World briefs

MYANMAR An agreement was signed yesterday between Myanmar and Bangladesh covering the return of Rohingya Muslims who fled across their mutual border to escape violence.

SOUTH CHINA SEA China urged Australia yesterday to refrain from making “irresponsible remarks” after Canberra issued a foreign policy paper citing security risks in the disputed South China Sea caused by Beijing’s activities there.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA Authorities yesterday removed dozens of asylum seekers and ratcheted up pressure on more than 300 others to abandon a decommissioned immigration camp.

AFGHANTISTAN An Afghan official says a suicide attack has killed eight people and wounded 17 in the country’s eastern Nangarhar province. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

PAKISTAN A court has rejected the government’s plea to extend for three more months the house arrest of a U.S.-wanted militant who founded a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.

IRAN The head of the U.N. agency monitoring Iran’s nuclear deal with the U.S. and five other nations says Tehran is living up to its end of the agreement — comments that indirectly oppose President Donald Trump’s view.

SUDAN President Omar al-Bashir has said on a visit to Russia that his country needs protection from the U.S. He accused the U.S. of fomenting the conflict in Sudan, adding, “we need protection from the U.S. aggressive actions.”

GERMANY The German chancellor is returning to the EU summit scene today after missing the last one because she showed a rare domestic flaw by struggling to form a coalition. Even worse, she will be in Brussels still a mere caretaker chancellor when, for years now, she has been considered the caretaker of the EU as a whole.

ARGENTINA’s navy announced yesterday that a sound detected during the search for a missing submarine is consistent with that of an explosion — an ominous development in the hunt for the vessel and its 44 crew.

VENEZUELA Five high-ranking officials arrested in Venezuela amid an anti-corruption sweep of its state-owned oil company carry American passports, people with knowledge of the case said.