World briefs
NORTH KOREA fired several rockets into the sea Saturday in the continuation of its rapid nuclear and missile expansion, prompting South Korea to press ahead with military drills involving U.S. troops that have angered Pyongyang. The U.S. Pacific Command said that none of the missiles posed threat to the U.S. territory of Guam, which the North had previously warned it would fire missiles toward.
THAILAND Facing a possible 10-year jail term, former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra fled the country ahead of a court verdict her supporters say was politically motivated, a senior member of her party said.
MYANMAR’s government and advocates for the country’s Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority traded charges yesterday of killing civilians, burning down buildings and planting land mines, as clashes that began last week when insurgents launched attacks against police posts continued.
INDIA Thousands of supporters of an Indian quasi-religious sect leader left his headquarters in northern India yesterday as authorities relaxed a curfew a day ahead of his sentencing for rape.
LEBANON The remains of eight Lebanese soldiers kidnapped by the Islamic State group three years ago were located yesterday, a senior Lebanese official said, in a negotiated deal that followed a military offensive to drive the militants out of the border area with Syria.
BELGIUM The Islamic State news agency Aamaq has claimed the Brussels attacker who assaulted three soldiers with a knife as an Islamic State group soldier. In a statement yesterday, it said he carried out the Friday evening attack in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that is fighting IS.
BRITAIN London police arrested a second man yesterday in connection with a suspect who drove up to a police van not far from Buckingham Palace then reached for a 1.2-meter sword, an incident detectives called a terrorism attempt.
PERU Archeologists have discovered in a sacred pre-Incan site the bodies of 16 men from China who arrived to South America almost two centuries ago as semi-enslaved workers. The secret tomb in Lima is the biggest burial site of Chinese migrants ever found in Peru. Found alongside the bony remains were opium pipes and other personal objects used by the migrants.
ECUADOR’s congress cleared the way Friday for Vice President Jorge Glas to be investigated for allegedly taking bribes from a Brazilian construction giant involved in a sprawling regional graft scandal.
