World briefs

BANGLADESH Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is in Bangladesh on a visit to sprawling refugee camps for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar.

JAPAN A Japanese exchange has lost 58 billion yen (USD530 million) in cryptocurrency because of hacking, according to media reports.

NEW ZEALAND Six adults and an unconscious baby were rescued yesterday from a life raft in the Pacific Ocean after drifting for four days in the blazing sun without water

IRAN is trying to reap the benefits of a tool indispensable for modern life, the internet while keeping a tight control over how Iranians use it and what information they receive. Tehran’s solution to exert control over cyberspace is by creating a so-called “halal net,” a totally locally controlled version.

YEMEN Government forces clashed with separatists in the southern port city of Aden yesterday in fighting that left at least eight people dead, as authorities shut down the country’s main airport, fearing wider unrest.

JORDAN’s king affirmed his support yesterday for establishing a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem, highlighting his differences with the Trump administration on a central issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

TURKEY Fighting raged in northwestern Syria Saturday as Turkish troops and allied militiamen tried to advance their week-long offensive in a Kurdish-controlled enclave, Syrian opposition activists said.

CYPRUS Citizens were voting yesterday for a new president who they hope will overcome years of failure and finally resolve the ethnic divisions that have torn the Mediterranean island nation into a Greek-speaking south and a breakaway, Turkish-speaking north.

SPAIN Catalonia’s fugitive ex-president Carles Puigdemont will soon request permission from a Spanish judge to attend a parliamentary session to form a new regional government, a separatist lawmaker says.

BRITAIN’s financial “old boys” club was rocked by its own sexual harassment scandal after a Financial Times investigation found that female hostesses were groped at a men-only charity gala attended by hundreds of senior executives.

VENEZUELA Negotiators for Venezuela’s opposition say they will return to the negotiating table next week as international pressure mounts on President Nicolas Maduro’s government over its decision to push up presidential elections.

BRAZIL Gunmen barged into a party and shot dead “a large number of people” in northeastern Brazil.