World briefs

NORTH KOREAN leader Kim Jong Un thanked workers during a visit to a factory that built the tires for a huge vehicle used to transport a new intercontinental ballistic missile that was test-launched this week.

HONG KONG The food safety authority said on Friday it has ceased the hold-and-test arrangements at import level for eggs from European Union member states. The Center for Food Safety started holding eggs from EU countries for testing at import level in August, when eggs from EU countries were detected with excessive fipronil, a pesticide.

US Donald Trump launched a fresh attack yesterday on the credibility of his own FBI, responding to revelations that an FBI agent was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian election meddling because of anti-Trump text messages. 

SOUTH KOREA At least 13 people were dead and two missing yesterday after a South Korean fishing boat collided with a refueling vessel and capsized, the coast guard said. 

VATICAN Pope Francis says he recalls so many “suffering” but “noble” faces from his just-ended trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh. He greeted people in St. Peter’s Square yesterday. Francis thanked God for the voyage’s opportunity to meet residents in the two Asian countries, citing in particular the tiny Catholic communities there, adding he was “edified by their testimony.”

PAKISTAN Islamist militants stormed a provincial government complex for agricultural research in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing 12 people including students and wounding 35 others, police and rescue officials said.

UKRAINE Anti-corruption campaigner Mikheil Saakashvili is urging Ukrainians to set up a protest camp in Kiev’s main square if parliament fails to adopt a law on presidential impeachment within a week.

IRAN President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated yesterday a newly built extension to the country’s main Arabian Sea outlet, the strategic Chabahar Port on the Gulf of Oman, which more than triples its capacity and poses a challenge for a port under construction in neighboring Pakistan.

TANZANIAN police are holding one of two women accused of kissing in a video widely circulated on social media. Authorities arrested the woman in the northwestern region of Geita and are looking for the other woman and some others seen in the video.