World briefs

MALAYSIA’s government declares the crash of Flight 370 an accident to pave the way for compensation claims, angering victims’ families still waiting for evidence, while officials said the search for wreckage will go on. More on p12

INDONESIAN investigators say the co-pilot of the crashed AirAsia jet was in control when he struggled to recover the aircraft as stall warnings sounded. The Airbus A320-200 crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28, halfway from Indonesia’s city of Surabaya to Singapore.

NORTH KOREA may be attempting to restart its main nuclear bomb fuel reactor after a five-month shutdown, a U.S. research institute says. If true, the finding, which is based on recent commercial satellite imagery, will be an added worry for the United States and the North’s neighbors at a time of increasing animosity over recent U.S. sanctions against the North and Pyongyang’s fury about a U.N. push to punish its alleged human rights abuses.

SPAIN The head of France’s air force says the crash of a NATO jet in Spain that left 11 people dead, including nine French airmen, came after the Greek crew tried to eject from the plane during a failed takeoff. Gen. Denis Mercier said yesterday the crash was entirely accidental and no additional measures could have prevented it.

AFGHANISTAN A spate of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan kills at least 17 people, the latest violence that comes as insurgents increasingly target local police and Afghan forces after most foreign combat troops withdrew at the end of last month.

AFGHANISTAN An Afghan official says at least 23 people died and 31 were injured when a bus crashed into a fuel truck on a narrow road in southern Zabul province.

SRI LANKA’s new government plans to give back military-held private land in the country’s war-ravaged north and release detainees, a minister said, in apparent moves at post-civil war reconciliation with ethnic minority Tamils.

INDIA The Indian government has fired its top foreign ministry official, replacing her with its current ambassador to the United States.

MYANMAR An extensive survey of birds in Myanmar has revealed nearly two dozen not known to have existed in the country, including a large black seabird with a ballooning red neck sack and a tiny black and white falconet with a surprised, panda-like expression.

PHILIPPINES A Philippine official says the country no longer deserves to be branded the “sick man of Asia” after its economy grew more than 6 percent for a third consecutive year. Hampered by natural disasters, growth of the USD300 billion economy slowed to 6.1 percent in 2014, but still outpaced most other countries in Asia, officials said.

JORDAN yesterday demanded proof from Islamic State militants that a Jordanian pilot they are holding is still alive, despite purported threats by the group to kill the airman at sunset unless an al-Qaida prisoner is freed from death row in Jordan. The militants’ deadline passed without word on the fate of the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, and a fellow hostage, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

ITALIAN lawmakers were casting ballots yesterday for a new president in a test of Premier Matteo Renzi’s ability to rally his fractured party behind a candidate who would also be palatable to opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, whose support is needed for the government’s ambitious reform agenda.

MEXICO A powerful gas tank truck explosion shattered a maternity and children’s hospital in Mexico City yesterday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera told Milenio television that three were killed, a woman and two men.