World briefs

THAILAND’s ruling military junta has filed charges against seven democracy activists for calling for elections and an end to military rule.

CAMBODIA Ten Westerners arrested in Cambodia for allegedly posting photos on social media showing themselves engaged in sexually suggestive dancing may have offended local standards of morality, but should be expelled from the country rather than jailed, one of their lawyers said yesterday.

MALAYSIA Another person has died in Malaysia after a faulty Takata airbag inflator exploded when the Honda it was installed in crashed. 

KOREA South Korea yesterday expressed regret over North Korea’s cancellation of one of the joint cooperation projects planned for next month’s Winter Olympics, a development highlighting the delicate nature of ties between the rivals split for seven decades. 

INDIA A senior cleric at an influential Islamic seminary in northern India has issued a religious decree saying that Muslim women should not watch men playing soccer.

JORDAN About 8,500 Syrians are still locked up behind barbed wire in a no-go section of Jordan’s second-largest refugee camp — despite initial assurances in 2016 that the arrangement is temporary, a coalition of aid groups said.

YEMEN’s prime minister was preparing to flee the country yesterday for Saudi Arabia after separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates seized the area around the presidential palace in the southern city of Aden.

SAUDI ARABIA A wide-reaching anti-corruption campaign shrouded in secrecy and intrigue has netted more than USD106 billion in financial settlements with 56 people remaining in custody, Saudi Arabia said yesterday.

ROMANIA’s first female prime minister was sworn in yesterday as the country’s third head of government in a year amid ongoing anti-corruption protests.

GERMANY The prospective partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s next government broke an impasse yesterday over migrants’ right to bring close relatives to Germany, though reactions from both sides illustrated the challenges in finding common ground.

CHILE President Michelle Bachelet has signed decrees creating vast new national parks using lands donated by a U.S. conservation organization in what is believed to be the largest private donation of land ever from a private entity to a country.

ARGENTINA President Mauricio Macri said that government employees in Argentina won’t receive pay raises this year as part of a string of measures aimed at cutting spending.