Briefly

UKRAINE

Kyiv blocks ex-leader from meeting Orban

Ukrainian border guards prevented former president Petro Poroshenko from leaving the country on Friday because he planned to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Kyiv's security services said. Poroshenko, in power from 2014 to 2019, had planned meetings abroad but said on Friday that his trip had to be canceled because he was turned away at the border. Ukraine's SBU security services said the former leader was turned back due to his planned meeting with Orban, an EU leader chided by Kyiv for his pro-Russian stance.

VENEZUELA

Citizens vote on future of disputed region

Venezuelans were voting on Sunday in a referendum to supposedly decide the future of a disputed region with neighboring Guyana. Guyana considers the referendum a step toward annexation, and the vote has its residents on edge. It asks Venezuelans whether they support establishing a state in the disputed territory known as Essequibo. Venezuela has considered Essequibo its own because the region was within its boundaries during the Spanish colonial period, and it has long disputed the border decided by international arbitrators in 1899, when Guyana was a British colony.

FRANCE

190 migrants rescued in English Channel

About 190 migrants have been rescued off the Calais coast in northern France since Friday night while trying to cross the English Channel on dinghies to reach Britain, local French authorities said on Saturday, without specifying from where the migrants had come. The channel is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and currents are strong.

Agencies Via Xinhua