World briefs

SINGAPORE yesterday sentenced two German men to three strokes of a rattan cane and nine months in prison after they were found guilty of vandalizing a public train carriage, according to court documents. The two men were identified as 22-year-old Andreas Von Knorre and 21-year-old Elton Hinz.

CHINA  Jackie Chan might still be popular in China, but nowadays the pro-Beijing actor is as well-known as fodder for jokes as he is for his gritty martial arts and slapstick humor on screen. His latest contribution to the country’s mass culture and entertainment: “duang.” More on p10

MYANMAR  Police have cracked down on students and other activists opposing Myanmar’s new education law, charging protesters with batons and dragging them into trucks at a landmark pagoda in the heart of the old capital, Yangon.

UKRAINE A rebel-held city scarred by months of conflict in eastern Ukraine suffers more tragedy when a methane gas explosion in a coal mine kills at least 24 workers and leaves nine missing. As rescue efforts stretch past sundown, separatist authorities are accused by Ukraine’s government of failing to do enough to save the lives of the miners.

INDONESIAN officials said yesterday they will reject an Australian offer to swap prisoners as part of a last-ditch attempt to save the lives of two Australian drug smugglers expected to face a firing squad within days.

INDIA’s home minister said yesterday that the government would act against the British Broadcasting Corporation after it ignored a court order and aired a documentary about a fatal gang rape in which one of the attackers blames the victim. The BBC aired “India’s Daughter” by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin in the United Kingdom late Wednesday.

AUSTRALIA Six men were charged in Sydney with drug smuggling and more than 480 kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine have been seized in Columbia and Australia in a joint Australian-Colombian police operation, officials said yesterday.

IRAN U.S. officials seek to tamp down expectations of a preliminary nuclear deal with Iran by the March deadline while working to move past the political dust kicked up by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criticism of an emerging agreement’s contours.

LIBERIA has released its last Ebola patient, a 58-year old English teacher. Beatrice Yardolo was released yesterday from the Chinese-run Ebola treatment center in the Paynesville district of Monrovia, the capital. On her way home she told The Associated Press she was “one of the happiest persons on earth today.” Yardolo said had been admitted on Feb. 18.