World Briefs

ASEAN Leaders of Southeast Asian nations have again pushed back an agreement on a pan-Asian free trade deal amid a whirlwind of diplomacy yesterday at their annual summit. 

CAMBODIA A court has charged 18 people, including 11 pregnant women, with violating laws against surrogate births. A spokesman for the court said the 11 women and four other people were charged with surrogacy and human trafficking. Three more people were charged with conspiracy but did not appear.

INDONESIA Ten Indonesian fishermen arrested in Hawaii are accused of trying to smuggle nearly 1,000 shark fins to Indonesia. They had been working on a Japanese-flagged boat and were headed home via Honolulu when airport security workers found shark fins in their luggage.

BANGLADESH Authorities said they are ready to begin repatriating some of the more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled from army-led violence in Myanmar since last year, but refugees scheduled to leave said they would refuse to go because of fears for their safety.

YEMEN An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition killed at least seven civilians in Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida, Yemeni security and medical officials said yesterday.

GREECE Civil servants in Greece walked off the job yesterday in a 24-hour strike to protest austerity measures, demanding wage and pension increases as well as the abolition of all legislation as part of the country’s international bailouts.

ITALY Borrowing costs nudged higher yesterday after the populist government resubmitted draft budget proposals without the significant changes sought by the European Commission.

FRANCE A man who doused himself with wine and tried to self-immolate on a train and waved a phone showing images of armed combatants is being held by French police on a potential terrorism charge.

US Having spent a fortune to help elect Democrats this fall, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared lifetime allegiance to the Democratic Party and outlined an aggressive timeline for deciding whether to run for president.

COLOMBIA Authorities moved homeless Venezuelan migrants to a soccer field filled with yellow tents and cots Tuesday, as the number of migrants fleeing their nation’s economic and humanitarian calamity has risen.