Drought kills 110 people in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s prime minister said Saturday that 110 people have died from hunger in the past 48 hours in a single region — the first death toll announced in a severe drought threatening millions of people.

Somalia’s government declared the drought a national disaster on Tuesday. The United Nations estimates that 5 million people in this Horn of Africa nation need aid, amid warnings of a full-blown famine.

Somalia was one of four regions singled out by the U.N. secretary-general last month in a $4.4 billion aid appeal to avert catastrophic hunger and famine, along with northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.

GM deal to sell Opel

FRANKFURT, Germany — The French maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars is expected to announce Monday that it will acquire General Motors’ Opel unit, in what amounts to a high-risk bet on the sluggish European market at a moment of political uncertainty.

A General Motors official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal, confirmed the sale Saturday. Earlier, PSA Group, the parent company of Peugeot and Citroen, said it would hold a joint news conference with GM on Monday in Paris. The two companies said last month that they were in talks for PSA to acquire Opel, GM’s European unit.

The deal would vault the combined company into second place in Europe behind Volkswagen. And it would allow General Motors to shed a perennially moneylosing division.

Both PSA and Opel are focused heavily on Europe, where car sales peaked almost two decades ago and where populist movements are threatening to dismantle the single market.

Ambassador expelled

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia said it expelled North Korea’s ambassador Saturday for refusing to apologize for his strong accusations over Malaysia’s handling of the investigation into the killing of the North Korean leader’s half brother.

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said a notice was sent to the North Korean Embassy at 6 p.m. declaring Ambassador Kang Chol persona non grata. The notice said Mr. Kang must leave Malaysia within 48 hours.

Earlier in the week, Malaysia demanded North Korea formally apologize for Mr. Kang’s accusations over the investigation into the Feb. 13 killing of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur’s airport, including that “the Malaysian government had something to hide and that Malaysia has colluded with outside powers to defame” North Korea, Mr. Anifah said in a statement.

He said no apology had come and none seemed forthcoming, and that North Korean Embassy officials failed to turn up for a meeting Saturday, so Malaysia decided to expel the ambassador.

Officials tour carrier

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine defense chief and two other Cabinet members on Saturday toured a U.S. aircraft carrier patrolling the disputed South China Sea on the invitation of the Navy, U.S. Embassy officials said.

The visit shows continuing top-level engagements between Philippine officials and the U.S. military despite Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to scale back engagements with American forces while reaching out to China and Russia. There was no immediate reaction from China, which had opposed U.S. patrols in waters it has claimed virtually in its entirety.