World briefs

SOUTH CHINA SEA A U.S. aircraft carrier is sailing through the disputed South China Sea in the latest display of America’s military might after China built a string of islands with military facilities in the strategic sea. 

EAST TIMOR’s political parties kicked off a month of campaigning yesterday for new parliamentary elections due in May with promises to boost development in one of Asia’s poorest nations.

VIETNAM A court in northern Vietnam sentenced a dissident to 13 years in prison yesterday after finding him guilty of attempting to overthrow the government.  

THAILAND Police said they shot and killed two suspected Muslim insurgents who ambushed a police unit yesterday in the southern province of Pattani, a day after bombs in a neighboring province injured 12 people.

PAKISTAN Police have requested a travel ban on an American diplomat involved in a vehicle crash that killed one Pakistani man and injured another over the weekend in the capital Islamabad.

SAUDI ARABIA A lawyer representing a Human rights Yemeni group has filed a lawsuit in a French court against Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, accusing him of complicity in torture.

SYRIA-US Syrian government forces were on high alert and taking precautionary measures yesterday at military positions across the country amid fears of a U.S. strike in the aftermath of an apparent chemical weapons attack near Damascus. 

HUNGARY Newly re-elected Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said yesterday that “significant changes” will be made in his next government.

ITALY A magnitude 4.7 quake shook residents and structures yesterday in a region of central Italy that had been struck by a series of powerful quakes in 2016. No deaths or injuries were reported.

BRITAIN-ISRAEL The chief of Israel’s Labor party says the group is suspending ties with the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party over its alleged anti-Semitism.

COLOMBIA Leaders of Colombia’s disbanded FARC rebel army accused the U.S. yesterday of trapping a prominent rebel negotiator on a drug warrant in order to sabotage the country’s already struggling peace process.

BRAZIL Jailed former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will register his candidacy to return to the country’s highest office at the deadline for October’s election, his party said.