World briefs

JAPAN Poll results released yesterday show that about half of Japan’s population supports a constitutional revision that would clarify the legality of the country’s military, a new approach Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is proposing as his party struggles to gain public support for a change.

VIETNAM Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said he is confident economic growth this year will meet a government goal of 6.7 percent without adding to inflation, despite weak expansion last quarter.

PHILIPPINE authorities say they’ve seized 605 kilograms of methamphetamine shipped from China following a tip from the Chinese government. National Bureau of Investigation officials said yesterday that the drugs were seized over the weekend from a brokerage warehouse in metropolitan Manila, while a portion was intercepted from a shipment consignee.

BANGLADESH yesterday was bracing for its first cyclone of the year, with more than 1,000 shelters set up for people who may need to evacuate as the storm approaches the low-lying delta nation.

IRAQ‘s mostly Iran-backed Shiite paramilitary forces reached the border with Syria yesterday after securing a string of small villages west of Mosul, according to a spokesman for the group.

CYPRUS remains “very, very close” to an agreement to reunite the ethnically-divided island despite a breakdown in talks last week, a U.N. official said yesterday.

FRANCE-RUSSIA French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the sumptuous Palace of Versailles yesterday for what the newly-elected French leader said would be “demanding” talks on Syria, the Ukrainian crisis and other thorny issues driving the rift between Russia and the West.

GERMANY Senior security officials in Germany said yesterday they are optimistic about intelligence sharing with the United States and Britain, despite friction in other policy areas in recent months.

VENEZUELA A 20-year-old man from the opposition Popular Will Party has become the most recent person to die in a wave of anti-government protests held almost daily since the end of March, Venezuelan authorities said.