World briefs

CHINA-JAPAN Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bid for formal talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a regional summit in Beijing next week is unlikely to succeed, a commentary by China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

AUSTRALIA The shooting of a Shiite religious leader outside a Sydney prayer hall appeared to have been influenced by the Islamic State movement, Australia’s prime minister says. Rasoul Al Mousawi was blasted with a shotgun in the face and shoulder in a drive-by shooting outside the Husainiyah Nabi Akram Center in suburban Greenacre early Monday. Police said his wounds were not life threatening.

NEW ZEALAND was one of five nations to win elections last month for coveted seats on the U.N. Security Council. It will serve a two-year term as a non-veto-wielding member beginning in January. Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says it’s an opportunity to boost the South Pacific island nation’s profile and contribute to solving international problems such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and long-divided Cyprus.

THAILAND One of the founders of popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been arrested under an Interpol warrant as he was crossing into Thailand from Laos, police said yesterday. Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij, who uses the alias TiAMO, was detained Monday by Thai immigration police at a checkpoint in Thailand’s Nong Khai province, about 500km northeast of Bangkok.

MEXICO Federal police early yesterday detained the former mayor of the southern Mexican city of Iguala, who officials say ordered the Sept. 26 attacks on teachers’ college students that left six dead and 43 missing. Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were arrested in Mexico City without resisting, according to two security officials.

UK The U.N. Refugee Agency has launched a 10-year campaign with the goal of eliminating the “stateless” status affecting millions of people throughout the world. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press yesterday that the goal is achievable despite the chaos and conflict in parts of the world that has left an estimated 10 million people without proper legal documentation.

ZAMBIA’s acting president yesterday rescinded his decision to dismiss the ruling party’s chief in a bid to defuse a political conflict that triggered overnight riots. The reversal was announced by acting President Guy Scott and Edgar Lungu, who was restored as secretary general of the ruling Patriotic Front party. Police and demonstrators clashed late Monday in protests against Scott, a white Zambian who fired Lungu following the death last week of President Michael Sata.

IRAN Thousands of Iranians chanted “Down with America” at a major anti-U.S. rally yesterday marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, just days ahead of a key meeting between the two nations’ top diplomats over Iran’s controversial nuclear program.

RUSSIA has failed to show up at a meeting planning the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, U.S and European officials said Monday, in a potentially serious blow to efforts by President Barack Obama to cement his legacy as leaving the world safer from nuclear terrorism than when he took office.