World Briefs

CHINA The addition of China’s yuan to the select basket of currencies used as a yardstick by the International Monetary Fund is a sign that the yuan may one day become as recognizable as the dollar or euro. Adding the yuan alongside the dollar, euro, pound and yen reflects the rising importance of the world’s second-largest economy and is an endorsement of gradual Chinese moves toward making the currency freely traded.

CHINA-ZIMBABWE  Thousands of people lined Harare’s roads and welcomed Chinese president Xi Jinping, whose visit has raised hopes that China will help stabilize Zimbabwe’s faltering economy.

AFGHANISTAN An Afghan police official says an explosion has struck a group of children who were playing on the outskirts of a provincial capital in the country’s north, killing three boys and wounding 12 children, four of them critically.

NEPAL A shortage of medicine, fuel and other supplies has put millions of Nepalese children in danger of illness, malnourishment and even death, child rights groups warn.

PHILIPPINES A Philippine court convicts a U.S. Marine of killing a Filipino last year after he discovered she was a transgender woman in a hotel while he was on a break after participating in joint military exercises in the country.

JAPAN Authorities are investigating nearly a dozen wooden boats carrying decomposing bodies found drifting off the northwestern coast over the past month. Coast Guard officials found fishing equipment on board and signs written in Korean, suggesting they came from North Korea.

PUERTO RICO’s heavily indebted government has until midnight to address a multimillion-dollar bond payment that is key to the U.S. territory’s economic future. Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla has not said whether his administration will be able to make the $355 million payment.

BURKINA Faso Hundreds of supporters of Burkina Faso’s newly elected president started chanting “Presi, Presi,” as preliminary results announced early yesterday handed Roch March Christian Kabore (pictured) an outright win. The electoral commission said 60 percent of the 5.5 million registered voters participated in Sunday’s election to replace a transitional government established after a popular uprising ousted President Blaise Compaore last year. Compaore had been in power for 27 years.

RUSSIA While the rate of HIV infection is on a global decline as World AIDS Day was marked yesterday, the number of new infections in Russia continues to rise. By 2016, the country’s Federal AIDS Center estimates the total number of those diagnosed with HIV will reach 1 million. The majority of new infections occur among injecting drug users when dirty needles are shared.