World briefs

JAPAN For his last time, Japan’s Emperor Akihito addressed a memorial service yesterday marking the end of World War II. Once again, he expressed “deep remorse” for the war.

SOUTH CHINA SEA The Philippine president said that China’s claim to airspace above newly built islands and surrounding waters in the disputed South China Sea “is wrong” and Beijing should not tell others to leave those areas to avoid possible clashes. 

INDONESIA is deploying 100,000 police and soldiers to provide security for the Asian Games, the biggest event ever held in its terror attack prone capital Jakarta.

AUSTRALIA A senator is being condemned for his speech in Parliament advocating reviving a white-only immigration policy and using the term “final solution” in calling for a vote on which migrants to admit into the country.

INDIA will send a manned flight into space by 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced yesterday as part of India’s independence day celebrations.

AFGHANISTAN A suicide bomber targeted students preparing for university exams in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul yesterday, killing at least 48 people and wounding 67 in an attack blamed on the Islamic State group, officials said.

TURKEY said yesterday it is increasing tariffs on some U.S. products like cars, alcohol, and coal — a move that is unlikely to have much economic impact but highlights the deteriorating relations with the U.S.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE Israel yesterday opened its only cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip weeks after closing it amid a surge in violence with the Islamic militant group Hamas.

RUSSIA The Defense Ministry said yesterday it is coordinating efforts to help Syrian refugees return home and rebuild the country’s infrastructure destroyed by the civil war.

BRITAIN Detectives searched several properties as they built up a profile yesterday of a Sudan-born man who crashed a car outside Britain’s Parliament in what police are treating as an act of terrorism.

MEXICO Federal prosecutors investigating the alleged forced disappearances of 36 people in the northern Mexico border city of Nuevo Laredo have inspected a marine base in the city.

VENEZUELA An estimated 2.3 million Venezuelans had fled the crisis-wracked country as of June, mainly to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, the United Nations said.