US-NORTH KOREA Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has offered reassurance to North Korea that “we are not your enemy,” though he wants help from China to push for conditions that can lead to talks with the North. He said the United States does “not seek a regime change. We do not seek a collapse of the regime. We do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula.”
CHINA-ASEAN Southeast Asia’s top diplomats will seek talks “as soon as possible” on a proposed non-aggression pact with China aimed at preventing clashes in the South China Sea and will likely hold back on criticism of China’s aggressive acts in the disputed waters in a weekend summit.
MALAYSIA Authorities said yesterday that they seized 23 pieces of elephant tusks and 301 kilograms of pangolin scales believed to have been smuggled from Africa in a haul worth nearly USD1 million.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA Prime Minister Peter O’Neill was re-elected as leader of the South Pacific island nation yesterday, following a complex, chaotic election plagued by violence and allegations of ballot fraud. The nation’s Parliament elected O’Neill to a second five-year term by a vote of 60 to 46.
AUSTRALIA A man arrested over the weekend in Sydney has been released without charge and was shocked to be questioned about a plot to bring down an airliner, his lawyer and police said yesterday.
SAUDI ARABIA A state-linked Saudi news website is reporting that assailants opened fire on the Riyadh headquarters of the country’s religious police.
FRANCE-ITALY Italy and France have agreed to work on resolving their dispute over an Italian shipbuilder’s bid to take over a French shipyard, giving themselves until the end of September.
GERMANY-VIETNAM The German government accused Vietnamese intelligence services yesterday of involvement in what it called the kidnapping in Berlin of a former Vietnamese oil executive, and gave the country’s intelligence attache 48 hours to leave Germany.
VENEZUELA The number of Venezuelans who participated in the election for an all-powerful constituent assembly was inflated by at least 1 million votes in an official count, the head of a voting technology company asserted yesterday.
BRAZIL Lawmakers were yesterday making impassioned speeches about whether to suspend the president for bribery, but few of their colleagues seemed to be paying attention. They were largely arguing for a national television audience.
