World briefs

CHINA Beijing police detained movie actor Wang Xuebing on a suspected drug offense, adding to a number of celebrities who have been caught in anti-drug actions, Chinese state media reported late Tuesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said the star of the Golden Bear award-winning film “Black Coal, Thin Ice” was detained along with another person Monday.

HONG KONG authorities announced yesterday that they have banned the import of poultry meat and products from Moniteau County, Missouri, USA. The HK Food and Environmental Hygiene Department’s Center for Food Safety (CFS) announced that in view of a notification from the US authorities about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza in Moniteau County, it has banned the import of poultry meat and products (including poultry eggs) from the county with immediate effect for the protection of Hong Kong’s public health.

JAPAN Small clusters of survivors, bundled up against a chilly wind, gather along Japan’s northeast coast to remember the nearly 19,000 lives lost in the March 11, 2011, tsunami. Four years later, the region is still struggling to recover.

NETHERLANDS-INDONESIA The Dutch government must pay compensation to widows and children of Indonesian men summarily executed in their country’s war for independence, according to a court ruling that could open the door to many more claims.

INDONESIA-AUSTRALIA A senior Indonesian official warns Australia to tone down criticism of planned executions of two convicted Australian drug traffickers, saying that Canberra should be grateful to Indonesia for keeping asylum seekers away from Australian shores.
India The Swiss pilots of a solar-powered airplane on a historic round-the-world journey say they want the people of India to support their campaign for clean energy, a day after the aircraft landed in the country.

PAKISTAN’s largest city is on edge after troops raided the headquarters of a well-known political party, arresting about 20 suspects and seizing weapons.

MYANMAR-USA U.S. condemnation of the use of force by baton-wielding Myanmar police against students protesting for academic freedom comes as international optimism over the former pariah nation’s democratic transition withers in a crucial election year.

USA The message from Hillary Rodham Clinton: Trust me. But she did little to try to build that trust during a 21-minute news conference to address why she used a private email account as secretary of state. More on p13

USA Utah lawmakers vote to become only state to allow firing squads if lethal drugs are not available.

COLOMBIA’s government took its biggest step yet toward an eventual end to hostilities in a half-century conflict by ordering an immediate halt to aerial bombings of guerrilla camps belonging to the nation’s largest rebel group, FARC. President Juan Manuel Santos, in a nationally televised address Tuesday night, said he made the decision in virtue of progress that is being made in negotiations started in 2012.

KAZAKHSTAN Nursultan Nazarbayev, the long-serving president of oil-rich Kazakhstan, says he will stand again in snap April elections. He is all but guaranteed to win.

UK An off-set dustup has imperiled one of the BBC’s most lucrative shows. BBC News said yesterday that the broadcaster has postponed the three remaining episodes of car show “Top Gear” and suspended host Jeremy Clarkson while it investigates a reported “fracas” with a producer.