World briefs

MALAYSIA’s leader said yesterday that he hoped China would sympathize with his country’s fiscal problems as he met with the country’s leaders after suspending multibillion-dollar construction projects financed by Chinese loans. 

INDONESIA Multiple strong earthquakes killed at least a dozen people on the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Sumbawa as the region was trying to recover from a temblor earlier this month that killed hundreds of people. 

INDIA Thousands of people in flood-ravaged south India waded yesterday through muck and mud to begin the immense task of cleaning their homes and businesses.

IRAN’s oil minister said yesterday that France’s oil giant Total SA has officially pulled out of Iran after cancelling its USD5 billion, 20-year agreement to develop the country’s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field over renewed U.S. sanctions.

AFGHANISTAN Government forces launched a lightning operation in northern Kunduz province yesterday, rescuing 149 people, including women and children, abducted by the Taliban just hours earlier. 

TURKEY Shots were fired from a moving car at the U.S. Embassy in Turkey before dawn yesterday, an attack that came during heightened tensions between the two NATO allies. 

POLAND has used its powers as a European Union member to ban a Ukrainian human rights activist from all 26 countries in Europe’s Schengen area, saying she poses a security threat.

SPAIN A man pleaded to be let into a locked police station in Barcelona before dawn yesterday, then lunged with a knife at officers inside. Police shot him dead and the attack is being investigated for any links to terror, authorities said.

MEXICO Political leaders from Mexico’s main heroin-producing state are pushing the federal government to legalize opium production for pharmaceutical use in a move they hope will reduce violence and help local farmers.

VENEZUELA yesterday began to launch dramatic reforms announced by President Nicolas Maduro to rescue a downward-spiraling economy, including a new currency and a more-than-3,000 percent hike in the minimum wage.