World briefs

MALAYSIA Anti-corruption investigators questioned the wife of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday about alleged theft and money-laundering involving the 1MDB state investment fund. 

CAMBODIA An appeals court yesterday denied bail to opposition leader Kem Sokha on a treason charge widely seen as part of the government’s crackdown on the media and political opponents before next month’s elections.

INDONESIA Environmentalists say a tropical forest that’s home to critically endangered orangutans on Borneo island is being logged more than a year after Indonesia’s forestry and environment ministry ordered a halt to the forest’s exploitation.

JAPAN-US Prince Akishino, the second son of Japan’s Emperor Akihito, and his wife, Princess Kiko, are making their first official visit together to the U.S. The Japanese royal couple is in Hawaii this week as part of a yearlong celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants arriving in the islands.

INDIA Heavy rains in the hills of northeast India triggered a landslide that swept away a house, killing 10 people, police said.

IRAN has informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog that it will increase its nuclear enrichment capacity within the limits set by the 2015 agreement with world powers. 

IRAQ Turkey’s ambassador to Baghdad has assured Iraqis his country won’t cut off water supplies to the Tigris River, days after it started filling up a reservoir further upstream, causing water shortages and panic in Iraq.

SYRIA A Syrian Kurdish militia announced yesterday it was pulling out of a key northern Syrian town, a move that could ease a serious rift between NATO allies United States and Turkey.

EU The European Court of Justice yesterday ruled that a gay Romanian-American couple is entitled to the same residency rights as other married couples in the European Union.

ITALY Premier Giuseppe Conte declared Europe’s immigration policy a “failure” and demanded for it to be renegotiated as he outlined a heavy-spending policy agenda of Italy’s populist “government of change” yesterday.

CUBA New President Miguel Diaz-Canel held his first official meeting with visitors from the U.S., discussing increased internet access for Cuba with Google executive Eric Schmidt and Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona.