World briefs

SOUTH CHINA SEA The Philippines notified China about a Philippine navy frigate that ran aground in the South China Sea to avoid any misunderstanding because the incident happened near a hotly disputed region, Philippine officials said.

PHILIPPINES Suspected Muslim militants yesterday detonated a second bomb in less than a week in a southern Philippine town, killing at least one and wounding 15, a military official said.

IRAN’s elite Revolutionary Guard is saying its forces have killed four members of a terrorist group in the country’s south.

SOMALIA At least six people were killed, including two children, after a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a district headquarters in Somalia’s capital.

RUSSIA Rallies were again held throughout the country yesterday to protest a government plan to raise the age for receiving state pensions.

SYRIA A string of powerful blasts from the direction of a military airport in Damascus lit up the skies and shook the capital city in the early morning hours yesterday.

UKRAINE A blast in a war-themed cafe in eastern Ukraine has killed the most prominent leader of the Russia-backed separatists who have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014.

GERMANY’s foreign minister told his fellow countrymen yesterday that they’re too lazy when it comes to battling racism and fighting for democracy.

NETHERLANDS Dutch police say detectives continue to question a 19-year-old Afghan man suspected of stabbing two American tourists at Amsterdam’s main railway station in what is being investigated as an extremist attack.

BRITAIN’s prime minister has again spoken out against calls for a second referendum on Britain’s decision to split with the European Union, saying it would be a “gross betrayal of our democracy” to have another vote.

BRAZIL’s main leftist party said it’s sticking with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as its presidential candidate even though the electoral court has thrown him off the ballot for an election just five weeks away.

COLOMBIA Authorities said that two former rebel leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have abandoned their camps, raising fears they could abandon a fragile peace process that ended five decades of internal conflict.