World briefs

VIETNAM Floods and landslides caused by a tropical depression have killed at least 43 people, left 34 others missing and damaged homes and crops in northern and central Vietnam, officials said yesterday. More on p11

AUSTRALIA’s High Court ended a hearing yesterday on whether the deputy prime minister will be disqualified from Parliament for breaching a constitutional ban on dual citizens becoming lawmakers, a verdict that could cost the government power.

AFGHANISTAN An American woman, her Canadian husband and their three young children have been released after years of being held captive by a group with ties to the Taliban and called a terrorist organization by the United States, American and Pakistani officials said yesterday.

INDIA’s top court has ruled that having sexual intercourse with a wife younger than 18 is rape, a decision that activists say is an important step toward ending child marriages.

PALESTINE Rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah have reached a preliminary, partial agreement that could pave the way for President Mahmoud Abbas to resume governing the Gaza Strip a decade after Hamas overran the territory. 

SPAIN Thousands of Catalans who want their region to remain in Spain marked the country’s national day yesterday, marching through Barcelona waving both Spanish and Catalan flags and shouting “I am Spanish,” as the region’s threats of independence have left the country in crisis.

US Authorities in Northern California say they are poring through the list of hundreds reported missing amid fierce wildfires and working through the cases one at a time. The series of fires is already among the worst in California history, and high winds expected to arrive overnight could light them up even more.

UNITED STATES The United States is pulling out of UNESCO because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for “fundamental reform” of the U.N. cultural agency.