World briefs

VANUATU Relief groups are struggling to get supplies to residents living in Vanuatu’s cyclone-ravaged outer islands as survivors grew desperate for food and water five days after the fierce storm flattened villages across the South Pacific nation. With power, phones and Internet still down across much of the country, officials faced logistical headaches in sorting out where to send supplies, particularly in Tanna Island.

CHINESE authorities have announced plans to boost the number of electric, hybrid and other alternative fuel-powered vehicles used for public transportation, while sales of such cars for private use have spiked in recent months. The Transport Ministry announced Wednesday that officials aimed to add 200,000 buses and 100,000 taxis powered by alternative fuels by 2020.

MYANMAR A court sentences two reporters to two months in prison on charges of defamation, in the latest ruling that raises concerns about press freedoms as the country emerges from military rule.

THAILAND’s top court announces that former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will stand trial for negligence related to a rice subsidy program overseen by her ousted government that lost billions of dollars, a move likely to deepen the long-running political crisis in the military-ruled nation.

YEMEN  Forces loyal to Yemen’s former president stormed the international airport in the southern port city of Aden yesterday, triggering an intense, hours-long gunbattle before security forces loyal to the current president repelled them.

SWEDEN Gunmen with automatic weapons stormed into a restaurant in Sweden’s second largest city, killing two people and wounding about a dozen in a shooting that police said was likely gang-related.

UKRAINE British military instructors have traveled to Ukraine to provide medical and tactical training to the country’s troops, the Ukrainian defense ministry said yesterday. Britain’s ministry of defense said it aims to boost the Ukrainian army’s defensive capability in their armed campaign against Russian-backed separatists in the east.

USA Prince Charles and his wife will finish up their visit to Washington, D.C. with a whirlwind day that will include meeting with President Barack Obama.

RUSSIA The mother of two of the suspects in the slaying of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov said she is certain they didn’t do it. Anzor and Shagid Gubashev are among five men, all ethnic Chechens, accused in the shooting death of Nemtsov on a bridge near the Kremlin on Feb. 27.

GREECE German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Greece must stick to the terms of a bailout agreement that requires Athens to sharply curtail government spending in return for further financial aid. Tensions over Greece’s massive financial bailout are set to overshadow a European Union summit yesterday amid fears that the country could accidently drop out of the euro.