World briefs

CHINA Authorities ordered one of China’s most prominent business news websites to close after its managers were accused of extorting money from companies with threats of negative coverage.

HONG KONG tourist arrivals fell almost 9 percent in March, the first monthly drop since June 2009, as fewer visitors from mainland China crossed the border. The number of people entering the former British colony slipped 8.7 percent year on year to 4.4 million, according to data released Thursday by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Visitors from the mainland fell 10 percent to 3.24 million.

CHINA-RUSSIA The navies of China and Russia plan to hold joint drills in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time in mid-May, China’s Defense Ministry announces, in the latest expansion of the growing informal partnership between the two militaries.

PAKISTAN A public prosecutor says a Pakistani court has sentenced 10 militants to life in prison for their involvement in the 2012 attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai. Malala was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban in valley of Swat for advocating education for women.

AUSTRALIA’s political opposition accuses the government of winding back the country’s rejection of the death penalty during a heated debate following Indonesia’s execution of two Australian drug traffickers.

THAILAND Five years after a Reuters video journalist was shot dead during a protest in Thailand, a court says its inquest was unable to determine if the shot was fired by Thai soldiers or protesters.

RUSSIA The reclusive leader of North Korea will not be coming to Moscow next month for the Victory Day celebration, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman announces. The highly anticipated visit would have been Kim Jong Un’s first foreign trip since taking power more than three years ago.

JAPAN is proposing to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 26 percent by 2030 amid international efforts to set a new framework for addressing climate change.

UK Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid Sun has spoken, urging voters to back David Cameron’s Conservative Party in Britain’s election — unless they’re in Scotland. There, it says, they should vote for the Scottish National Party.

NIGERIA A day after the Nigerian army celebrated the rescue of 200 girls and 93 women in the forest stronghold of Boko Haram, the army’s spokesman said more women and children believed to have been abducted by the Islamic extremists were rescued as firefights broke out there.