World briefs

China said yesterday that it was banning Chinese movies and actors from participating in Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, one of the Asian film industry’s most prestigious honors, as Beijing ramps up economic and political pressure on the island it claims as its own territory.

Malaysia Police said yesterday they were analyzing fingerprints found in a forest resort cottage where a 15-year-old London girl was reported missing and did not rule out a possible criminal element.

North Korea Officials said yesterday leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire demonstration of newly developed, short-range ballistic missiles intended to send a warning to the United States and South Korea over their joint military exercises.

Cambodia Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena arrived yesterday in Cambodia on a four-day visit to expand the countries’ cooperation in economic, trade, tourism and cultural fields.

Pakistan Authorities decided to downgrade diplomatic ties with India and suspend trade to protest actions in Kashmir.

Cyprus A spokeswoman for the European Union’s executive arm says it is assessing a request by Cyprus to relocate 5,000 migrants to other member-states.

Afghanistan A Taliban car bomb aimed at Afghan security forces ripped through a busy Kabul neighborhood yesterday, killing 14 people and wounding 145 — most of them women, children and other civilians — shortly after the extremist group and the United States reported progress on negotiating an end to Afghanistan’s nearly 18-year war.

Switzerland police say a South Korean mountain climber has died following a fall during a climb on the famed Matterhorn peak.

Greece A specialized police unit with geolocation equipment joined Wednesday in the search for a British scientist on holiday on an Aegean Sea island who went missing after apparently going for a morning cross-country run.

Paris Health officials say that a child needs medical monitoring because tests conducted after the Notre Dame Cathedral fire showed that he was at risk of lead poisoning.

USA Facebook Inc. sued two Asia-based developers for allegedly planting malware on Android apps that robotically clicked on ads to inflate revenue. Through a practice known as “click injection fraud,” one of the apps generated more than 40 million ad impressions and 1.7 million clicks through Facebook’s Audience Network over a three-month period at the end of last year.