Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Malaysia says it won’t compromise on demands for Myanmar progress

Malaysia does not want Myanmar’s junta chief to attend an upcoming Southeast Asian leaders’ summit if he fails to honour his commitment to a peace plan, its foreign minister said on Friday, ahead of a meeting to decide on a regional response.

The minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, said he was informed Erywan Yusof, a special envoy for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), planned to visit Myanmar next week, and the bloc’s foreign ministers would hold a virtual meeting on Friday to assess the junta’s commitment to the peace process.

Norway bow-and-arrow attack likely linked to mental illness – police

The man who killed five people with a bow-and-arrow and other weapons in Norway was probably suffering from mental illness, police said on Friday. The attacker went on a half-hour rampage in the southern town of Kongsberg on Wednesday, assaulting people in the streets and forcing his way into houses and one supermarket.

British police says murder of lawmaker declared as a terrorist incident

The Metropolitan Police has said that the murder of British lawmaker David Amess in Essex on Friday has been declared as a terrorist incident, with the investigation being led by its Terrorism Command.

Two deaths shine spotlight on violence against women in Kenya

Cynthia Makokha was a 17-year-old student and volleyball player. Agnes Tirop was a 25-year-old rising athletics star, who finished fourth in the 5,000m race at the Tokyo Olympics and had won two World Championship bronze medals. Both women were found dead in Kenya this week, and while their murders are not linked they have shone a spotlight on violence against women, which the government says has grown worse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brazil pandemic probe to recommend Bolsonaro face 11 criminal charges, senator says

A Brazilian Senate probe into the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic will recommend in its final report due next week that President Jair Bolsonaro face 11 criminal charges, the senator leading the inquiry said on Friday, though it remains highly unlikely that he will face a trial on any such charges. Renan Calheiros said during a radio interview that the investigation launched in April has collected evidence to show that Bolsonaro should be formally charged with genocide against the country’s indigenous population, malfeasance, irregular use of public funds, violation of sanitary measures, incitement to crime and forgery of private documents, among other crimes.

Blast at Shi’ite mosque in Afghan city of Kandahar kills dozens

Suicide bombers attacked a Shi’ite mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing at least 35 people, the second week in a row that militants bombed Friday prayers and killed dozens of worshippers from the minority sect. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday’s attack in Kandahar, but Islamic State claimed the similar bombing a week earlier that killed scores of Shi’ites in the northern city of Kunduz.

German SPD chief Scholz moves closer to succeeding Merkel as chancellor

The leader of Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Olaf Scholz, took a major step towards succeeding Angela Merkel as chancellor on Friday, announcing that he and the leaders of two smaller parties aimed to move into formal coalition talks. The leaders of the SPD, who came first in last month’s election, the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) said exploratory talks had been constructive and allowed them to establish a road map for more formal negotiations.

China launches second crewed mission to build space station

China on Saturday launched a rocket carrying three astronauts, including one woman, to the core module of a future space station where they will live and work for six months, the longest-ever duration in orbit for Chinese astronauts. A Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft, which means “Divine Vessel” in Chinese, blasted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu at 12:23 a.m. Beijing time (1623 GMT on Friday).

U.S. military disputes Russia’s comments on naval interaction

Russia said one of its military vessels chased away a U.S. naval destroyer that attempted to violate Russian territorial waters during Russian-Chinese naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Friday, something Washington said was false. The U.S. military said the guided missile destroyer Chafee was conducting routine operations in international waters in the Sea of Japan when a Russian destroyer came within 65 yards (60 metres) of the American ship, though all interactions were safe and professional.

U.S. will accept mixed doses of vaccines from international travelers

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said late on Friday that it will accept mixed-dose coronavirus vaccines from international travelers, a boost to travelers from Canada and other places. The CDC said last week that it would accept any vaccine authorized for use by U.S. regulators or the World Health Organization. “While CDC has not recommended mixing types of vaccine in a primary series, we recognize that this is increasingly common in other countries so should be accepted for the interpretation of vaccine records,” a CDC spokeswoman said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)