Briefly

LEBANON

Ghosn banned from foreign travel

Lebanon banned former auto titan Carlos Ghosn from travel on Thursday and asked Japan to hand over his file on financial misconduct charges, as Tokyo urged the fugitive businessman to return. The 65-year-old fled while awaiting trial on charges including allegedly underreporting his compensation to the tune of $85 million. His shock arrival in his native Lebanon last month was the latest twist in a story worthy of a Hollywood plot and prompted outrage from the Japanese government as well as from Nissan. On Thursday morning, a day after Ghosn made an impassioned defense in front of world media of his decision to jump bail and flee Japan, he gave testimony to Lebanese prosecutors over an Interpol "red notice" urging his arrest.

NIGER

Suspected extremists kill 25 soldiers

Suspected extremist militants killed 25 soldiers and wounded six others in an attack on an army post in west Niger near its border with Mali on Thursday, the government said in a statement. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack on the post at Chinagodrar, about 200 kilometers north of the capital Niamey, in which 63 assailants were also killed. But the attack coincides with a campaign by extremist groups connected to al-Qaida and the Islamic State terror group to force the Nigerien army back from its western frontier with Mali where government control of the rural center and north has all but evaporated because of the rise of extremists.

JAPAN

Abe going ahead with Middle East visit

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is going ahead with a planned visit to the Middle East this weekend despite the crisis in the region, a government spokesman said on Friday. Abe will visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman from Saturday to Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. Japan is also expected to deploy a warship and a maritime reconnaissance aircraft to protect its shipping interests in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

FRANCE

Dozens arrested as clashes break out

Dozens of protesters were arrested on Thursday after clashes erupted at a Paris demonstration against President Emmanuel Macron's plan to overhaul the pension system, police said. In a live broadcast, BFMTV showed some hooded protesters dressed in black daubing anarchist slogans on the windows of several properties and smashing several others in addition to bus shelters. Police fired tear gas at protesters in Paris, where demonstrators hurled projectiles at officers and trailed smoke flares. Similar scuffles were reported in Nantes, western France.

AUSTRALIA

Thousands flee as winds fan fire threats

Thousands of people fled their homes and helicopters dropped supplies to towns at risk of nearby wildfires as hot, windy conditions on Friday threatened already fire-ravaged southeastern Australian communities. The danger is centered on New South Wales and Victoria, Australia's most populous states, where temperatures and wind speeds are escalating after a few days of relatively benign conditions. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service had warned that coastal towns south of Sydney could again be under threat weeks after losing homes to the fires. By early evening on Friday, the wildfires burning in that region were holding within containment lines, but a strong shift in winds predicted later could cause them to flare anew.