World briefs

CHINA’s President Xi Jinping pledged more than USD23 billion in lines of credit, loans and humanitarian assistance to Arab countries yesterday in a major push for influence in the region from which China sources much of its energy needs.

JAPAN’s top government spokesman says at least 155 people have been confirmed dead from the recent heavy rains, floods and mudslides that had struck western Japan. 

AUSTRALIA-BRITAIN Australia’s foreign minister says her government is determined to push ahead with free trade talks with Britain despite Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s resignation. 

INDIA Government forces fired at protesters yesterday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing a teenage boy and wounding at least 120 more who had been trying to reach the site of a gunbattle in which soldiers killed two rebels, police and residents said.

ISRAEL The United Nations has criticized Israel’s closure of its only cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip. U.N. Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov issued a statement yesterday urging Israel to reverse its decision, saying he was “concerned about the consequences” of the closure.

SYRIA Government forces have surrounded rebel-held parts of the city of Daraa as part of their offensive in the southwestern province, activists said.

SOUTH SUDAN, the world’s youngest nation, has canceled Independence Day celebrations for the third year in a row as its devastating civil war grinds on.

GERMANY Families of those killed by a neo-Nazi group that sought to terrorize migrants in Germany called yesterday for the investigation into the case to continue, even as the trial of its only known surviving member and four supporters draws to a close this week.

BRITAIN Peter Carington, a long-serving British politician who was the last survivor of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s government, has died, the government said yesterday. He was 99.

NICARAGUA Masked supporters of Nicaragua’s government attacked a group of Roman Catholic priests led by Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes as they arrived to help anti-government protesters trapped inside a church.

BRAZIL President Michel Temer has named a former judge to lead the Labor Ministry following the suspension of the previous minister amid a fraud investigation.