World briefs
PHILIPPINES Pro-democracy activists yesterday protested the Philippine president’s declaration of a provincial holiday marking the birthday of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and other steps they said promote a political rehabilitation of his family. Marcos was ousted in a 1986 “people power” revolt and died in Hawaii three years later.
SOUTH KOREA A child-monitoring smartphone app that was removed from the market in 2015 after it was found to be riddled with security flaws has been reissued under a new name and still puts children at risk, researchers said yesterday.
MYANMAR’s military has been accused of planting land mines in the path of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in its western Rakhine state.
AFGHANISTAN-IRAN Afghanistan’s foreign minister asked India yesterday to expedite the development of a strategic port in Iran to bolster a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries that would bypass Pakistan.
SYRIA Saudi Arabia has assured Russia that it supports a gradual process of negotiating local cease-fires and setting up “de-escalation zones” in Syria, Russia’s foreign minister said yesterday, a day after meeting with Saudi leaders.
EGYPT Islamic State militants ambushed a police convoy in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula yesterday, killing 18 police and wounding seven others in one of the deadliest attacks this year in the restive region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip.
TURKEY A media advocacy group yesterday accused Turkey’s president of trying to silence the country’s main opposition newspaper and the free press generally, as the second hearing in the trial of staff members of the paper began yesterday.
POLAND The government is abandoning a plan to illustrate Polish passports with images of landmarks that are today within the borders of Ukraine and Lithuania. The plan had angered both of the neighboring countries, with the Ukrainian government calling it an “unfriendly step.”
BRITAIN The U.K. government defended its response to Hurricane Irma yesterday, amid claims it has been slow to help British overseas territories devastated by the storm.
VENEZUELA-ALGERIA President Nicolas Maduro is visiting Algeria to talk about the oil market and boosting relations, as his country faces international pressure and political crisis.
BRAZIL Police are searching the homes of former and current executives of the world’s largest meatpacker whose plea bargain testimony has implicated the president in corruption.
