World Briefs

CHINA’s premier sought yesterday to reassure its neighbors that Beijing will push ahead with reforms needed to support growth across the region and also keep the peace in contested waters in the South China Sea. 

MYANMAR Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed sharply criticized Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday for her handling of an ethnic crisis that led to mass killings and the exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from her country.

INDIA’s top court has agreed to re-examine a ruling that lifted a ban on women of menstruating age from entering a Hindu temple after near-constant protests backed by both India’s ruling party and the main opposition party.

OPEC and allied oil-producing countries will likely need to cut crude supplies, perhaps by as much as 1 million barrels of oil a day, to rebalance the market after U.S. sanctions on Iran failed to cut Tehran’s output, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said.

JORDAN’s state security court sentenced 10 defendants to prison yesterday, with terms ranging from three years to life, for their role in an Islamic State attack on a popular tourist site that killed 14 people, including a Canadian tourist.

RUSSIA Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was stopped at the border yesterday and barred from leaving Russia as he was about to travel to a court hearing at the European Court for Human Rights in France.

CZECH REPUBLIC The country’s billionaire prime minister (pictured) will face an ouster motion over a fraud investigation that took a new twist when his son claimed he’d been abducted to Crimea as his father tried to hide him from the probe.

ITALY’s premier yesterday hosted a meeting of Libya’s rival leaders on the sidelines of a conference aimed at helping its former colony crack down on Islamic militants and human trafficking.

US With Santa Ana winds returning and hundreds of homes in ashes, firefighters were struggling to corral a devastating Southern California wildfire that has ravaged scenic canyons and celebrity enclaves near the ocean. 

BRAZIL The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed deep concern over human rights in Brazil, saying it will monitor what happens when the government of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro assumes office Jan. 1.

ZIMBABWEAN consumer prices surged at their fastest pace since a hyperinflationary spiral a decade ago as the policies of the government led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa caused shortages of everything from fuel to consumer goods.