World briefs

CHINA An Australian citizen and former executive of the mining giant Rio Tinto was released from prison in Shanghai yesterday after serving a sentence on corruption charges, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

MALAYSIA Former Prime Minister Najib Razak was charged yesterday with criminal breach of trust and corruption, two months after a multibillion-dollar graft scandal at a state investment fund led to his stunning election defeat. 

INDIA’s government says it has asked WhatsApp to take “immediate action” to prevent the social media platform from being misused to spread rumors and irresponsible statements like those blamed for recent deadly mob attacks in the country. 

RUSSIA A committee of the Russian parliament has recommended the adoption of a proposed law that would require journalists working for media outlets designated as foreign agents to register as agents themselves.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE Israeli police are scuffling with activists protesting the planned demolition of a Bedouin hamlet in the West Bank.

TURKEY has issued a decree to adjust its current laws to a new presidential system that comes into effect with last month’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

ITALY Police have dismantled an international ring trafficking in what prosecutors allege are thousands of ancient artifacts illegally excavated in Sicily.

SPAIN A rescue ship carrying 60 migrants arrived yesterday in a Spanish port after being refused entry by Italy and Malta, the second time in a month that a humanitarian group has been forced to travel for days to unload people rescued in the central Mediterranean.

BRITAIN Counterterrorism police were investigating yesterday after two people were left in critical condition, exposed to an unknown substance a few miles from where a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent.

ECUADOR A judge ordered that former President Rafael Correa, who is out of the country, be jailed after failing to appear in court in connection with a probe into the kidnapping of an opposition lawmaker.

BRAZIL A measles outbreak is growing in Brazil after cases were imported from neighboring Venezuela where health services have collapsed.