World briefs

TAIWAN A Taiwanese air force pilot was killed in an aerial collision between two training jets yesterday. One jet was not badly damaged, and the pilot flew it back to base safely. The other pilot bailed out after the midmorning collision in the southern county of Kaohsiung. He was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead. The air force identified the dead pilot as 37-year-old Chuang Pei-yuan.

AUSTRALIA Gough Whitlam, a flamboyant Australian prime minister and controversial social reformer whose grip on power was cut short by a bitter constitutional crisis, dies at the age of 98. More on p12

MYANMAR’s government said a general election planned for late 2015 would be held on schedule, countering rumors that the vote could be postponed.

NEPAL said it will introduce new rules, improve weather forecasts and better monitor the movement of trekkers after the Himalayan country’s worst hiking disaster left dozens dead last week. More on p12

NEW ZEALAND’s prime minister lays out a three-year government agenda that includes returning the country’s books to surplus, conducting a vote on whether to change the nation’s flag, and tightening the rules on terrorist fighters.
AUSTRALIA A delegation from a Malaysian opposition party urges Australia’s government to use its influence to discourage authorities in Malaysia from fanning Islamic radicalism for political gain.

JAPAN U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker urges Japan to be bolder in opening its markets to help reach a deal on a pan-Pacific trade agreement.

SOUTH AFRICA Oscar Pistorius is taken away in a police van to start serving a five-year prison sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The South African judge sentencing Pistorius cited the “gross negligence” the Olympic runner showed when he shot Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home. More on p14

PAKISTAN An anti-government TV news channel in Pakistan was taken off air for 15 days after a high court ruled that the broadcaster was “maligning” the country’s judiciary, the country’s media regulation authority said. The closure is apparently linked to the infighting among Pakistan’s numerous media outlets over their coverage of the two-month-long anti-government protests demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif step down over alleged election fraud.

CANADA One of two Canadian soldiers hit by a car in a city near Montreal has died and authorities are examining whether the driver’s links to radical Islam had spurred the attack. Neighbors said he was a recent convert.

PORTUGAL The Portuguese government’s plan to privatize debt-heavy public transport companies is meeting tough opposition from trade unions as Lisbon subway workers walked off the job for the 12th time this year. Staff staged a 24-hour strike yesterday, demanding the government keep the Metropolitano de Lisboa in public hands.

RUSSIA Energy chiefs of Russia, Ukraine and the European Union seek a solution to the standoff over winter gas deliveries from Russia to Ukraine.