World briefs

CHINA Beijing police have arrested two drivers whose supercars collided during a late-night drag race, in the latest scandal to strike the much-reviled offspring of China’s newly rich. The arrests for dangerous driving followed the crash Saturday night of a Lamborghini driven by a 21-year-old driver identified as Tang, and a Ferrari driven by a man identified as 20-year-old Yu. The official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday the two were roaring through a downtown tunnel at more than 160kph when they touched, causing one to career into the wall.

AFGHANISTAN  Taliban fighters swarmed over Afghan army posts in the country’s northeast, killing at least 18 soldiers and beheading some in a major attack to mark the start of the country’s summer fighting season, authorities said yesterday.

NEW ZEALAND Britain’s Prince Harry is planning a weeklong visit to New Zealand next month that will include a stop on remote Stewart Island, population 378. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key yesterday announced the visit, which will be Harry’s first to the South Pacific nation. Harry plans to visit May 9 through May 16 and will also stop in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Whanganui and Linton.

THAILAND Police suspect Muslim separatists are behind six killings in Thailand’s far south that have come as the country celebrates its traditional New Year. Two rubber farmers were shot dead on their plantation in Yala province yesterday, and four people in two neighboring houses were killed Sunday night in Narathiwat province. More than 5,000 people have been killed in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces since an Islamic separatist insurgency erupted in 2004.

UKRAINE Fighting has picked up in eastern Ukraine, after more than a month of relative calm, as diplomats gathered in Berlin yesterday to discuss the Ukraine crisis. The military conflict between Russia-backed rebels and government forces has killed more than 6,000 but has largely subsided since the cease-fire was announced in February and at least some heavy weaponry withdrawn.

TURKEY Forty-five managers and employees of a mine in the western Turkish town of Soma, went on trial yesterday accused of causing the deaths of 301 miners who perished in a fire last year in Turkey’s worst mining disaster. The opening hearing of the trial was tense with lawyers and families of the victims protesting authorities’ decision that eight of the jailed defendants — the main suspects in the proceedings — should not attend the trial over security concerns. The court called a recess and then adjourned until Wednesday, demanding that the eight defendants be present at the next hearing, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

USA Sen. Marco Rubio (pictured) is telling his top donors that he is running for president because he feels “uniquely qualified” to pitch his Republican Party as one that will defend the American Dream. The first-term Republican from Florida told his biggest backers on a conference call yesterday that he sees the coming presidential campaign as a choice between the past and the future. In a swipe at Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rubio said the former first lady “is a leader from yesterday.”

FRANCE Far right symbol Jean-Marie Le Pen has told a French publication that he will not run in upcoming regional elections, standing down in a high-profile feud with his daughter over the future of the National Front party. Le Figaro yesterday quoted party founder Le Pen as telling its weekly magazine that he wants his granddaughter to assume his candidacy instead. A top party official, Florian Philippot, said on i-Tele television yesterday that Le Pen had discussed the decision with party leadership.