World Briefs

US-CHINA When Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan visit Washington later this week, Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, face the daunting task of trying to throw a warm and inviting dinner party for guests of honor accused of cyber-spying on the U.S., trampling human rights and engaging in assertive military tactics.

PAKISTAN postpones the execution of the country’s first known paraplegic on death row, about an hour before he was to be hanged. The man’s family (pictured) welcomed the development with relief and urged authorities to spare his life on medical grounds.

PHILIPPINES Hundreds of Philippine troops launch an offensive to capture at least six foreign Islamic militants and their Abu Sayyaf rebel allies in their latest attempt to crush al-Qaida-linked extremists.

THAILAND The local printer of the International New York Times decides not to publish yesterday’s edition in Thailand because of an article on the future of the Thai monarchy that it called “too sensitive to print” in the country, where strict laws limit open discussion of the royal family.

NEPAL Protests against Nepal’s new constitution are abating, Nepal says, just hours after police opened fire on a crowd and injured three in the east of the Himalayan nation. More on p12

AUSTRALIA’s new prime minister receives a boost from a respected opinion poll, but the fallout lingers from a bitter party battle as the leader he ousted has attacked the credibility of his new treasurer.

HONG KONG The Asian Development Bank cuts its growth forecast for the region’s developing economies to 5.8 percent, citing a softer outlook for China and India and a delayed recovery in the world’s advanced industrialized nations.

CUBA Pope Francis is calling on Cubans to rediscover their Catholic heritage and live a “revolution of tenderness,” highly evocative words in a country whose 1959 socialist revolution installed an officially atheist government that was long hostile to religion.

BRITAIN’s most popular art gallery, Tate Modern, says it will open a new 10-story extension on June 17 after a revamp that cost 260 million pounds (USD400 million). The gallery in a disused power station beside the Thames in London opened in 2000 and draws more than 5 million visitors a year. The new building by architects Herzog & de Meuron — linked to the existing structure by the vast Turbine Hall — will add 60 percent more display space.