World Briefs

CHINA The U.S. stood firm on rejecting membership in a new China-led infrastructure bank, citing concerns it will fall short of international standards even as the rest of the world’s biggest economies sign up for the initiative.

MALAYSIA Kuala Lumpur proposes two new anti-terror laws that reintroduce indefinite detention without trial and allow the seizure of passports of anyone suspected of supporting terror acts.

MALAYSIA The passing of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew leaves former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad — who shared some traits with Lee but left a very different legacy — as the last of a generation of old-guard leaders in Southeast Asia.

PHILIPPINES A month long offensive against hard-line Muslim rebels ended yesterday after 139 insurgents were killed, 12 others were captured and bomb-making strongholds were seized by regular troops. Ten soldiers were killed and 30 others were wounded in the marshy boundary of Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces in the South. The clashes displaced 120,000 villagers.

BANGLADESH A blogger is hacked to death by three men in Dhaka, and two of the attackers are caught near the scene, police say. The killing came one month after a prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death.

THAILAND Transport minister says Thai junta leader may exercise extraordinary constitutional powers to expedite safety improvements in the aviation sector, which is facing international sanctions.

GERMANY Prosecutors say the co-pilot of the Germanwings passenger plane that crashed in the French Alps had received treatment for suicidal tendencies. Duesseldorf prosecutors say that Andreas Lubitz received psychotherapy “with a note about suicidal tendencies” for several years before becoming a pilot.

TURKEY Turkish Airlines said it diverted an Istanbul-to-Sao Paulo flight to Casablanca, Morocco, yesterday after finding a note with the word “bomb” in the toilet. The communications office at Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca confirmed that the flight had landed there. The airliner, a Boeing 777, with the flight number TK15 is carrying 256 people.

ISRAEL Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert was convicted yesterday of unlawfully accepting money from a U.S. supporter in a retrial on corruption charges, the latest chapter in the downfall of a man who hoped to lead the country to a historic peace agreement with the Palestinians.

PAPUA A powerful earthquake rattled the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea yesterday, generating a small tsunami and frightening locals near the epicenter, but prompting no reports of damage or injuries. A tsunami of half a meter was measured in the harbor of Rabaul, a town near the epicenter of the magnitude-7.7 earthquake.

SOUTH PACIFIC A pair of strong earthquakes (magnitude 6.4 and 6,5) strikes off the South Pacific nations of Tonga and Samoa, but there are no immediate reports of injuries or damage and no tsunami warning is issued.

USA Attorneys for Robin Williams’ wife and children are headed to court in their battle over the late comedian’s estate. The attorneys are scheduled to appear before a San Francisco probate judge yesterday, as they argue over who should get clothes and other personal items the actor kept at one of his Northern California homes.
In papers filed in December, Williams’ wife, Susan, says some of the late actor’s personal items were taken without her permission.