World briefs

INDONESIA A newly drilled unregulated oil well in western Indonesia exploded into flames early yesterday, burning 18 people to death and injuring dozens of others.

MALAYSIA Police yesterday released a photo of one of the two alleged assailants who gunned down a Palestinian engineer over the weekend, and said they are believed to still be in the country.

PHILIPPINES Tourists are spending their final hours on Boracay, enjoying the Philippine island’s famed white-sand beaches before it closes for up to six months to recover from overcrowding and development.

INDIA’s widening current-account deficit is coming back to haunt the rupee, with analysts clamoring to lower forecasts on Asia’s second-worst performing currency.

IRAN President Hassan Rouhani condemned talks between the U.S. and France over the multi-party nuclear agreement, urging his American counterpart to stand by his existing commitments before seeking to impose additional demands.

RWANDA The BBC reports that four mass graves have been unearthed in the East African country of Rwanda, probably dating from the 1994 genocide. About 200 bodies have been exhumed.

NIGERIA Officials in Nigeria say gunmen killed 15 people in an early-morning attack on a Catholic church, including two priests.

ARMENIA Several thousand protesters took to the streets of the Armenian capital yesterday after talks between the opposition and the acting prime minister were called off.

SPAIN’s Interior Ministry says police has found nearly 9 tons of cocaine concealed in a banana shipment from Colombia, a European record for drugs found inside a shipping container.

BRITAIN Prince Charles has spent a lifetime waiting to be king. Now the 69-year-old heir to the British throne has another position to wait for — he was approved as the next head of the Commonwealth made up of the U.K. and the countries that once were its colonies.

MEXICO Three vanished film students whose case had become emblematic of Mexico’s 30,000 missing people were killed after being caught unaware in the midst of a drug gang turf battle, officials say.

NICARAGUA Authorities released some student protesters arrested during anti-government demonstrations over the past week and the Roman Catholic Church agreed to act as a mediator as President Daniel Ortega sought to lower tensions in Nicaragua.