World briefs

CHINA rejects growing international calls for the release of five women’s rights activists and accuses critics of violating the country’s judicial sovereignty by appealing for the women’s freedom.

THAILAND A tour bus carrying Chinese tourists plunges off a road on the popular Thai resort island of Phuket, killing three and injuring 16, police say.

KENYA-CHINA Kenyan authorities have closed a Chinese restaurant in the capital which was accused by a local newspaper of refusing to serve Africans. A statement from Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero late Tuesday said the restaurant known as the Chinese Restaurant will remain shut because it does not have a business permit or a valid liquor license. On Monday, Kenya’s leading newspaper, The Daily Nation, reported that the restaurant does not allow Africans entry after 5 p.m. The newspaper quoted a manager of the restaurant saying Africans pose a security threat to its Chinese patrons. The story has caused outrage on social media.

AUSTRALIA Counter- terrorism squads have prevented 230 suspected jihadis from departing Australian airports for the Middle East this month, including at least three teenage boys, officials say. More on p12

MALDIVES’ jailed ex-president will not appeal his 13-year sentence because the court has not released all documents from the first hearing to prepare a case, his lawyer says.

SRI LANKA’s president was to hold talks with the Chinese president on a trip to Beijing that appeared to be aimed at balancing his nation’s relations with China and India, which are competing for influence in the Indian Ocean region.

NEPAL A Nepalese mountaineering official says a Finnish climber and his local guide died while descending from the summit of Mount Annapurna in the first casualties of the mountaineering season in the Himalayan nation.

JAPAN Despite mounting protests, Japan continues to finance the building of coal-fired power plants with money earmarked for fighting climate change, with two new projects underway in India and Bangladesh.

USA H.J. Heinz Co. is buying Kraft Foods Group Inc., creating what the companies say will be the third-largest food and beverage company in North America.

USA-AFGHANISTAN President Ashraf Ghani is expected to get a warm reception from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill — primarily because he’s not Hamid Karzai.

IRAQI Shiite militias defend the central city of Samarra and its revered Shiite shrine from the Islamic State group, but many of the town’s mainly Sunni residents fear both sides of the country’s increasingly sectarian conflict.

UKRAINIAN president Petro Poroshenko dismisses the billionaire governor of an eastern region following a dispute pitting the tycoon against the government.