Briefly

LIBYA

16 Turkish soldiers killed in fighting

Libya's eastern-based army said on Sunday that it had killed 16 Turkish soldiers in recent weeks, a day after Turkey acknowledged it had lost several "martyrs" in combat in the North African country. Khalid al-Mahjoub, a spokesman for the self-styled Libya National Army, or LNA, said the Turks were killed in battles near Tripoli. Turkey supports Libya's United Nations-backed Government of National Accord, or GNA, and has sent some of its own soldiers and weapons to help the Tripoli-based administration repel an attempt by the LNA to capture the city. Cease-fire talks between Libya's warring sides resumed on Thursday after the GNA had pulled out of negotiations following the shelling of Tripoli's port by LNA forces.

UNITED KINGDOM

Post-Brexit blue passports returning

Britain is preparing to reintroduce its blue passports from next month after almost three decades to mark its departure from the European Union, the British government said. Championed by Brexiteers, the distinctive blue cover documents will replace the standard-issue burgundy passports that were rolled out across EU countries from 1988. The first new blue passports will be issued and delivered early next month. By mid-2020, all new passports will be blue, said the government. As well as the color change, the back cover will also carry its own symbolic design－the floral emblems of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales embossed.

CHILE

Protests hit region's top music festival

Thousands of protesters armed with stones, sticks and Molotov cocktails clashed with police on Sunday as Latin America's biggest music festival opened, in the latest spurt of a four-month old wave of grassroots anger over economic inequality and other grievances. Police blocked the entrance to a park where the festival was being held. Officers used a helicopter and a balloon with surveillance cameras and drove back the protesters with water cannon and tear gas.

THAILAND

Ex-minister nabbed on murder charges

A former Thai Cabinet member and veteran member of Parliament was arrested on Sunday for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a brother of a senior judge of the Criminal Court. Banyin Tangpakorn was arrested by police in Nakhon Sawan Province, which he had represented as an MP, and brought to the Crime Suppression Division headquarters in Bangkok for interrogation. Banyin, who was arrested alongside two other suspects, was a deputy commerce minister in 2008.