World briefs

THAILAND An editor at an English-language newspaper in Thailand said yesterday he has been sidelined for refusing to tone down coverage critical of the country’s military government.

PHILIPPINES Legal groups called on Philippine legislators yesterday to defend their constitutional power to impeach officials, which they said was usurped by Supreme Court justices who ousted the chief judge last week. 

KOREA North Korea is moving ahead with plans to close its nuclear test site next week, South Korea’s military said yesterday, an assessment backed by U.S. researchers who say satellite images show the North has begun dismantling facilities at the site. 

PAKISTAN Three senior Pakistani officials say a U.S. diplomat who killed a Pakistani motorcyclist in a road accident last month has left the country after getting clearance from authorities.

US-IRAN The Trump administration is designating the head of Iran’s central bank as a terrorist and hitting him with sanctions intended to further isolate Iran from the global financial system.

SYRIA Government forces are in full control of the last rebel enclave in Syria’s largest province after “overpowering terrorism” following the evacuation of thousands of armed men and civilians, an officer told state-run TV yesterday.

ETHIOPIA A Swedish doctor who had been imprisoned in his native Ethiopia on charges of corruption and terrorism has been freed.

GERMANY A court has dismissed a television comedian’s appeal of a ruling that prohibits him from repeating elements of a crude poem he wrote about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

SLOVAKIA President Andrej Kiska says he will not seek a second term in office in next year’s presidential election. The 55-year-old Kiska announced his decision yesterday, saying he wants to spend more time with his family.

VENEZUELA A dozen countries from the Americas and Spain are urging the Venezuelan government to cancel the presidential election scheduled for May 20.

MEXICO Prosecutors say police and soldiers have detained the chief operator for the Sinaloa drug cartel in the northern border city of Nogales, across the border from Arizona.

US Tom Wolfe, the white-suited wizard of “New Journalism” who exuberantly chronicled American culture from the Merry Pranksters through the space race before turning his satiric wit to such novels as “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “A Man in Full,” has died. He was 88.