World briefs
US A pair of 70-year-old reservoir dams that protect downtown Houston and a levee in a suburban subdivision began overflowing yesterday, adding to the rising floodwaters from Harvey that have crippled the area after five consecutive days of rain that set a new U.S. record for rainfall for a tropical system.
INDONESIA is allowing Freeport-McMoRan to continue operating a giant gold and copper mine after the U.S. company agreed yesterday to relinquish majority ownership of it.
MYANMAR Once hailed as “Myanmar’s Joan of Arc,” Aung San Suu Kyi is coming under withering criticism for failing to espouse human rights which she once so passionately upheld. Defenders say she can’t risk alienating a still powerful military that could oust her government. Critics question whether she has forsaken her democratic ideals.
BANGLADESH A court yesterday sentenced the owner of a building that collapsed in 2013 in the country’s worst industrial disaster to three years in jail for unaccounted income. More than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, were killed and 2,500 others were injured when the building that housed five garment factories collapsed.
SRI LANKA A former Sri Lankan general accused of war crimes by human rights groups has left Brazil, where until recently he was his country’s ambassador to six nations in South America, an embassy official said yesterday.
IRAQ’s ethnically-mixed Kirkuk province, long claimed by both the Arab-led central government and the autonomous Kurdish region, voted yesterday to take part in a vote on Kurdish independence slated for next month.
ETHIOPIA A drugstore in Ethiopia that was selling banned substances to athletes across the road from the country’s main track stadium has been shut down pending an investigation, anti-doping authorities said yesterday.
RUSSIA’s economy minister, a rising star in Kremlin politics, said yesterday that his country is no longer suffering from U.S. and EU sanctions, and sees better prospects for future trade in Asia instead.
GERMANY Officials expect to bring new charges against a nurse already serving a life sentence for two murders after determining that he might have killed another 84 patients, if not more, a prosecutor said yesterday.
CHILE President Michelle Bachelet has introduced a bill to legalize gay marriage, the latest in a series of recent reforms in a country long regarded as one of Latin America’s most socially conservative. “We can’t let old prejudices be stronger than love,” Bachelet said.
