World News at a Glance

Journalist Detained in Saudi Consulate in Istanbul

A veteran journalist from Saudi Arabia who has become a sharp critic of the country’s leadership was detained Tuesday in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to his fiancée and a close friend. The journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, entered the consulate at about 1:30 p.m. to obtain a document he needed to get married, his friend, Turkish journalist Turan Kislakci, said in a phone interview. After 9 p.m., more than five hours after the consulate had closed, his friend and fiancée were still waiting outside the consulate for Khashoggi to come out.

A Greek Refugee Camp’s Epidemic of Misery

He survived torture in Congo, and a perilous boat journey from Turkey. But Michael Tamba, a former Congolese political prisoner, came closest to death only after he had supposedly found sanctuary at Europe’s biggest refugee camp. Stuck for months at the camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, Tamba, 31, tried to end his life by drinking a bottle of bleach. The trigger: Camp Moria itself. Tamba’s experience has become a common one at Moria, a camp of around 9,000 people living in a space designed for 3,100, where squalid conditions and an inscrutable asylum process have led to what aid groups describe as a mental health crisis.

U.S. and Chinese Warships Narrowly Avoid High-Seas Collision

The United States and China traded new accusations over naval operations in the South China Sea on Tuesday after warships from each country came close to colliding in the disputed waters. The Pentagon accused the Chinese navy of using “an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver” when one of its destroyers challenged a U.S. destroyer, the USS Decatur, as it sailed Sunday near one of the disputed islets that China claims in the Spratly archipelago. The Chinese ship “conducted a series of aggressive maneuvers,” coming within 45 yards of the bow of the Decatur, a guided-missile cruiser on what the Pentagon described as a routine mission in international waters.

A Mass Burial Every Day: 1,200 Dead, and Counting, in Indonesia

The cemetery on the eastern side of Palu in Indonesia has become a focal point for the city’s grief as it slowly tries to recover from the magnitude-7.5 quake and the devastating tsunami that it set off. Officials said Tuesday that at least 1,234 people had died, including 120 foreigners. Others, still uncounted, lie in the rubble of ruined buildings or were swept away by the tsunami, which in some places reached a height of more than 20 feet. Nearly 6,400 personnel from an array of government agencies were involved in efforts to find survivors, recover bodies and evacuate people from the stricken area, officials said.

For Just the Third Time in 117 Years, a Woman Wins the Nobel Prize in Physics

Since 1901, when the annual Nobel Prize in physics was first awarded, it has been given almost exclusively to men. Women had won the award exactly twice. That changed this week when the number rose to three. Donna Strickland, an associate professor of physics at the University of Waterloo, received the prize Tuesday for her work on high-intensity laser pulses. Strickland, 59, shared the award with French physicist Gérard Mourou, 74, with whom she was working as a graduate student when they published a groundbreaking scientific paper in 1985; and Arthur Ashkin, 96, a U.S. scientist who pioneered a way of using light to manipulate physical objects.

Tainted Bootleg Alcohol Kills Dozens and Poisons Hundreds in Iran

Poisonous batches of bootleg alcohol have killed at least 42 people, blinded more than a dozen others and sent hundreds to the hospital across Iran in recent weeks, the country’s Health Ministry said. The police are said to have raided at least one underground distillery and arrested dozens of people in connection with the tainted drinks. The youngest victim was a 19-year-old woman, the BBC reported. It was not clear what was in the concoctions. In the past, authorities have blamed high levels of methanol — a simple alcohol used as an antifreeze and for biofuels — for contaminating drinks.

U.S. Bans Diplomatic Visas for Foreign Same-Sex Domestic Partners

The Trump administration will no longer issue family visas to same-sex domestic partners of foreign diplomats or employees of international organizations who work in the United States, State Department officials said Tuesday. The shift drew sharp criticism from gay rights advocates, including those who work for the United Nations. It also applies to people working in the United States for the World Bank, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other groups. Under the new State Department rules, foreign couples will need to present proof of marriage to obtain the diplomatic family visas. But only a small number of the U.N.'s 193 member states have legalized same-sex marriage.