World briefs

CHINA  Police in southwestern China arrested 10 people for killing a female wild giant panda, buying and selling its parts, state media said yesterday. China Central Television said forest police in Yunnan province recovered panda skin, panda meat, bones and an internal organ from the poachers and vendors. If convicted, the suspects could be jailed for years.

CHINA  Apple CEO Tim Cook met with a top Chinese official in Beijing while touring a country that has become the tech giant’s biggest driver of sales growth, state media reported. Cook met with Vice Premier Liu Yandong in the Zhongnanhai leadership compound Tuesday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. They reportedly discussed how to promote greater scientific and educational cooperation between China and the U.S.

PHILIPPINES  The Philippines’ top diplomat says he is seeking more U.S. help in stopping massive land reclamation by China that could give Beijing effective control of the South China Sea. Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario said Tuesday that China is attempting to enforce the rough boundaries it uses to define its domain. He described those boundary lines as “unlawful.”

PHILIPPINES-PAKISTAN The body of the Philippine ambassador who was among those killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan last week arrived in his home country with honor guards and his weeping family receiving his flag-draped casket at Manila’s airport.
JAPAN A magnitude 6.8 quake earthquake hit Japan in the same region devastated by a major quake and tsunami in 2011. Authorities said there was no risk of tsunami.

BELGIUM The eurozone economy is growing faster than the U.S. and at its highest tick in nearly two years despite a disappointing slowdown in Germany and recession’s return in Greece. The economy of the 19 countries that use the euro grew by a quarterly rate of 0.4 percent in the first three months ahead, Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency, said yesterday. That was up from the 0.3 percent recorded in the previous three-month period and was in line with most expectations in the financial markets.

IRAQ The Iraqi Defense Ministry says a senior Islamic State commander has been killed in a U.S.-led airstrike in country’s north. While the U.S.-led coalition says it carried out a strike there in the last 24 hours, American officials could not be immediately reached about the statement by Iraq, which has made incorrect claims before. The Defense Ministry statement said the strike killed Abu Alaa al-Afari and others in Tal Afar.

AUSTRALIA  Search crews hunting for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the desolate ocean waters off western Australia have discovered an old shipwreck, officials said yesterday. The unexpected finding came when sonar equipment on board a search vessel scouring the Indian Ocean for the missing jetliner detected a cluster of objects nearly 4km below the surface, according to a statement from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the hunt.

ROMANIA A teenager has died after she was electrocuted while taking selfies atop a parked, electric-powered train in northeast Romania.

VATICAN CITY  The Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty finalized yesterday, immediately sparking Israeli ire and accusations that the move hurt peace prospects. The Vatican had welcomed the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state. But the treaty is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state and constitutes official diplomatic recognition.