World briefs

INDONESIA Security forces have retaken control of a prison in the country’s west following a riot yesterday, an official said. The riot began when three inmates refused to be transferred to another prison. Other inmates joined in the protest before it turned violent. 

VIETNAM Police said they arrested a business tycoon wanted for revealing state secrets after he was deported by Singapore yesterday.

JAPAN-N. KOREA North Korea should shift course and drop its nuclear program and missile tests to become a wealthier nation, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday.

US-PAKISTAN The Trump administration is accusing Pakistan of severe violations of religious freedom in a further sign of deteriorating relations. The State Department has announced that it’s placing the South Asian nation on a special watch list, pursuant to 2016 legislation.

SOUTH AFRICA A passenger train carrying people home after the holidays slammed into a truck in rural South Africa yesterday, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 260 others, the government said.

RUSSIA and four other former Soviet republics have protested a plan to attach an explanatory text about the role of Soviet World War II commander Ivan Konev in history to his monument in Prague. Konev remains a controversial figure for his role in crushing the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising in Hungary.

TURKEY A suggestion by Turkey’s state religious affairs body that girls as young as 9 could marry has sparked an outcry, including calls for an inquiry and the dismantling of the scandal-tainted organization.

ITALY Thieves stole precious Indian jewels from the famed Al Thani Collection that were on show in a Venetian palace, making off with a brooch and a pair of earrings by mixing in with the crowd on the final day of the exhibition, police said.

BRAZIL Environmentalists in Brazil say they are trying to figure out why more than 80 gray dolphins have died in less than a month on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. The Gray Dolphin Institute says it has retrieved five dead dolphins a day but what has caused their deaths is still unknown.