World briefs

MYANMAR’s government should expedite restitution for past illegal confiscations of land, an international human rights group said yesterday, detailing how previous land seizures there are still causing farmers harm even under the civilian-led government of Aung San Suu Kyi. 

INDONESIA Police have killed 11 suspected petty criminals and shot dozens more in a heavy-handed campaign to free the capital, Jakarta, of street crime before next month’s Asian Games.

INDIA’s government has ordered inspections of all centers run by Mother Teresa’s charity following the arrest of a nun and a worker at one of its shelters for unwed mothers for allegedly selling a baby.

AFGHANISTAN An Islamic State suicide bomber killed 20 people in northern Afghanistan yesterday, including a Taliban commander.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE Israel placed new restrictions on its only cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip yesterday in response to continued Hamas hostilities, even after it agreed to a cease-fire ending 24 hours of intense fighting.

POLAND Officials in central Poland have halted improvements at a city park after archeologists found possibly tens of thousands of remains at the site of an old Evangelical cemetery that were supposed to have been exhumed and moved in the 1950s.

ITALY’s populist government is hoping to convince the European Union to lift sanctions against Russia but won’t rule out using its veto if diplomacy fails.

SPAIN’s Maritime Rescue Service says at least 328 people have been rescued in the Mediterranean Sea despite strong currents in the Strait of Gibraltar area, the closest stretch of water separating Europe from North Africa.

BRAZIL Police in Rio de Janeiro say one officer was wounded in the leg after forces came under fire during a shift change in a slum neighborhood. In response, elite police units are patrolling the Alemao complex. The confrontation comes a day after five people died in a shootout with police in the neighborhood.

VENEZUELA A former official at a state-run electric company in Caracas, Venezuela, has pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy relating to an alleged multibillion-dollar graft scheme in the Venezuelan oil industry.

US Members of Congress are warning that newspapers in their home states are in danger of cutting coverage or going out of business if the U.S. maintains recently imposed tariffs on Canadian newsprint.