World briefs

CHINA-TAILAND Jack Ma met with Thailand’s prime minister yesterday and later signed several agreements, including one to help set up a “smart digital hub” in a showcase project called the Eastern Economic Corridor, to facilitate trade between Thailand, China, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

MYANMAR Community leaders from the Christian ethnic Kachin community have called for urgent medical attention for about 2,000 civilians, including pregnant women and the elderly, trapped in the jungle where they fled to escape clashes between the Myanmar’s army and the Kachin guerrillas in the country’s north.

INDONESIA A shallow magnitude-4.4 earthquake in central Indonesia has killed three people and damaged more than 300 homes, disaster officials said yesterday as they declared a two-week emergency for the affected areas.

IRAQ says it has launched airstrikes in neighboring Syria against Islamic State militants. The PM’s office says Iraqi fighter jets launched “lethal” airstrikes against the extremists in an area along the border. It says the militants posed a threat to Iraq, without providing further details.

GERMANY French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Berlin yesterday for talks with Angela Merkel aimed at winning support from the German chancellor for his ambitious reform plans for the European Union.

UK Queen Elizabeth II opened a summit of the 53-nation Commonwealth, and backed her son Prince Charles to be the next leader of the association of Britain and its former colonies. In a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, the queen said she hoped Charles would “carry on the important work” of leading the Commonwealth.

CUBA Raul Castro (pictured) said that he expected 57-year-old Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez to serve two five-year terms as president and eventually take Castro’s place as head of the Communist Party, potentially dominating Cuban politics until 2031. 

USA Descendants of people buried in a small cemetery in western Pennsylvania have sued the owners of a motel over an excavation project that left the cemetery a mound of earth more than 25 feet high.