World Briefs

NORTH KOREA Kim Jong Un recently ordered preparations for launching “terror” attacks on South Koreans, a top Seoul official said yesterday, as worries about the North grow after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.

JAPAN A corporate whistleblower’s eight-year courtroom battle against Japanese medical device maker Olympus Corp. has ended with a financial settlement and a promise from the company to end its harassment of the man. Under the deal, Masaharu Hamada will be paid 11 million yen by Olympus. Legal settlements for individuals in Japan are typically small.

JAPAN’s trade balance returned to deficit in January, with a shortfall of 646 billion yen (USD5.65 billion) as exports fell 13 percent from the year before, led by an 18 percent plunge in the value of shipments to China.

ABOARD PAPAL PLANE Pope Francis said that Donald Trump is “not Christian” if he intends to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump immediately fired back, saying it is disgraceful for a religious leader to question a person’s faith.

PHILIPPINES Manny Pacquiao says he respects Nike’s decision to sever ties with him over his comments about gay relationships but stood pat on his opposition to same-sex marriage and added he’s happy that “a lot of people were alarmed by the truth.”

POLAND Recently-seized documents show that Poland’s former president and Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was a paid informant for the communist-era secret security service from 1970-76, the head of Poland’s history institute said yesterday. A legend of the country’s successful struggle to topple communism, Walesa has previously acknowledged signing a commitment to be an informant, but has insisted he never acted on it.

SYRIA A Syrian national with links to Syrian Kurdish militia carried out the suicide bombing in Ankara that targeted military personnel killing at least 28 people and wounded dozens of others, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday. The PM vowed to retaliate against these groups. However, the main Kurdish militia in Syria says it has no links to Wednesday’s bombing.

RUSSIA‘s top domestic security agency says it has tracked down a group of suspects accused of forging personal documents for Islamic State group militants. The Federal Security Service, (FSB), said that it has arrested 14 suspected members of the group during a raid in the Moscow region. The FSB said the suspects were forging documents for Russians willing to join IS in Syria and also making papers for IS militants sent to Russia to carry out terror attacks.