World briefs

CHINA-US China is ready to retaliate if U.S. President Donald Trump goes ahead with a tariff hike on Chinese goods and is confident it can maintain “steady and healthy” economic growth, a government spokesman said yesterday. 

CAMBODIA one-party legislature yesterday confirmed Prime Minister Hun Sen for another five-year term, cementing his status as one of the world’s longest-serving leaders.

PHILIPPINES A senator who has taken refuge in the Senate to avoid an arrest order by President Rodrigo Duterte asked the Supreme Court yesterday to declare the order illegal and called on the military to defy it.

AFGHANISTAN Twin bombings at a wrestling training center in a Shiite neighborhood of Afghanistan’s capital killed at least 20 people, including two reporters, and wounded 70, Afghan officials said.

JAPAN A powerful earthquake yesterday on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido triggered dozens of landslides that crushed houses under torrents of dirt, rocks and timber, prompting frantic efforts to unearth any survivors. 

SOUTH SUDAN A military judge yesterday sentenced 10 soldiers to jail for a 2016 rampage in which a local journalist was killed and five international aid workers were gang-raped.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE The Arab League has welcomed Paraguay’s decision to relocate its embassy from the contested city of Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv, saying the move serves as a model for other countries in the face of Israeli plans and U.S. pressure.

GERMANY Police in the state of Saxony said yesterday they have identified six far-right protesters who gave the stiff-armed Hitler salute or committed other violations at an anti-migrant protest last week.

FRANCE Police have moved into a makeshift migrant camp outside the northern port city of Dunkirk to clear out an estimated 500 people seeking to cross the English Channel to Britain.

US An explosive wildfire that closed down dozens of miles of a major California freeway nearly tripled in size overnight, just weeks after a nearby blaze that left neighborhoods in ruins and killed eight people, officials said yesterday.