World briefs

CHINA’s inflation rebounded to above 1 percent in February, driven by a faster rise in food costs.

SOUTH KOREA U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert was set to be released yesterday after five days in a South Korean hospital for treatment of injuries caused by a knife attack. Lippert has been hospitalized at Seoul’s Severance Hospital since Thursday when a knife-wielding man slashed him on the face and left arm during a breakfast forum.

JAPAN Nobel-winning author Kenzaburo Oe says Japan’s push to restart some nuclear reactors following the Fukushima disaster could lead to another crisis, and urges the government to follow Germany’s example and phase out atomic energy.

INDIA-USA “India’s Daughter,” a rape documentary banned from airing in India receives its U.S. premiere at a star-studded event that includes actresses Meryl Streep and Freida Pinto.

USA-IRAN Democrats in the White House and Congress accused 47 Republican senators of undermining President Barack Obama in international talks to curb Iran’s nuclear program, saying that trying to upend diplomatic negotiations was tantamount to rushing into war with Tehran. In an open letter Monday to the leaders of Iran, Republican lawmakers warned that any nuclear deal they cut with Obama could expire the day he walks out of the Oval Office.

ITALY’s highest court is hearing what could be the final appeal in former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous “bunga-bunga” case.

SPAIN The Spanish Interior Ministry says police have arrested two people in the north African enclave of Ceuta on suspicion of belonging to a jihadi terror cell and who were prepared to carry out attacks in Spain.

FRANCE’s Parliament is starting debate on a bill aimed at allowing doctors to keep terminally ill patients sedated until death comes, amid national debate about whether to legalize euthanasia.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES A Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft takes off from Muscat, Oman, bound for India for the second leg — and its first sea crossing — in a historic round-the-world trip.

BRAZIL Tough new sentences for the gender-related killings of women and girls were signed into law Monday by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The law sets a prison sentence of 12 to 30 years for anyone convicted in the “aberrant” killing of a woman or girl in domestic violence, or because of her gender. It also describes those killings as femicides.