World Briefs

CHINA The Iranian foreign minister’s passionate defense of his country’s interests at the Munich Security Conference has made him “a famous person” in China, his Chinese counterpart told him, as the sides met amid efforts to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. 

NEW ZEALAND PM Jacinda Ardern (pictured) said that no final decision has been made on whether Huawei equipment can be used in a planned network upgrade. The NZ spy agency stopped mobile company Spark from using the equipment in its planned 5G upgrade, saying it posed a “significant network security risk.”

PAKISTAN Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan offered yesterday to hold talks with India, even as he warned New Delhi to refrain from launching any attacks on his country following last week’s suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

INDONESIA Deliberately set fires are burning through peatland forests in the Indonesian province of Riau, the disaster agency said, just two days after President Joko Widodo incorrectly claimed there’d been no fires for several years. The agency said that 843 hectares of land have burned.

USA Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose insurgent 2016 presidential campaign reshaped Democratic politics, announced that he is running for president in 2020. “Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump,” the 77-year-old democratic socialist said. 

HAITI Businesses and government offices slowly reopened across Haiti on after more than a week of violent demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise over skyrocketing prices that have more than doubled for basic goods amid allegations of government corruption.

FRANCE Residents and public officials from across the political spectrum geared up for nationwide rallies against anti-Semitism following a series of anti-Semitic acts, including the swastikas painted on about 80 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery overnight.

BREXIT EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said “the EU27 will not reopen the withdrawal agreement,” a condition many British lawmakers are insisting on before they back a deal to have Britain leave the bloc on March 29. Theresa May arrives today in Brussels for talks.