World briefs

KOREA South Korean President Moon Jae-in has shaken off a suggestion that he receive the Nobel Peace Prize, saying that U.S. President Donald Trump “can take the Nobel prize” as long as the Koreas receive peace in return.

JAPAN A convicted thief was recaptured yesterday three weeks after a rare escape from a Japanese prison and an island manhunt he may have eluded by swimming.

AFGHANISTAN Two Islamic State suicide bombers struck in Afghanistan’s capital yesterday, killing 25 people, including nine journalists who had rushed to the scene of the first attack.  

SYRIA A missile attack targeting government outposts in Syria’s northern region killed 26 pro-government fighters, mostly Iranians, a Syria war monitoring group said yesterday, amid soaring Mideast tensions between regional archenemies Israel and Iran.

LIBYA’s oil agency says a transport plane has crashed just outside one of the country’s largest oil fields, killing three crew members.

RUSSIA Some 10,000 people were rallying in Moscow yesterday to protest against recent restrictions on internet freedom in Russia.

POLAND will oppose a European Union proposal to cut funding to countries where the rule of law is deemed under threat, the foreign minister said yesterday, calling it unfair political pressure.

ITALY’s political leaders are eyeing the country’s latest regional election in hopes the outcome would strengthen their hand after eight weeks of wrangling over the makeup of the next national government.

CARIBBEAN A police operation across the Caribbean and South America has freed nearly 350 people from human trafficking networks and led to the arrests of 22 people.

PERU Archaeologists in northern Peru say they have found evidence of what could be the world’s largest single case of child sacrifice. The pre-Columbian burial site, known as Las Llamas, contains the skeletons of 140 children who were between the ages of five and 14 when they were ritually sacrificed.