World briefs
KOREA Following U.S. warnings to North Korea of a “massive military response,” South Korea fired missiles into the sea to simulate an attack on the North’s main nuclear test site yesterday, a day after North Korea detonated its largest-ever nuclear test explosion. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council held its second emergency meeting about North Korea in a week, with U.N. political chief Jeffrey Feltman describing the test as profoundly destabilizing for the region.
INDONESIA’s corruption court yesterday sentenced one of the country’s top judges to eight years in prison for taking bribes, the second time a Constitutional Court judge has been imprisoned for bribery since 2014.
CAMBODIA The Cambodia Daily, a newspaper that has helped pioneer press freedom and train generations of journalists in Cambodia since it was founded in 1993, is the latest victim of a determined push by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen to silence critics in the run-up to 2018 elections.
MYANMAR A Nobel laureate and Muslim nations in Asia criticized Myanmar’s persecution of its Rohingya Muslim minority as thousands in Indonesia and elsewhere staged angry protests against Aung San Suu Kyi and her government.
PAKISTAN A suspect involved in an attack on a lawmaker killed one police officer and wounded another during a raid at his house and he was able to escape from his eastern Karachi neighborhood, police said yesterday.
SYRIA Government forces and their allies are on the verge of breaking a nearly three-year siege imposed by the Islamic State group on parts of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, opposition activists and state media said yesterday.
TURKEY Top Turkish officials took to social media yesterday to criticize comments on Turkey by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her opponent during a televised pre-election debate.
GERMANY European Union anti-trust regulators have approved Germany’s plan to provide troubled low-cost carrier Air Berlin with a 150-million-euro (USD179-million) loan.
URUGUAI A top crime syndicate boss on the run from Italy since 1994 has been arrested in Uruguay, where he was living under an alias and using a false Brazilian passport, authorities said yesterday.
COLOMBIA President Juan Manuel Santos says the government will sign a bilateral cease-fire with the nation’s last remaining major rebel group ahead of Pope Francis’ visit this week.
