World Briefs

CHINA Police seized a haul of methamphetamine and heroin concealed in a truckload of bananas believed to have come from Myanmar. The drug shipment weighing 144.5 kilograms was seized in the city of Tongren in Guizhou province after a tipoff.

SOUTH KOREA In a major reversal, South Korea’s Constitutional Court yesterday ordered the easing of the country’s decades-old ban on most abortions, one of the strictest in the developed world.

THAILAND A small but deadly fire at one of Bangkok’s biggest shopping malls may have started in a basement room before spreading to an eighth-floor document room because of a bad vent, officials said. Two people were killed in Wednesday’s fire and 20 were injured.

INDIA At least four people were killed in clashes yesterday on the first day of polling in the country’s general elections, a six-week process that’s seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

US The Getty Conservation Institute plans to restore and maintain one of Los Angeles’ most stunning homes for generations to come. The institute said it partnered with the Eames Foundation on an ambitious conservation plan for the Eames House. The home was built in 1949 by Charles and Ray Eames as their personal residence.

VATICAN Pope Benedict XVI has ventured out of retirement to publish an essay blaming the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and church laws that protected priests.

SUDAN’s military overthrew President Omar al-Bashir yesterday amid increasingly bloody protests over his repressive 30-year rule and the deteriorating economy. But pro-democracy demonstrators were left angry and disappointed when the defense minister announced the armed forces will govern for the next two years.