The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY “I will do my best to change the fate of the people and Pakistan.” Nawaz Sharif, after being sworn in Wednesday as Pakistan’s prime minister, a job he is holding for the third timeArticle, this page Woolwich suspect appears via video

LONDON - One of the men accused of killing a British serviceman in broad daylight called himself a soldier during a rambling court appearance Wednesday.

Michael Adebolajo appeared by video link from prison for a hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court. The 28-year-old was addressed as “Mr. Hamza,” in line with his wish to be known as Mujahid Abu Hamza.

Defense lawyer David Gottlieb told the court that Adebolajo does not challenge the prosecution’s claim that he is completely sane. Still, the defendant interrupted the proceedings several times with odd comments before his video feed was temporarily cut off by officials.

Adebolajo and 22-year-old Michael Adebowale have been charged with killing Lee Rigby, a British soldier hacked to death May 22 on a London street. A joint court hearing was set for June 28.

Turkish group lists demands to leader

ISTANBUL - Representatives of a group that helped incite anti-government protests that have been roiling Turkey since Friday gave a list of demands to the country’s deputy prime minister Wednesday, as the police expanded security operations and detained several dozen people accused of provoking illegal acts on social media networks.

Tayfun Kahraman, a spokesman for the Taksim Solidarity Group, which led the protests to save Gezi Park in Taksim Square, held a news conference after presenting the demands to Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc.

The demands included the dismissal of the governors of Istanbul; the capital, Ankara;

and the city of Hatay; as well as the head of the security forces in those three cities.

The list also included the release of detained protesters;

an end to the use of tear gas by the police; and the cancellation of the project that started the protests: the construction of an Ottoman-era replica that would destroy a park in Taksim Square in Istanbul.

Two people have been reported killed and at least 2,300 injured in protests that spread to some 60 cities as people inspired by the protests at Taksim Square took to the streets to air broader grievances against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Venezuela releases

U.S. filmmaker

CARACAS, Venezuela - A U.S. filmmaker jailed for alleged espionage in Venezuela was expelled from the country and returned to the United States on Wednesday.

The release of Timothy Tracy, 35, was secured with the help of former U.S. Rep.

William Delahunt, who has long worked to improve often strained U.S.-Venezuelan ties and was hired by Tracy’s family as an attorney in the case.

“He’s been informally advising us since pretty much the onset and we retained him last week,” Tracy’s sister, Tiffany Klaasen, said of Delahunt, a member of the U.S.

delegation at the March funeral of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Both she and Delahunt also credited the U.S. State Department.

Also Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry was to meet with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Guatemala to discuss relations between the two countries, which have been without ambassadors since 2010.