trigger unspecified “grave” consequences. 

CHINA is compiling a free online encyclopedia to rival Wikipedia, but it will likely only give Beijing’s official version of sensitive historical events, and the public won’t be able to write or edit it. 

CHINA A sandstorm blown by gusting winds enveloped a huge area of central and northern China in thick pollution hazardous to people venturing outdoors. The Beijing Meteorological Observatory advised people to minimize time spent outdoors and forecast that the murky conditions would linger into today morning. Beijing’s air quality index topped 800, on a scale ranking anything above 150 as unhealthy.

PHILIPPINES A Supreme Court justice launched a book that questions China’s historic claims to most of the South China Sea and said he will distribute it online to try to overcome Beijing’s censorship and reach its people. Justice Antonio Carpio said his e-book can be downloaded for free in English now and will be made available online later in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Japanese and Spanish.

AUSTRALIA A mother who stabbed to death her seven children and a niece in northern Australia in 2014 will not stand trial for murder because she was suffering cannabis-induced schizophrenia when she lost control, a court said.

AUSTRALIA-US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will aim to move past the rocky start to their working relationship when they meet to commemorate the 75th anniversary of an important World War II naval battle. 

BREXIT EU chief appealed for calm as tensions soar between Brussels and London over negotiations on Britain’s departure from the bloc. “These negotiations are difficult enough as they are. If we start arguing before they even begin, they will become impossible,” said EU Council President Tusk. He was speaking a day after Theresa May accused some EU officials of actions that “have been deliberately timed to affect the result of the general election” on June 8.

INTERNET Google said it shut down an email spam campaign that impersonated its online file service, Google Docs. According to online reports, clicking on an emailed share link, purportedly from a known source, was taking users to a site that asked permission for a fake app calling itself “Google Docs” to access their accounts. If they agreed, the app would then send additional copies of the original email to the users’ contacts.