World briefs

PHILIPPINES Pedophiles in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia pay facilitators in the Philippines to sexually abuse children, directing their moves through online livestreaming services. The AP watched a raid, rescue and launch of a major investigation.

CHINA Twelve people, including ten South Korean school children, were killed yesterday when their bus was involved in an accident and caught fire inside a tunnel in eastern China, the local government and a South Korean diplomat said.

INDONESIA A court sentenced the minority Christian governor of Jakarta, ‘Ahok’ Purnama, to two years in prison for blaspheming the Quran, a shock decision that undermines the country’s reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam.

SOUTH KOREA Moon Jae-in declared victory in South Korea’s leadership race, pledging to unify the nation after nine years of conservative rule that culminated in the country’s biggest street protests since the 1980s. 

CAMBODIA-AFRICA Attackers in Central African Republic ambushed a convoy of U.N. peacekeepers, killing one Cambodian soldier and wounding another, Cambodia’s prime minister said. Three Cambodian peacekeepers were also missing and may have been kidnapped.

MALAYSIA Police said the country’s top Islamic State operative was killed in an attack in Syria last month. Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, 26, was believed to have been responsible for a grenade blast at a bar in a suburb outside Kuala Lumpur last June that injured eight people. It was the first attack in the country by IS.

INDIA top court found wanted tycoon Vijay Mallya guilty of disobeying its order barring him from transferring USD40 million to his children. Mallya fled to London last year where he’s free on bail during the extradition proceedings.

SOUTH AFRICA A species belonging to the human family tree whose remnants were first discovered in cave in 2013 lived several hundred thousand years ago, indicating that the creature was alive at the same time as early humans in Africa. A meticulous dating process showed that Homo naledi which had a mix of human-like and more primitive characteristics such as a small brain, existed in a surprisingly recent period in paleontological terms.