US-IRAN The Trump administration slapped 18 Iranian individuals and groups with sanctions yesterday for aiding the country’s non-nuclear weapons programs, in a bid to show that President Donald Trump is staying tough on Iran despite his moves to let the nuclear deal stay in place for now. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions “send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Iran’s provocative and destabilizing behavior.”
THAILAND’s new king has tightened control over what is reputed to be the world’s richest royal fortune, estimated to be worth more than USD30 billion. A law that became effective Monday places the Crown Property Bureau under the king’s direct control.
PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law in the southern third of the country until the end of the year because the rebellion there will not be completely quelled by July 22, the end of his 60-day martial law proclamation.
INDONESIA Conservative Islamic groups protested yesterday in the capital of Indonesia, denouncing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s attempt to ban radical organizations. Demonstrators from an alliance of Islamic groups waved flags and held up banners calling the government tyrannical and repressive.
GREECE-TURKEY Turkey showed it is not ready to come to an agreement on reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus during recently failed peace talks, Greece’s foreign minister said yesterday.
GERMANY At least 547 members of a prestigious Catholic boys’ choir in Germany were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and 1992, according to a report released yesterday. Allegations involving the Domspatzen choir in Regensburg were among a spate of revelations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Germany that emerged in 2010.
SWITZERLAND Police say the bodies of what appear to be two people killed in an accident decades ago have been recovered from a glacier in southwestern Switzerland.
NIGERIA At least eight people were killed when a female suicide bomber detonated at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria. The bomber was being chased by local security workers and ran into the middle of worshippers and exploded. At least 13 people were wounded.
ARGENTINA Officials say cold weather and freezing temperatures from a polar wave have killed two people in Argentina. An absolute record of -25.4 Celsius was also registered in the Patagonian ski resort of Bariloche.
