World Briefs

CHINA Artist and activist Ai Weiwei has visited the Idomeni refugee camp in northern Greece, where about 14,000 people, mostly Syrian and Iraqi refugees, have found themselves stranded after Macedonia shut its border. “Thousands of people are stuck here,” Ai said… You can’t believe this is happening in Europe in the 21st century.”

CHINA’s inflation accelerated to 2.3 percent in February, driven by a jump in food prices, but stayed below the government’s official target for the year.

JAPAN The coast guard resumes underwater searches for over 2,500 people still missing five years after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country’s northeast coast. Meanwhile, Shinzo Abe has pledged to bolster reconstruction efforts in tsunami-hit northern Japan and the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games. The prime minister promised to rush decontamination work in irradiated areas near the plant to allow more residents to safely return home.

NORTH KOREA threatens nuclear annihilation, fires ballistic missiles into the sea in a show of defiance, tests a nuclear bomb and launches a long-range rocket into space as South Korea and the United States stage huge military drills.

INDIA’s environmental watchdog fines a group headed by a Hindu spiritual leader 50 million rupees (USD740,000) for building features that altered the topography and flow of a river in India’s capital before a major cultural festival this weekend.

AFGHANISTAN President Ashraf Ghani has ordered his government to reopen the case of a woman beaten to death last year by a frenzied mob outside a Kabul shrine, just days after the country’s highest court reduced the sentences of the 13 men convicted of her murder. The move comes ahead of the first anniversary of Farkhunda Malikzada’s killing and as a leading international rights group issued a report slamming the Afghani judicial system over its failure to deliver justice.

NEW ZEALAND’s central bank cuts its benchmark interest rate to a record low 2.25 percent and says the rate could go lower yet as the country grapples with weak international growth and lower prices for its crucial dairy exports.

EU The European Central Bank has cut its main interest rate to 0 percent from 0.05 percent as part of a package of measures intended to revive the eurozone economy. The ECB will also expand its quantitative easing programme from 60b to 80b euros a month. The scheme will now include the purchase of corporate bonds as well as government debt.

SOUTH AFRICA Jailed Polish immigrant Janusz Walus who killed prominent anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani in 1993 won a bid for parole yesterday, igniting bitter memories of racial unrest during white minority rule as well as fresh scrutiny of the balance between punishment and leniency for crimes committed during that era.

USA A Beverly Hills gallery and auction house official has pleaded guilty to smuggling an estimated USD1 million worth of items made from rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory and coral. Federal prosecutors announced that Joseph Chait pleaded guilty to two charges in a New York federal court. He could face up to 10 years in prison. He helped clients from China and other countries smuggle restricted items out of the U.S.