World Briefs

CHINA Struck by a sudden inspiration for a business plan while cooped up in a room at a southern China detention center, entrepreneur Liu Minghui turned to the only people nearby for feedback – his jailer and 11 cell mates. It worked.

NORTH KOREA With tensions high and the United States and South Korea ready to hold their massive annual war games next week, which North Korea sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion, Pyongyang is warning it will respond to any violations of its territory with “merciless” retaliation, including strikes on Seoul and the U.S. mainland.

GREECE-MACEDONIA More than 7,000 refugees and other migrants are camped on Greece’s northern border with Macedonia, waiting for authorities to allow them to continue their long trek north to seek asylum in wealthier European countries.

THE HAGUE An accused al-Qaida-linked Islamic radical, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi (pictured), appeared yesterday at the International Criminal Court for a hearing to establish whether evidence is strong enough to try him for his alleged involvement in the destruction of historic mausoleums in the Malian city of Timbuktu. The case involves “the destruction of irreplaceable historical monuments.”

GERMANY’s unemployment rate dipped to 6.6 percent last month thanks to sustained growth in Europe’s biggest economy and relatively mild winter weather. The Federal Labor Agency said that 2.911 million people were registered as jobless in February, down 9,000 from the previous month and some 111,000 from a year earlier.

SPAIN’s Socialist party leader is hoping to persuade a majority of parliamentary deputies to back his bid to form a new government, but the lack of support from other parties suggests he won’t be successful. Pedro Sanchez’s presentation speech will be followed by debate and a vote today.

USA Just before the crucial multi-state primaries, a sharp new divide erupted between Republicans who pledge to fall in line behind Donald Trump if he wins their party’s nomination and others who insist they can never back the bombastic billionaire.

USA George Kennedy, the hulking, tough-guy character actor who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a savage chain-gang convict in the 1960s classic “Cool Hand Luke,” has died. His grandson Cory Schenkel says Kennedy died on Sunday morning of old age in Boise, Idaho. He was 91.