World Briefs

SOUTH KOREA U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in South Korea where he will be discussing security issues amid fresh fears of North Korean belligerence and delivering a speech on cyber policy. Kerry arrived in Seoul yesterday from Beijing and will see top South Korean officials today.

NEW ZEALAND Prince Harry shoots the winning goal in a friendly soccer match, ending his visit to New Zealand.

AFGHANISTAN  A Taliban suicide car bomber attacked a convoy from the European Union police training mission yesterday near the Afghan capital’s international airport, killing at least three people, including a Briton, authorities said. The car bomb exploded early yesterday morning near the office of the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority, a few hundred meters from the airport’s main terminal, said Najib Danish, a deputy Interior Ministry spokesman.

MYANMAR  A Myanmar court imposed new sentences with hard labor for six prominent activists who are already serving prison terms for political activities. All six were charged in connection with a protest they attended last year outside the Chinese Embassy to demand an investigation into the shooting death of an opponent of a Chinese-backed copper mine. The court on Friday sentenced them to four years and four months imprisonment with hard labor. Their previous sentences were for violating the peaceful assembly law with their political activities.

BURUNDI’s president Pierre Nkurunziza makes his first appearance in the capital since last week’s attempted coup, urging an immediate halt to protests. More on p13

MACEDONIA  Tens of thousands of people gathered in the center of the Macedonian capital Skopje to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. Yesterday’s protest follows the release of a massive cache of wiretapped conversations by the head of the opposition Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev. He claims that Gruevski was behind the mass wiretapping of more than 20,000 Macedonians.

USA Passenger train operator Amtrak will expand its use of a speed restriction system on Philadelphia’s northbound rails and abide by other federal directives issued after one of its trains crashed in the city last week, killing eight people. The automatic train control system already is being used for southbound trains approaching the curve where Tuesday’s derailment occurred. The system notifies an engineer when a train is above the speed limit and automatically applies the brakes if the engineer doesn’t slow down the train.

USA B.B. King, whose scorching guitar licks and heartfelt vocals made him the idol of generations of musicians and fans while earning him the nickname King of the Blues, died Friday at home in Las Vegas. He was 89.