World briefs

CHINA The Dominican Republic has established diplomatic relations with China, breaking ties with Beijing’s rival Taiwan in the latest blow to the self-ruled island democracy China has been trying to isolate on the global stage.

THAILAND A court in southern Thailand has sentenced six men to death for several bombings in 2016 that killed two people and wounded more than 20, an army spokesman said yesterday. 

KOREA The rival Koreas have dismantled huge loudspeakers used to blare Cold War-style propaganda across their tense border, as South Korea’s president asked the United Nations to observe the North’s planned closing of its nuclear test site. 

INDIA Suspected militants shot and killed three men in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said, as the disputed region observed a strike to protest the killing of two rebels and a civilian this week during an Indian counterinsurgency operation.

NIGERIA A pair of explosions killed at least 28 worshippers at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria and wounded at least 56 others, with many of the victims caught in the second blast while trying to flee, police said yesterday.

ARMENIA The opposition leader spearheading weeks of protests in Armenia warned the government yesterday not to deploy troops as his supporters blocked roads, cut access to the country’s main airport and occupied at least one municipal building.

LIBYA Islamic State suicide bombers attacked Libya’s election commission in the capital yesterday, killing at least 14 people in the worst such attack in years that aimed to disrupt a nation-wide vote planned for later this year.

GERMANY Chancellor Angela Merkel says the nuclear treaty with Iran should be preserved, but urged Israel to quickly share the purported new intelligence about Tehran’s nuclear program with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

SPAIN The Basque militant group ETA says it has “completely dissolved all its structures” after a 60-year armed independence campaign, but the Spanish government vowed yesterday not to abandon the investigation of crimes from the group’s violent past.

BRAZIL Several thousand people have protested the jailing of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the southeastern Brazilian city where he is serving a sentence for corruption.

US-CANADA A group of Democratic senators says the U.S. should audit the job Canada is doing to protect endangered whales, but the Canadian government and some U.S. scientists are reacting coolly to the idea.