World Briefs

CHINA A gas leak at a steel parts factory in eastern China kills 10 people and leaves seven others hospitalized. The Zouping County government says on its official microblog the leak occurred late Saturday and poisoned 17 people, five of whom died immediately. It says five more died early Sunday, and the cause of the leak is under investigation.

TAIWAN-CHINA Old foes China and Taiwan have swapped high-level convicted spies in a sign of goodwill linked to the first meeting ever between their presidents. More on p10

CHINA-ZIMBABWE Some immigration signs at Zimbabwe’s main international airport are in Chinese, a sign of China’s deep economic inroads in Africa, which Chinese President Xi Jinping will be visiting this week. Xi arrives today in Zimbabwe before heading tomorrow to South Africa. There, he will attend a forum on cooperation between Africa and China, whose investment on the continent hit more than USD3.5 billion last year.

JAPAN’s whaling fleet leaves yesterday for the Antarctic for a three-month, scaled-down hunt, despite protests from opponents who say Tokyo has not proven that whales need to be killed for research.

PHILIPPINES-USA A Philippine court plans to deliver its verdict in the emotion-charged case of a U.S. Marine accused of murdering a transgender Filipino after discovering her gender when they checked into a hotel.

THAILAND Soldiers and police in military-run Thailand detain two top leaders of the anti-government Red Shirt movement as they were to visit a park celebrating past Thai kings that’s at the center of a corruption scandal linked to the army.
THAILAND-FRANCE A French drug trafficker who was part of a notorious international network that authorities say copied tactics from Hollywood’s “Fast and Furious” films is arrested in Bangkok.

NEPAL’s top political leaders meet with representatives of the Madhesi ethnic group who are protesting against the new constitution to try to end a months-long crisis, but no agreement is reached.

USA The suspected gunman in a deadly shooting at a women’s health clinic that offers abortions said “no more baby parts” after his arrest, a law enforcement official said. But police said they will not disclose why Robert Lewis Dear opened fire at the Planned Parenthood clinic, killing three people. Colorado Springs police said in a statement that they are sealing the warrants related to the case against 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear. They are not providing information on the weapon used in Friday’s shooting, a timeline of events or a motive.

GERMANY Hamburg residents rejected the German port city’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics in a public referendum on Sunday. Opponents to the bid won with 51.6 percent of the vote, with 48.4 percent in favor.

GREECE-TURKEY A highly unusual online exchange took place on Twitter between the prime ministers of Greece and Turkey early yesterday before the former deleted his tweets – but only from the English version of his account. The official English-speaking account of Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras (@Tsipras_eu) posted four tweets addressed to his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, needling him about Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet and Turkey’s violations of Greek airspace.