World briefs

VIETNAM’s rubber stamp National Assembly elected Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong as the country’s president yesterday. The 74-year-old Trong is the first Vietnamese leader to hold the two positions since founding President Ho Chi Minh in the 1960s. 

KOREA South Korea’s liberal president yesterday formally confirmed his recent reconciliation deals with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, triggering immediate backlash from conservatives who called him “self-righteous” and “subservient” to the North. 

INDIA The number of Zika virus cases has crossed 100 in Rajasthan, a state in northern India where palaces and forts draw large numbers of tourists each year. The agency says that the new cases come amid a state health department investigation to track the outbreak of Zika.

RUSSIA The Kremlin said yesterday that U.S. President Donald Trump took “a dangerous position” by deciding to abandon an existing nuclear weapons treaty with Russia without offering anything to replace it. Trump has restated his threat to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because of alleged Russia violations.

SYRIA The top U.S. commander for the Middle East made an unannounced visit to a key military outpost in southern Syria, pressing the need for a continued U.S. presence there to root out remaining Islamic State fighters and serve as leverage against growing Iranian activity in the region.

ISRAEL marked the 70th anniversary of its first diplomatic mission as a new nation yesterday with a re-enactment in the city that hosted the outpost — Warsaw, Poland.

HUNGARY’s prime minister has repeated his claims that the leadership of the European Union wants to create a “European empire” which would subjugate the continent’s nation-states.

ITALY The European Commission yesterday rejected Italy’s proposed budget — the first time it has ever done so with a member state — as it argues the populist government’s spending plans for next year are out of line and would break promises to lower public debt.

BRAZIL Three supreme court justices criticized the son of presidential front-runner Jair Bolsonaro for saying that Brazil’s top court could be closed if it tried to remove his father from the presidency.

COSTA RICA Four American tourists and a Costa Rican guide were killed in a weekend rafting accident in the Central American country, authorities said.