UNITED STATES: Samsung and Apple agreed yesterday to end an incredible rash of patent lawsuits outside the US in a step back from three years of legal hostilities.

However, Samsung said that it and Apple will continue to pursue existing cases in US courts.

Lawsuits will come to an end in countries including Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and Australia.

CHINA: The death toll in the Yunnan earthquake has risen to 589 as search-and-rescue teams push into isolated mountain communities.

The provincial government said that more than 2,400 people had also been injured in Sunday’s 6.1 magnitude quake in the mountainous farming region.

It added that 230,000 people had been evacuated, while more than 80,000 homes had fully or partially collapsed.

MYANMAR: Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy said yesterday that it had collected nearly five million signatures in support of changing the constitution and challenging the military’s parliamentary dominance.

Ms Suu Kyi’s party has prioritised changing an article in the 2008 constitution that requires a 75 per cent parliamentary approval to amend the charter. The military occupies 25 per cent of the seats.

LEBANON: Clashes broke out yesterday in the border town of Arsal, which is being held by Islamists from neighbouring Syria.

A ceasefire broke down overnight after Islamists opened fire on Lebanese troops.

The pause had been mediated by Muslim clerics to end four days of fighting in Arsal and allow negotiations for the release of captive Lebanese soldiers.

Syrian militants overran Arsal on Saturday, capturing a number of soldiers and policemen.

RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin ordered government agencies yesterday to restrict imports of food and agricultural products from countries that have imposed sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

The decree says that such imports will be “banned or limited” for a year. Specific countries or products are not named but government agencies must spell them out.

ARGENTINA: Estela Carlotto, the 83-year-old leader of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo group, which has fought to find babies stolen during the 1976-1983 “dirty war,” finally found her long-lost grandson yesterday.

Her daughter, left-wing activist Laura Carlotto, was three months pregnant when she was taken to a prison camp in 1977.

She gave birth while in captivity but was killed two months after her son was born.

IRAQ: An Iraqi army air strike on the city of Mosul yesterday killed 60 fighters from the Islamic State group (Isis).

The dawn strike targeted a Mosul prison that was being used by Islamic State members as a religious court and detention facility.

Reports said 60 Isis fighters were killed in the strike and about 300 people who were in the militants’ custody were set free.

UNITED STATES: Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of orchestrating the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, have asked a judge to dismiss six of the 11 charges because of US hypocrisy.

Defence lawyers contend that the ruse of disguising an enemy watercraft as a friendly vessel is an acceptable form of naval warfare that the US employed during World War II.

Prosecutors countered that such an argument has been universally rejected as a criminal defence.