World briefs

CHINA-KOREA Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told North Korea’s foreign minister that Beijing supports the North’s planned summits with South Korea and the United States.

INDONESIA Waters off an Indonesian port city reek like a gas station after an oil spill and fire that killed four people over the weekend, an official said yesterday. 

THAILAND The political group that has won every national election since 2001, only to be forced out of power repeatedly by non-electoral means, has taken an initial step on a comeback trail, registering its members in order to contest polls promised for early next year. 

MYANMAR Lawyers for two Reuters journalists detained in Myanmar asked a court yesterday to dismiss the case against them, saying the evidence doesn’t support the charges.

US-PAKISTAN The United States has placed a small Pakistani political party on its list of foreign terrorist groups, calling it a front for the militants behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

TURKEY President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) said yesterday that Turkey’s military “won’t stop” it’s efforts to oust Syrian Kurdish fighters from Syria’s north, as the leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran met for talks on resolving the conflict in Syria.

CAMEROON’s government says security forces have freed 18 hostages, including 12 European tourists, who had been seized by separatists fighting for the independence of English-speaking regions.

SWEDEN Police in Sweden say they have detained a man his 50s who is suspected of arson at the Portuguese Embassy in Stockholm.

ITALY President Sergio Mattarella opened two days of formal consultations yesterday to determine if any party or coalition can muster support to form a government after the country’s inconclusive March 4 elections.

BRAZIL’s top court could soon rule on whether former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva can stay out of prison while appealing a corruption conviction.