World briefs

CHINA Exports rebounded in December but imports shrank in a sign of weak domestic demand. Total trade in 2014 grew just 3.4 percent, well below the official 10 percent target.

MALAYSIA’s top court sentences two police officers to death by hanging, after overturning their acquittal by a lower court over the killing of a Mongolian woman who had an affair with a friend of the prime minister. The verdict ends an 8-year saga surrounding the high-profile case that the opposition has repeatedly sought to link to Prime Minister Najib Razak.

PAKISTAN A hardline cleric in northwest Pakistan leads a memorial service for the two brothers who attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, praising their assault.

USA-PAKISTAN U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured) praises the Pakistani military’s operation against militants in the country’s northwest, saying the results are “significant,” but cautions that more work needs to be done.

INDIA A bad batch of bootleg liquor kills at least 28 people and sends 160 others to hospitals in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Many of the victims had gathered to watch a cricket match.

INDIA A New Delhi court charges an Uber cab driver with rape, kidnapping and criminal intimidation in a case that has renewed a national fury over chronic sexual violence in India. Authorities are still investigating whether Uber should also be charged. More on p12

AFGHANISTAN An Afghan police official says one person died and three were wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Kabul.

NEPAL A general strike called by opposition parties cripples life in Nepal’s capital region by shutting down schools, market and transportation. An alliance of 30 opposition parties called the strike in protest of government plans to bring out a draft of the new constitution next week without the agreement of the opposition.

TONGA All international flights to the small island nation of Tonga are canceled after a volcanic eruption sends plumes of ash into the sky.

CUBA has completed the release of 53 political prisoners that was part of last month’s historic deal with the United States, the Obama administration said Monday. The move clears a major hurdle for the normalization of ties between the two countries after more than five decades of estrangement.

EGYPT An appeals court orders the retrial of deposed President Hosni Mubarak in a corruption case against him, the only case that has kept the autocrat behind bars. But there are conflicting statements whether Mubarak’s release from detention is imminent. If he walks out of the high-security hospital in Cairo, it would be the first time Mubarak was a free man since his arrest following the 2011 uprising that toppled him. More on p14

CAMEROON’s government said yesterday that its military killed 143 militants from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, which has been waging war in neighboring Nigeria. In a statement carried on state television, authorities said hundreds of militants had attacked a Cameroonian military camp in Kolofata the day before after crossing the border from Nigeria.