World briefs

CHINA-USA For the first time, all varieties of apples from the United States will go on sale in China, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday. A deal was reached last week between officials for the United States and Chinese governments to grant access to all U.S. apple varieties, instead of just Red Delicious and Golden Delicious.

CANADIAN health authorities said Monday they have diagnosed a case of bird flu in a British Columbia woman who recently returned from China and suspect a man who travelled with her also had it. This is the first time this particular type of bird flu — H7N9— has been detected in a Canadian or American. The strain first emerged in China two years ago and most cases have been linked to contact with poultry.
INDONESIA’s military halts its recovery efforts for the crashed AirAsia plane, including attempts to locate bodies and raise the fuselage from the Java Sea.

PHILIPPINE officials remove the commander of a police special action force from his post after at least 44 anti-terror commandos were killed in a clash with Muslim rebels in the country’s south. The government’s biggest single-day combat loss in recent memory shocked many and led to fears it could endanger a recent peace deal with the biggest Muslim rebel group.

PHILIPPINES-USA The Philippines rejects an appeal by a U.S. Marine that it drop a murder case against him in the death of a transgender Filipino woman last year.

INDIA and America’s declaration of a breakthrough in contentious nuclear energy cooperation is met with a lukewarm response from industry and analysts. Few expect the potentially lucrative Indian market to suddenly become less complicated for U.S. nuclear companies.

USA Tens of millions of people along the East Coast hunkered down for a storm that for most failed to live up to predictions that it would be one of the worst they’d ever seen. More on p14

SAUDI ARABIA-USA President Barack Obama led a delegation of lawmakers, senior U.S. officials and two former secretaries of state to Saudi Arabia yesterday to pay respects to the royal family following King Abdullah’s death.

POLAND Holocaust survivors and world leaders including the presidents of Germany and Austria are preparing mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Red Army, but Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be among those gathered. Poland apparently snubbed Putin, failing to send him an invitation. Poland is extremely critical of Russian actions in Ukraine.

LIBYA Gunmen stormed a luxury Libyan hotel popular with foreigners yesterday, killing at least three guards and taking hostages. The standoff continues at the Corinthia Hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea.

UKRAINE Deadly rocket attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol this weekend that “knowingly targeted civilians” violated international humanitarian law and could amount to war crimes, the U.N. political chief says.

CUBA Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro ends his long silence over his country’s decision to restore diplomatic ties with the United States, writing that he backs the negotiations even though he distrusts politics in Washington.

IRELAND Aer Lingus announced yesterday it supports a takeover bid by British Airways parent IAG, putting the Irish airline with its trademark shamrock tailfins on course for foreign acquisition nine years after the national flag carrier’s privatization.