World briefs

SOUTH CHINA SEA The Philippine military said yesterday it will continue aerial patrols of a Chinese-held shoal near the South China Sea despite protests from Beijing over the flights, especially using Japanese-donated aircraft. 

INDONESIA A court yesterday sentenced a Balinese man to 15 years in prison for robbing and murdering an elderly Japanese couple last year on the tourist island of Bali.

MALAYSIA’s government proposed new legislation yesterday to outlaw fake news and punish offenders with a 10-year jail sentence, a move slammed by critics as a bid to crack down on dissent ahead of a general election.

US-MYANMAR The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on companies across the globe to punish illicit trade with nuclear-armed North Korea, yet Myanmar, which is suspected of acquiring ballistic missile systems from the pariah state, has escaped the full force of the “maximum pressure” campaign.

ANGOLA A new report says the son of Angola’s former leader has been accused of fraud and prevented from leaving the oil-rich southern African nation.

TURKEY President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that membership in the European Union remains a “strategic goal” for his country despite the uneasy relationship with the 28-member bloc.

EGYPT Egyptians voted yesterday in a presidential election, with the outcome — a second, four-year term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi — a foregone conclusion and a sign that critics say shows the country is sliding back to authoritarian rule.

BRITAIN-RUSSIA Britain’s foreign secretary says the coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats by the U.S., Canada and European nations is “the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever.”

BRAZIL With a likely arrest in the coming weeks, Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is campaigning for a return to power with promises to unite a divided Brazil.