World briefs

HONG KONG A bookseller who was secretly detained in China has been taken away by Chinese authorities again after being released into house arrest last October, his daughter said yesterday. 

PHILIPPINES The country’s most active volcano ejected a huge column of lava fragments, ash and smoke in a thunderous explosion yesterday, sending thousands of villagers back to evacuation centers and prompting a warning that a violent eruption may be imminent.

VIETNAM A former oil executive was sentenced to life in prison and a former high-ranking Vietnamese government official received a lengthy prison term yesterday at the end of a major corruption trial.

THAILAND A motorcycle bomb exploded at a market yesterday morning in southern Thailand, killing three people and injuring 18, police said. The attacker parked the bike rigged with explosives nearby and bought goods at the market to blend in with the crowd.

INDIA-PAKISTAN Indian and Pakistani soldiers again targeted each other’s posts and villages along their volatile frontier in disputed Kashmir after a day’s lull, killing at least one civilian and wounding three others, officials said yesterday.

TURKEY-SYRIA Intense clashes erupted yesterday as Turkish troops and their allies advanced on a Kurdish enclave in Syria, the third day of the Ankara offensive aimed at ousting the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia from the area, the militia and a war monitoring group said.

SWITZERLAND Police say eight men who have been stuck in a cave in the Alps since Saturday will likely have to spend at least another 48 hours underground because of flooding.

SPAIN The fugitive ex-president of Spain’s Catalonia region left his self-exile in Belgium and visited Denmark unimpeded yesterday after a Spanish judge refused to ask Danish authorities to arrest him.

EU-VENEZUELA The European Union has imposed sanctions on seven senior Venezuelan officials accused of human rights abuses or breaching the rule of law in the country.

BRAZIL The head of Brazil’s Supreme Court has put the swearing-in of the nominee for labor minister on hold after a group of lawyers sought to block her appointment because of past labor law violations.