World briefs

KOREA A North Korean envoy making a rare visit to South Korea said yesterday that his country was willing to open talks with the United States, a rare step toward diplomacy between enemies after a year of North Korean missile and nuclear tests and direct threats of war from both Pyongyang and Washington. 

MYANMAR One of several bombs targeting government offices and other places in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state exploded on the weekend, injuring a police officer.

INDONESIA Heavy rains hampered the weekend search for victims of a landslide on the Indonesian island of Java as authorities raised the death toll to seven.

AUSTRALIA-US Australia’s prime minister has urged the United States to maintain its global leadership role and spoke out against a growing sentiment of isolation in America and elsewhere.

ISRAEL The leaders of the major Christian sects in Jerusalem closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, for several hours yesterday to protest an Israeli plan to tax their properties.

LEBANON Authorities in Beirut are interrogating a man suspected in the death of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait, security and judicial officials said Saturday.

NIGERIA Parents in Nigeria have released a list of the 105 young women they say are still missing nearly a week after Boko Haram militants attacked a northern town, demanding that residents direct them toward the school for girls.

RUSSIA has worked to gain influence in Southeast Europe for years, using Serbia as a foothold, to discourage Western Balkan countries from joining NATO and the EU. The European Union finally is pushing back.

CZECH REPUBLIC Authorities detained a former leader of a Syrian Kurdish political party under an Interpol red notice that was based on Turkey’s request for his arrest, Turkish and Syrian Kurdish officials said yesterday.

BRAZIL The public defender’s office for Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state is complaining that a military-led crackdown on crime there is violating constitutional rights.

COLOMBIA A suspected drug chief known as the “Pablo Escobar of Ecuador” was extradited to the United States on Saturday, Colombia’s chief prosecutor’s office announced. U.S. officials accuse Prado, also known by the alias “Gerald,” of shipping more than 250 tons of cocaine to the United States.