US-NORTH KOREAPresident Donald Trump said yesterday that “talking is not the answer” to North Korea, after it upped the stakes in its standoff with Washington by calling for more weapons launches in the Pacific. Trump’s morning tweet followed a highly provocative North Korean missile test Tuesday that flew over Japan, a close American ally.
MALAYSIA Maritime authorities yesterday publicly set fire to a foreign fishing boat for the first time in a move to deter illegal fishing.
CHINA-INDIA China and India may have ended a tense border standoff for now, but their longstanding rivalry raises questions about the possibility of meaningful cooperation at an upcoming summit of major emerging economies. More on p11
INDIA Death continues to haunt a government hospital in north India that came under fire earlier this month after dozens of babies died within two days. At least 217 children died there in August alone due to a variety of reasons including an annual encephalitis outbreak.
QATAR Though far-removed from the Gulf, East Africa has been shaken by the Arab diplomatic crisis gripping Qatar. In recent years both Qatar and the other energy-rich nations arrayed against it have made inroads in the Horn of Africa by establishing military bases, managing ports and showering friendly nations with foreign aid.
SAUDI ARABIA In Saudi Arabia, more than 1.7 million pilgrims are marking the start of the hajj pilgrimage by circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca and performing a series of rites that trace the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad.
ISRAEL An Israeli drone company says the Defense Ministry has suspended some of its export licenses to one of its clients abroad.
KENYA Lawyers have made their closing arguments to Kenya’s Supreme Court over a challenge by longtime politician Raila Odinga to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election earlier this month.
AUSTRIA An Austrian court has rejected a Spanish extradition request for a Ukrainian oligarch suspected of money laundering and membership in a criminal organization, saying there was insufficient evidence for the application.
BRAZIL’s government has revised a decree that stripped protections from a reserve in the Amazon after environmental groups criticized the original order. The new decree still lifts the reserve designation from a gold- and copper-rich area larger than the Netherlands in two northern Brazilian states.
