USA-ASIA The U.S. has invited Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and China’s President Xi Jinping for state visits. President Barack Obama will also welcome South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indonesian President Joko Widodo to the White House this year. National Security Adviser Susan Rice (pictured) made the announcement during a speech Friday on a new national security strategy. Rice did not give dates for the visits. The new strategy cautions against American overreach abroad but maintains a strong focus on Asia.
INDONESIA divers have recovered several more bodies from December’s AirAsia crash, including one from the jet’s cockpit, bringing the total number of victims retrieved to 100, an official said Saturday.
JORDAN has launched 56 airstrikes against Islamic State group weapons depots, training centers and military barracks since militants released a video of them burning a Jordanian pilot to death, Jordan’s air force chief said yesterday. Jordanian officials have said they would retaliate harshly for the slaying of the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was set ablaze while trapped in a cage.
MALAYSIA Long-haul budget carrier AirAsia X said one of its flights heading from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia turned back yesterday shortly after takeoff due to a technical problem, circling for hours before landing safely in Kuala Lumpur. The incident comes after an AirAsia plane crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 while flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board. It was the first fatal accident for AirAsia, the region’s top budget carrier, which was formed in 2001. AirAsia X is the group’s long-haul arm.
UKRAINE The leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine aim to hold a summit in Minsk this week as they try to stem fighting in eastern Ukraine, officials said yesterday. More on p15
USA Neighbors along a quiet, suburban street outside Atlanta were left horrified after police say a man shot six people, killing four of them, including his ex-wife and several children before ending the rampage by turning the gun on himself. The shooting happened Saturday around 3 p.m. in a housing development west of Atlanta, Douglas County Sheriff’s Lt. Glenn Daniel said.
IRAN With an approaching deadline on reaching a nuclear deal with Tehran, Iranian officials yesterday signaled a willingness to come to an agreement, with Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif telling a gathering of the world’s top diplomats and defense officials that “this is the opportunity.”
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