World briefs

SOUTH CHINA SEA Vietnam strongly protested China’s launch of weather stations in the disputed Spratly islands, saying yesterday they seriously violate Vietnam’s sovereignty and complicate the situation in the South China Sea.

TAIWAN‘s president yesterday commissioned a pair of guided missile frigates that are expected to boost the island’s ability to counter Chinese submarines amid rising military threats from Beijing.

THAILAND‘s Supreme Court has restored a 37-year prison term given to a gunman convicted of shooting four people during 2014 political violence.

INDIA Maoist rebels blew up a bus yesterday, killing four civilians and a paramilitary soldier, in a central Indian state where legislative elections are to be held next week.

PAKISTAN A Christian woman acquitted after eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy was released but her whereabouts in Islamabad yesteday remained a closely guarded secret in the wake of demands by radical Islamists that she be publicly executed.

IRAN‘s oil minister yesterday predicted a painful time ahead for international oil customers as U.S. sanctions take hold, saying waivers that Washington granted to eight major oil-importing countries are not enough for market demands.

SYRIA Opposition activists and paramedics are reporting that two blasts in rebel-held parts of northern Syria have inflicted casualties.

POLAND‘s Defense Ministry will handle security during an Independence Day march this weekend in Warsaw as police are staging mass walkouts in a pay dispute that has created concerns about keeping people safe.

FRANCE A French judge has extended the detention of six people arrested this week on suspicion of plotting to attack French President Emmanuel Macron.

ECUADOR Medical workers were evaluating former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas convicted in Latin America’s biggest graft scandal following a health scare after more than two weeks on a hunger strike, authorities said.

US Using a smoke bomb and a handgun, a hooded gunman dressed all in black opened fire during “college night” at a country music bar in Southern California, killing 12 people and sending hundreds fleeing in terror, authorities said yesterday. The gunman was later found dead.