World briefs
MALDIVES Outside governments yesterday asked the Maldives to restore its legislature’s independence, days after the opposition said parliament was locked down on orders from the president in an attempt to prevent a vote to impeach the parliamentary speaker.
INDONESIA moved a step closer to hunting down tens of billions of dollars it believes its citizens have hidden abroad after political parties agreed to seek a parliamentary approval for a law that will give tax officials access to financial data held by other countries.
THAILAND Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose bank accounts were frozen this week, says she will fight to prove her innocence as a trial that could put her in prison for 10 years enters its final stages.
SRI LANKA‘s government deployed army troops yesterday to restore fuel distribution crippled during a strike launched by trade unions who want to stop leases of oil tanks to India and China.
AFGHANISTAN An official says 26 soldiers have been killed in a blistering Taliban assault on an Afghan National Security base in southern Kandahar province. Kandahar is considered the spiritual heartland of the Taliban.
EGYPT‘s Interior Ministry says security forces have killed four suspects who were behind the killing of five policemen earlier this month in an attack near Cairo.
CYPRUS Authorities in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus say they have lifted restrictions on Maronite Christians reclaiming homes and property in villages that have been under Turkish military control for over four decades.
SERBIA The Belgrade airport says a passenger plane flying from Germany to Egypt has made an emergency landing in the Serbian capital because of an “indication of smoke” in the aircraft cabin.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday he wants transgender people barred from serving in the U.S. military “in any capacity,” citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption.”
VENEZUELA‘s intelligence agency detained two more judges Tuesday that the government-stacked Supreme Court had threatened with arrest after they were appointed by the opposition-controlled National Assembly.
BRAZIL‘s Attorney General’s office announced that it has tripled its 2018 budget for the investigation into a sprawling corruption scandal that has engulfed political and business leaders across Latin America. Federal prosecutors decided to boost spending on the so-called Car Wash investigation from USD165 million to more than $500 million.
