Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Man charged with abducting Australian girl flown to maximum security jail

The man charged with abducting a four-year-old girl from an outback campsite in Western Australia was flown 600 miles (960 km) to a maximum security prison in Perth on Friday, the state’s Justice Department said. TV footage showed the 36-year-old man walking shackled and barefoot from a police car to a light plane at an airstrip in the town of Carnarvon where Cleo Smith was found alive and well on Wednesday, 18 days after going missing.

South Korea’s ex-top prosecutor to challenge Moon’s party in 2022 presidential election

South Korea’s main opposition party on Friday chose a former top prosecutor as its presidential candidate, hoping to ride voter anger over rising home prices and corruption scandals involving President Moon Jae-in’s party to victory in a 2022 election. Yoon Seok-youl, who served as prosecutor-general until March after being appointed by Moon in 2019, was picked at a party convention to represent the People Power Party in the March 9, 2022 presidential election.

Nine Ethiopian groups to form anti-government alliance

Nine anti-government factions are forming an alliance to push for a political transition in Ethiopia, two of the groups said on Friday, piling more pressure on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as rebel forces advance towards the capital. Several of the factions have armed fighters although it was not clear whether they all do.

Way to avoid Art.16 is to agree on Irish trade, says UK Brexit negotiator

Britain will not trigger the Article 16 emergency provision on Friday, its negotiator said on arriving for talks with the European Union’s Brexit pointman aimed at overcoming disagreements over trade across the Irish border. Article 16 is a measure allowing for unilateral action by either the EU or the UK if they deem their agreement governing post-Brexit trade is having a strongly negative impact.

Call for review of Thai royal insults law sparks rare debate

Nine political parties in Thailand have taken a position on reform of a strict royal insults law in recent days, bringing into the mainstream a controversial debate that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The catalyst for the discussion has been a youth-led anti-government protest movement that emerged late last year and openly called for a reform of the monarchy – a bold move in a country that traditionally upholds the king as semi-divine and above criticism.

China says it will hold supporters of Taiwan’s independence criminally responsible for life

China will make people who support Taiwan independence criminally liable for life, a spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on Friday. This is the first time that China has spelt out concretely punishment for people deemed to be pro-Taiwan independence, as tensions rise between the mainland and the self-ruled island China claims as its own.

Czech president opens way to opposition gov’t, feels fit to finish term

Czech President Milos Zeman expects to appoint opposition leader Petr Fiala as the new prime minister, the president said in his first public remarks since the country’s Oct. 8-9 parliamentary election. Zeman, who was rushed to intensive care at the Prague the Central Military Hospital on Oct. 10 with undisclosed diagnosis,

The party’s over: Diwali leaves Delhi wheezing in dangerously unhealthy air

New Delhi residents woke up on Friday under a blanket of smog darkening the city, the most dangerous air pollution of the year after Diwali revellers defied – as usual – a fireworks ban during India’s annual Hindu festival of lights. New Delhi has the worst air quality of all world capitals, but even by its sorry standards Friday’s reading – the morning after the end of Diwali – was extra bad, the price for celebrating India’s biggest festival in the noisiest and smokiest way.

EXCLUSIVE-New Hong Kong university classes set out dangers of breaking security law

Last month, several thousand Hong Kong university students, some of them under the watch of a CCTV camera, were the first to take compulsory courses on the territory’s national security law. The content of the courses, some of which Reuters has seenexclusively, sets out the dangers of breaking the law, in onecase demonstrating how a message in a chat group could beinterpreted as a serious breach, punishable by up to life inprison.

Could Ethiopia’s capital fall to Tigrayan and allied forces?

Rebellious forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region have pushed to within a day’s drive of the capital Addis Ababa and are threatening to march on the city of 5 million people. But any denouement to the year-long war could take far longer to play out.

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