World briefs

MYANMAR-BANGLADESH The two countries have agreed that they will try to complete the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled from violence in Myanmar within two years, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday. 

INDONESIA Authorities are struggling to contain a months-long outbreak of measles in easternmost Papua province that has killed dozens of children.

PHILIPPINES Glowing-red lava spurted in a fountain and flowed down the Philippines’ most active volcano yesterday in a stunning display of its fury that has sent more than 34,000 villagers fleeing to safety and prompted police to set up checkpoints to stop tourists from getting too close.

SRI LANKA’s president has ordered the reinstatement of ban on women buying alcohol and being employed in places where the drinks are produced and sold.

PAKISTAN A Pakistani health official says a special anti-polio drive has been launched in the country’s eastern Punjab province.

SOUTH SUDAN Sixteen people have been killed, including three children, since South Sudan’s cease-fire started less than a month ago, say international monitors.

CYPRUS’ president says the fight against extremism necessitates even closer cooperation with Greece and Jordan. Nicos Anastasiades was speaking yesterday during talks that were billed as the cornerstone of a new partnership.

ROMANIA’s president yesterday appointed the defense minister as interim prime minister after Premier Mihai Tudose unexpectedly resigned.

KOSOVO  Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has called for a meeting of the country’s National Security Council following the killing of Oliver Ivanovic, leader of an ethnic Serb political party, as he entered his party offices in the northern city of Mitrovica.

FRANCE President Emmanuel Macron traveled yesterday to the epicenter of France’s migrant crisis, the northern port of Calais, to lay out a new approach to immigration: help for those who want to stay, expulsion for those using France as a transit point and sanctions for any poor behavior by security forces.

CHILE Pope Francis begged for forgiveness yesterday for the “irreparable damage” done to children who were raped and molested by priests, opening his visit to Chile by diving head-first into a scandal that has greatly hurt the Catholic Church’s credibility here and cast a cloud over his visit.