Court sentences gay couple

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Two men accused of having sex with one another were each sentenced on Wednesday to 85 lashes in public, the first case of people being punished for homosexuality in the Indonesian province of Aceh under a strict version of Shari.

Indonesia’s reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam has been battered in the past year due to attacks on religious minorities, a surge in persecution of gays and a polarizing election campaign for governor of the capital, Jakarta, that highlighted the growing strength of hard-line Islamic groups.

Earlier this month, the outgoing Jakarta governor, a minority Christian, was sentenced to two years in prison for campaign comments deemed as blaspheming the Quran.

Island awash in trash

Henderson Island ought to be one of the most pristine places on Earth, but the atoll’s white sand beaches are littered with tons of multicolored plastic junk, deposited there by ocean currents.

A new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Jennifer Lavers, a research scientist at the University of Tasmania in Australia, and her colleagues estimated that there were 17.6 tons of debris on the shores of the tiny island.

The world produces that amount of plastic every 1.98 seconds, the researchers wrote.

Case may affect trade

BRUSSELS— In a case that could affect future relations between the European Union and Britain, the EU’s highest court said that key parts of a trade deal with Singapore must be approved by each member state, which would further complicate the bloc’s decision-making.

Alice Darling, a member of the trade team at London law firm Clifford Chance, said the judgment could make securing a U.K.-EU trade deal after Brexit a lengthy process.

Refugee camp closing

SYDNEY, Australia — The refugees and asylum seekers had been waiting in the detention camp in the hope of a fresh start in Australia, or perhaps some other country.

But on Monday, some of the residents said, they were told to prepare for a different outcome — the imminent shutdown of the camp.

Parts of the center, on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, will close in weeks, according to the detainees.

The rest of the compound, which was financed by the Australian government, will shut down later this year.

Also in the world ...

Stuttgart prosecutors said they’re investigating whether Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller and two others manipulated markets by not releasing information about VW’s diesel cheating soon enough. ... Vice President Yemi Osinbajo announced the escape of a young woman who was kidnapped by Boko Haram more than three years ago together with 276 others, during a federal executive council meeting in the capital, Abuja.