World briefs

PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered an end to all foreign scientific research missions in a vast expanse of waters off the country’s northeast and called on the military to “chase out” unauthorized vessels, an official said yesterday.

VIETNAM A court in central Vietnam sentenced an activist to 14 years in jail Tuesday for livestreaming fishermen marching to file a lawsuit against a Taiwan-owned steel plant’s spill of toxins into the ocean.

INDONESIA A court sentenced an Islamic militant to 10 years in prison yesterday after finding him guilty of procuring weapons for his network to use in attacks.

PAKISTAN Police say an enraged crowd of thousands of Wazir tribesmen has torched the house and office of the commander of a pro-government militia in the country’s northwest.

MALDIVES The president of the Maldives said yesterday he ordered a state of emergency to investigate “this plot, this coup” involving a Supreme Court ruling last week that ordered the release of imprisoned opposition leaders, including many of his political rivals.

AFGHANISTAN A group of young Afghan women in the deeply conservative western Herat province is breaking traditional barriers as their war-torn country’s first female coders in an overwhelmingly male-dominated tech field.

BALKANS The European Union yesterday warned Balkan countries hoping to join the bloc that none will be invited until they have resolved all disputes with their neighbors.

POLAND’s president announced yesterday that he will sign legislation that outlaws blaming Poland as a nation for Holocaust crimes committed by Nazi Germany, defying both criticism from Israel and a warning from the United States.

SWITZERLAND’s President Alain Berset said his country supports the full implementation of the recommendations made by an advisory commission on resolving the Rohingya crisis.

BRITAIN While high inflation, low unemployment and stable growth would usually prompt the Bank of England to raise interest rates again soon, concerns over Brexit are likely to stay the hand of its Monetary Policy Committee, whose decision is due tomorrow.

VENEZUELA Four prominent Venezuelan journalists have fled the South American country after being sued by a politically connected businessman over an article alleging irregularities in food sales to President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist administration.