World Briefs

HONG KONG China is allowing a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier and its battle group to make a port call in Hong Kong after it earlier turned down a similar request amid tensions with Washington. 

THAILAND A court yesterday sentenced three people to prison over the smuggling of nearly two dozen rhinoceros horns from Ethiopia worth USD1.5 million. 

PAPUA NEW GUINEA Disgruntled police, military and prison guards stormed Papua New Guinea’s Parliament yesterday in a violent pay dispute stemming from an international summit hosted by the impoverished South Pacific island nation over the weekend, a lawmaker said. 

KOREA North Korea yesterday blew up some of its front-line guard posts as part of an agreement to ease tensions along its heavily fortified border with South Korea, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said.

INDIA Assailants yesterday killed a prominent separatist leader in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials and residents said, as anti-India protests and clashes followed a gunbattle that killed four rebels and an army commando in the disputed region.

AFGHANISTAN A suicide bomber targeted a gathering of Muslim religious scholars in the Afghan capital yesterday, killing at least 40 people, Afghan officials said.

TURKEY The European Court of Human Rights yesterday called on Turkey to release the former head of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition from detention. Turkey’s president responded by claiming his country was not bound by the court’s rulings.

ITALY Rome city officials have sent in 600 police officers to evict a purported crime family from eight villas that were allegedly built without authorization decades ago.

SPAIN A commuter train traveling toward Barcelona was derailed by a landslide yesterday, killing one person and injuring dozens, Spanish authorities said. Firefighters and emergency workers evacuated 131 commuters and sent to hospital 11 of the 44 people injured. Three of them are seriously hurt, according to the civil protection agency.

BRAZIL’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has named Roberto Castello Branco, a pro-market reformer, as future chief executive of the country’s state-controlled oil company, Petrobras.

GUATEMALA About 4,000 residents fled Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire as red-hot rock and ash spewed into the sky and cascaded down the slopes toward an area devastated by a deadly eruption earlier this year.