World Briefs

CHINA-JAPAN Around 500 Japanese business leaders will accompany Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when he visits Beijing this week, amid an ongoing China-U.S. trade feud that is hurting industries on both sides.

PHILIPPINES A court yesterday rejected a petition by President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration to have his fiercest critic in the Senate arrested, in a legal setback for Duterte that the senator called a victory for democracy. “The rule of law won and democracy won,” a beaming Antonio Trillanes IV (pictured) told a news conference at the Senate, adding that he was prepared to be arrested. 

KOREA The two Koreas have completed removing land mines planted at their shared border village as part of efforts to disarm the area located inside the world’s most heavily fortified border, South Korean officials said yesterday. 

AUSTRALIA Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered a formal apology yesterday to Australia’s victims of child sex abuse, saying the nation must acknowledge their long, painful journey and its failure to protect them.

IRAN’s state TV is reporting that the Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences for two individuals convicted of financial crimes.

SAUDIA ARABIA The killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul is unlikely to halt Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power, but could cause irreparable harm to relations with Western governments and businesses, potentially endangering his ambitious reform plans. 

SYRIA An airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group targeted a mosque in Syria last week because it was determined to be an insurgent command-and-control center, the U.S. said.

SPAIN A firefighter died while emergency services responded to flash floods caused by heavy rain in southern Spain, authorities said.

VENEZUELA’s chief prosecutor said he is investigating police officers who failed to keep safe an opposition politician who plunged from the 10th floor of a high-security building, even as he rejected calls for an independent probe into the suspicious death.

MEXICO Hurricane Willa grew into a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm and swept toward Mexico’s Pacific coast with winds of 160 mph yesterday, threatening a stretch of high-rise resort hotels, surfing beaches and fishing villages.