World briefs

CHINA Emergency services said yesterday that about 6,000 people were evacuated after a landslide in Tibet blocked the flow of one of the region’s key rivers, creating a lake that could endanger downstream areas in India.

VIETNAM A prominent Vietnamese blogger sent into exile in the United States says her reunion with her family after two years in prison is proof she is not alone in speaking for freedom. 

PHILIPPINES Close allies of President Rodrigo Duterte have resigned from his Cabinet to run in elections next year that will test his popularity and could determine his future political influence. Among those running in the May 13 elections are Duterte’s former foreign secretary, his spokesman (pictured), his political adviser and a longtime aide. 

RUSSIA An 18-year-old student strode into his vocational school in Crimea, a hoodie covering his blond hair, then pulled out a shotgun and opened fire, killing 19 students and wounding more than 50 others before killing himself.

AFGHANISTAN Officials say three top Kandahar province officials have been killed by their own guards in an attack at a security meeting that also wounded two U.S. troops.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE A high-level Egyptian delegation has held urgent talks with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, seeking to restore calm after a rocket from the Palestinian area slammed into a home in southern Israel and the Israeli military responded with airstrikes on Hamas targets.

EU European Union leaders agreed yesterday to push ahead with plans to boost cooperation with North African countries and beef up the bloc’s borders in an effort to stop migrants entering Europe.

BRITAIN Prime Minister Theresa May came under attack from across Britain’s political spectrum yesterday after saying she’s considering a European Union proposal that would keep the U.K. bound to the bloc’s rules for more than two years after it leaves in March.

BRAZIL’s presidential candidates are wooing church leaders ahead of a runoff in this deeply religious country with sizable Catholic and evangelical populations.

PERU’s opposition leader Keiko Fujimori was freed by an appeals judge late Wednesday, a week after she was arrested in an ongoing money laundering investigation.