World Briefs

CHINA  Several rights lawyers, including a woman who represented women’s rights advocates, have been formally arrested, about six months after they were taken away. Li Yuhan, a lawyer for Wang Yu (pictured), said yesterday that Wang’s mother had received formal arrest notices for both Wang and her husband, Bao Longjun, although the charges were not immediately clear. Wang has represented women’s rights activists. The families of two other lawyers were informed earlier of their arrests, on suspicion of state subversion.

CHINA Stock market and currency turmoil has battered Chinese leaders’ reputation as shrewd economic managers and fed doubts about their willingness to push through more wrenching reforms. In the stock market, a “circuit breaker” to suspend trading in the event of wide price swings backfired and fueled steeper falls. It was withdrawn after just four days.

DAVOS Organizers of the World Economic Forum in Davos say they have revoked an invitation to a delegation from North Korea, in what appears to be an international rebuke over the secretive Communist country’s nuclear test this month. The WEF invitation had been extended to North Korea in the autumn “in view of positive signs coming out of the country,” organizers said in a statement.

TURKEY Police have arrested one person in connection with the deadly suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed 10 Germans, officials said. The suspect was detained in Istanbul yesterday (Macau time), Interior Minister Efkan Ala said during a news conference with his visiting German counterpart. He didn’t provide further details.

USA “All the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air,” Obama said in his final State of the Union address. “So is all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker. The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It’s not even close,” he said.

ANTARCTIC A veteran Canadian helicopter pilot died at an Australian Antarctic base a day after he landed his chopper on an ice shelf, stepped out of the aircraft and plunged into a crevasse. David Wood, 62, was working on a fuel-loading operation on the remote ice shelf Monday when he got out of the helicopter and fell 20 meters

UK A list of official gifts received by Queen Elizabeth II from world leaders and dignitaries during 2015 features jewelry, ornaments and some more unusual choices — including homemade honey butter from Michelle Obama. Buckingham Palace said the U.S. first lady offered a gift box of lemon verbena tea, a candle, two small pots of honey and a jar of honey butter from the White House kitchen garden during her June visit to Britain. Other curious gifts: The governor of the British Virgin Islands presented “a bag of salt” and German President Joachim Gauck offered a marzipan model of the Brandenburg Gate.