World briefs

PHILIPPINES Police arrested nearly 500 people, including eight Israeli nationals, who they say were involved in an online investment fraud that victimized people overseas, including in Australia and South Africa.

RUSSIA President Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia since 2000, says he is “always thinking” about who will succeed him when his term is over.

AFGHANISTAN President Ashraf Ghani yesterday announced a weeklong cease-fire with the Taliban to coincide with the holiday marking the end of Ramadan next week. 

IRAQ’s prime minister yesterday ordered an investigation into overnight explosions that tore through a mosque in Baghdad as officials raised the casualty toll to 18 dead and 38 wounded.

TURKEY-GREECE Turkey has suspended a bilateral agreement with Greece allowing Athens to return migrants to Turkey, in retaliation for Greece’s failure to extradite eight Turkish officers who fled to Greece after Turkey’s failed 2016 military coup.

SWEDEN An Uzbek man who drove a stolen truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing five people and wounding 14 others, was convicted yesterday of terror-related murder and given a life sentence.

GERMANY Authorities have arrested four Iraqis suspected of membership in the Islamic State group, including one who is alleged to have carried out attacks that killed and wounded U.S. troops.

BRITAIN Prime Minister Theresa May forged a compromise with senior members of her government yesterday, agreeing that any interim arrangement to maintain customs links with the European Union after the U.K. leaves the bloc would be expected to last until the end of 2021 at the latest.

SPAIN The government cabinet with the highest proportion of female ministers in Spanish and European history was sworn in yesterday, putting the cap on one of the fastest power transitions in Spain’s four decades of democratic rule.

VENEZUELA Officials have released two Chevron employees who were arrested in April amid a national anti-corruption investigation.