SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea, Japan and the United States will conduct joint military drills from September 9 to 11, South Korea said on Friday. The annual Freedom Edge drills, which are defensive in nature, will be held in international waters to the south and east of the South Korean southern island of Jeju, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The trilateral exercise comes after U.S. President Donald Trump scaled back a major joint exercise with South Korea and then the U.S. subsequently cancelled a joint Marine Corps drill scheduled for next month. Trump cited in part Seoul’s refusal to offer help in the Iran war and said the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills this month sent a wrong message to North Korea. Trump has been trying to hold a new summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

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MADRID(AFP) - Spain’s interior minister called for calm on Friday after residents of Ceuta clashed with police during protests against migrants who have remained in the North African enclave following a mass influx. Tensions have been high in the territory of 80,000 people since at least 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta over several days in July, triggering a Europe-wide migrant alert. Spain’s leftist government says most have since left the enclave of 18.5 square kilometers (seven square miles) but thousands remain wandering the streets and sleeping on beaches. 

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Paris (AFP) - Convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic died Thursday at the age of 85 while serving a life sentence in The Hague, Bosnian news portal Klix.ba reported. Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, had suffered from serious health problems for years. His family, along with authorities in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska entity, had sought his transfer to Belgrade on health grounds. A request for his early release was rejected Wednesday. In June 2021, the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals upheld Mladic’s life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. He was convicted on 10 of 11 counts, including genocide in Srebrenica, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, forcible transfer, terrorizing civilians during the siege of Sarajevo and taking UN personnel hostage.

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NAIROBI (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas to disperse small-scale traders protesting against an import duty hike, a Reuters witness saw on Friday, while hundreds of businesses closed in central Nairobi. The Kenya Revenue Authority said its decision to raise the duty with effect from August 20 aimed to curb under-declaration and undervaluation of imports, which it said disadvantages compliant businesses and local manufacturers.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military used a laser in southern Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to shoot down three Mexican drug cartel drones this week near the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command said in a statement that the operation took place late Tuesday and early Wednesday and used the Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser. The military did not give the precise location of the strikes nor make clear whether it took place over U.S. or Mexican territory. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said any unilateral U.S. action on Mexican soil would be a grave breach of her country’s sovereignty.