World News at a Glance

Calls to Monitor Anti-Immigrant Party in Germany

German politicians have called on domestic intelligence officials to place the nationalist Alternative for Germany party under surveillance on suspicion of undermining the country’s constitution, as it stokes resentments against immigrants and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s immigration policies. Demands for surveillance grew in recent days after images spread of leading party members marching beside supporters of the anti-Islam Pegida movement in the eastern city of Chemnitz. The political debate came amid more anger on Monday over the sentencing of a young migrant, believed to be from Afghanistan, to 8 1/2 years in prison for killing his 15-year-old German ex-girlfriend.

In Malaysia, Two Women Are Punished With Caning

Two Malaysian women accused of pursuing a sexual relationship were caned in an Islamic court on Monday, setting off an outcry from rights groups who said the country’s political transformation this year had done little to ensure equal treatment of all citizens. The women, who were convicted of “sexual relations between women,” were each struck six times with a rattan cane in front of witnesses in the Shariah High Court in the state of Terengganu, officials said. Rights groups assailed the new government for discrimination against gay men and lesbians and for continuing to allow a form of corporal punishment outlawed in most of the world.

Second Insider Attack Kills Service Member in Afghanistan

One U.S. service member was killed and another wounded in eastern Afghanistan on Monday in what officials described as an apparent insider attack. The attack is the second episode in less than two months in which a U.S. service member was killed by an Afghan security member. The U.S. military, which disclosed the death in a statement Monday, did not provide additional details. The Pentagon, which said that the wounded service member is in stable condition, did not identify either service member, pending family notification. Afghan officials said the attack happened just after noon at Forward Operating Base Shank, in Logar province southeast of Kabul.

Brazil Museum Fire Leaves Ashes, Recrimination and Little Else

The stately National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, once home to the royal family, was still smoldering at sunrise Monday when researchers, museum workers and anthropologists began gathering outside, dressed in black. Some sobbed as they began taking stock of the irreplaceable losses: Perhaps millions of artifacts had been lost Sunday night in a devastating fire. The hall that held a 12,000-year-old skeleton known as Luzia, the oldest human remains discovered in the Americas, was destroyed. Hundreds of residents joined them, not only to mourn but also to protest Brazil’s near-abandonment of museums and other basic public services. “It’s a moment of intense pain,” said Maurilio Oliveira, a paleoartist.

Sweden Was Long Seen as a ‘Moral Superpower.’ That May Be Changing.

As an angry and divided Sweden prepares to vote Sunday, the shape of the next Swedish government is utterly unclear, because of the rapid rise of the anti-immigration, anti-Europe Sweden Democrats, a populist nationalist party that is expected to win a fifth of the vote. Sweden, long considered “a moral superpower,” as political scientist Lars Tragardh put it, has traditionally welcomed immigrants. But that is changing under the pressure of globalization, immigration and anxiety about national and cultural identity. As in Germany and France, parties of the extremes, of the left and especially of the right, are increasing their support at the expense of those that have traditionally dominated.

Is There a Spy Camera in That Bathroom? In Seoul, 8,000 Workers Will Check

In hidden corners across South Korea, tiny cameras are surreptitiously recording thousands of women when they are at their most vulnerable. Women have come to fear that cameras could be anywhere: perched inside the toilet bowl of a public restroom, or disguised as a smoke detector in a shop’s fitting room. In Seoul, the capital, the proliferation of such hidden cameras — and the images they record, which often end up on pornographic websites — has often been described by reporters as an epidemic. The city announced a crackdown Sunday, increasing the number of municipal employees assigned to search public bathrooms for hidden cameras.

She Thought Pole Dancing at Kindergarten Was a Great Idea. Others Disagreed.

At the start of a new school year, a kindergarten principal in southern China thought dance performances would make a grand welcome. They would include jazz and traditional Chinese dance, she said. There would also would be a strutting, shimmying pole dancer. “The goal was to get the kids to learn more about one variety of dance,” Lai Rong, the principal, told one Chinese news outlet. The internet in China lit up with video of the pole dance performance Monday at the Xinshahui Kindergarten in Shenzhen, accompanied by outrage and wonderment that anyone would think pole dancing was a reassuring way to greet children starting a new semester.