World Briefs

SOUTH CHINA SEA China’s ambassador to the United States has defended the Chinese navy’s action in a close encounter with a U.S. destroyer in the South China Sea, saying America’s warships are “on the offensive” near Chinese territory.

KOREA North and South Korea continued their push for peace yesterday with high-level talks that resulted in a host of agreements, including a plan by the rivals for a groundbreaking ceremony this year on an ambitious project to connect their railways and roads. 

NEPAL Rescuers hampered by difficult, remote terrain took two days to recover the bodies of nine climbers, including one of the world’s best, who hoped to map a new route to a Himalayan peak in Nepal that hasn’t been scaled in eight years.

BANGLADESH Editors of major daily newspapers in Bangladesh’s capital formed a human chain yesterday to protest a new digital security law they say will stifle freedom of speech and media freedom.

TURKEY A joint Saudi-Turkish team has entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to search it, nearly two weeks after the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It’s unclear what kind of search the officials will conduct and if it will involve forensics.

GERMANY Police stormed a pharmacy in Cologne’s main train station yesterday, freeing a woman who had been held hostage by a man for two hours, officials said. The suspect sustained life-threatening injuries.

FRANCE Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning waterways into raging torrents that killed at least 13 people, nine of them in just one town. People had to be helicoptered to safety from the roofs of their homes as overnight storms dumped the equivalent of several months of rain in just a few hours

PORTUGAL Four new ministers have taken office in the Portuguese government as the center-left Socialists look to freshen their administration a year before the next general election.

NICARAGUA A human rights group says two activists were forced off a plane for questioning by government officials in Managua amid rising tensions and detentions of dozens of anti-government protesters.