World briefs

INDONESIA The conservative province of Aceh known for publicly caning gays, adulterers and gamblers is considering the introduction of beheading as a punishment for murder.

CAMBODIA With political and press freedoms under pressure ahead of elections scheduled for July, the U.N. said yesterday it is a mistake for the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen to prioritize stability and development over human rights.

PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte announced yesterday that the Philippines is withdrawing its ratification of a treaty that created the International Criminal Court, where he is facing a possible complaint over thousands of suspects killed in his anti-drug crackdown. 

THAILAND Police filed new charges yesterday against a billionaire construction tycoon accused of hunting endangered animals in a wildlife sanctuary.

SOUTH KOREA Prosecutors yesterday questioned South Korea’s conservative former President Lee Myung-bak over corruption allegations, making him the latest of the country’s leaders entangled in scandal.

IRAN-PAKISTAN Iran’s foreign minister has wrapped up a trip to Pakistan in which he made a surprise offer to let Islamabad take part in a major port project partly funded by Pakistan’s archrival India.

SYRIA For the first time since its meteoric rise in 2012 amid the chaos of war, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria is in retreat, battling rival militant groups in the north and fighting for survival in a key foothold near the capital, Damascus.

ETHIOPIA’s state-affiliated broadcaster says that a bus plunged into a ditch, killing 38 people in the country’s northern Amhara region.

VATICAN Pope Francis marked his fifth anniversary as pope by receiving votes of confidence from his predecessor and current Vatican No. 2, even as surveys showed his reform-minded papacy was turning off some of the most faithful, church-going Catholics.

BRITAIN announced yesterday it will expel almost two dozen Russian diplomats, sever high-level bilateral contacts with Moscow and take both open and covert action against Kremlin meddling after the poisoning of a former spy.

VENEZUELA Police arrested Hugo Chavez’s powerful former spy chief, on accusations of sowing unrest as he leads a movement of disgruntled leftists seeking to replace President Nicolas Maduro.

CARIBBEAN A Caribbean seismic research center says an underwater volcano just north of Grenada may be about to erupt but does not pose a tsunami threat to the region.