World briefs

PHILIPPINES The largest lawyers’ group in the Philippines asked the country’s courts yesterday to resist “creeping incursions” on their independence after the president voided an amnesty for an opposition senator and ordered his arrest. 

CAMBODIA The leader of Cambodia’s now dissolved opposition party was freed on highly restrictive bail yesterday after being jailed for a year on a treason charge, the latest government opponent to be released since Prime Minister Hun Sen’s landslide election victory. 

NORTH KOREA Tens of thousands of North Korean students rallied in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square last night in the final major event of the country’s 70th anniversary.

AFGHANISTAN Taliban insurgents launched separate attacks on Afghan security forces in the country’s north, killing at least 52, provincial officials said yesterday.

IRAQ A sense of calm has returned to Iraq’s southern city of Basra after a week of violent protests over unemployment and poor public services that left at least 15 people dead and threatened stability in the oil-rich region.

GREECE Regional authorities are threatening to shut a migrant camp on the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos unless the government takes quick action to improve conditions there.

LIBYA Security forces loyal to Libya’s U.N.-backed government yesterday stormed the headquarters of the country’s national oil company in the capital Tripoli shortly after gunmen invaded the building, shooting randomly, setting off explosions and taking hostages.

SWEDEN was looking at weeks of uncertainty and complex coalition talks after the country’s two rival blocs failed to secure a clear governing majority in elections. However, both have vowed not to work with the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigrant party with roots in a neo-Nazi movement. 

FRANCE Petanque players in Paris who helped in the apprehension of a knife-wielding man have been lauded yesterday for their bravery as French authorities opened a murder investigation into the attacks that saw seven people injured.