World briefs
MYANMAR An aid group that plucked tens of thousands of migrants from the Mediterranean with its rescue ship is shifting operations to Southeast Asia to help Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar. The decision by Malta-based MOAS, or Migrant Offshore Aid Station, came as the number of migrants leaving Libya’s lawless coast has plummeted since July.
CAMBODIA’s opposition leader was formally charged yesterday with treason for allegedly conspiring with the United States to topple the government, and could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
JAPAN A Japan Airlines plane bound for New York returned safely to a Tokyo airport yesterday after the pilot reported a bird strike to an engine during takeoff.
PAKISTAN Diplomats from around the world are meeting in Islamabad to form a new policy on fighting militants. The meeting comes weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Islamabad harbors fighters battling U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
SYRIA Troops and allied forces reached the eastern city of Deir el-Zour yesterday, breaching a three-year-old Islamic State siege on parts of the contested city near the Iraqi border.
ITALY’s health ministry has ordered an investigation into the death of a 4-year-old girl from malaria after checks determined she hadn’t traveled to any country at risk for the disease.
SPAIN The pro-independence ruling coalition in Catalonia is submitting a bill to the regional parliament that aims to serve as a transitional constitution should a controversial vote to secede from Spain succeed.
CARIBBEAN Hurricane Irma grew into a dangerous Category 5 storm, the most powerful seen in the Atlantic in over a decade, and roared toward islands in the northeast Caribbean yesterday on a path that could eventually take it to the United States.
FRANCE-VENEZUELA French President Emmanuel Macron met with Venezuela opposition leaders to discuss the embattled nation’s humanitarian and political crisis, two days after a leading activist was barred from leaving the country in order to attend the Paris meeting.
BRAZIL Federal police searched the house of the president of the Brazilian Olympic committee yesterday and issued a warrant forcing him to testify in an investigation into bribery surrounding the awarding of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
