World Briefs

CHINA Ford reported record sales of about 1.1 million vehicles in China last year. The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker said Friday that its 2015 sales in the country were up 3 percent from the previous year. It also set a new monthly sales record in December, selling 124,768 vehicles. That’s up 27 percent from the prior year period.

CHINA  Former Lyon boss Alain Perrin is out as the Chinese men’s national team coach after slightly less than two years in the job. The Chinese Football Association said in a statement Friday that the Frenchman was departing following discussions between both sides. The search for a replacement would begin immediately.

USA Three students from China who attend high school in Southern California will plead no contest to criminal charges and spend years in jail for bullying a classmate they allegedly stripped, kicked with high heels, slapped and burned with cigarettes.

FRENCH President Francois Hollande and other dignitaries held a special ceremony Sunday to honor all those killed in Islamic extremist violence around Paris in 2015 — a year when the European way of life was targeted time and again.

CANADA A United Airlines flight bound for Denver was diverted to Vancouver early Saturday morning after a threatening message was received. United Flight 1104 from Anchorage, Alaska, landed
safely in Canada´s third-biggest city.

MEXICO  Recaptured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s secret interview with U.S. actor Sean Penn helped authorities locate his whereabouts, a Mexican law enforcement official said.

PORTUGAL With an alliance of Socialists, communists and radicals holding power, voters appear set to seek some balance by electing a center-right politician as their head of state. The official campaign period for the Jan. 24 presidential election started yesterday and the hot favorite is Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a former Social Democratic Party leader who had a popular TV show. Polls suggest he could get more than 50 percent of votes against nine rivals.

ITALY Maria Teresa de Filippis, the first woman to race in Formula One, has died at the age of 89. Formula One made the announcement on its website Saturday without providing a cause of death. De Filippis made three starts for the Maserati team in 1958, finishing 10th at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium for her best result.

SWEDISH airport officials say they have closed the departure lounge at Skavsta Airport and halted outgoing flights after a suspicious powder was found in a passenger’s hand luggage.