World briefs

US President Donald Trump said he is “waiting” to see if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will again “engage in constructive dialogue,” just hours after he canceled a summit with Kim scheduled for next month in Singapore. 

PHILIPPINES In a southern Philippine city, survivors are remembering a disastrous five-month siege by Islamic State group-aligned fighters that began a year ago.

INDONESIA Ride-hailing app Go-Jek will expand into Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines in the next few months, it said yesterday, stepping up competition with rival Grab for Southeast Asian customers.

THAILAND A court granted bail yesterday to 15 pro-democracy activists who were arrested earlier this week during a protest against military rule at which several thousand police were deployed. 

PAKISTAN’s lower house of parliament, with rare support from the opposition, has passed a bill to give equal rights to 5 million people living in the country’s tribal areas.

YEMEN Cyclone Mekunu pounded the Yemeni island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea yesterday morning, lashing it with heavy rain and strong winds as the powerful storm remained on a path to strike Oman this weekend. At least 17 people were reported missing.

CONGO’s fight to rein in a deadly Ebola outbreak has authorities crossing the border to buy up available thermometers, a World Health Organization official said, as the health ministry yesterday announced that confirmed cases had reached 30, including eight deaths.

GERMANY Police say a World War II bomb that partially exploded while it was being defused in the eastern city of Dresden has been successfully deactivated.

BRITAIN-ARGENTINA British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that relations with Argentina will continue to grow despite the nations’ dispute over the Falkland Islands.

BRAZIL Human Rights Watch says thousands of physically and mentally disabled children and adults in Brazil are “needlessly confined” to institutions where they suffer neglect and abuse.