World Briefs

NORTH KOREA To view the humbling limits of round after round of international sanctions against North Korea, come to Masik Pass. It isn’t a secret military facility where Kim Jong Un’s best and brightest are hard at work developing nuclear warheads and long-range missiles. It’s a ski resort.

PAKISTAN The army says two members of the security forces and eight militants have been killed in a pair of clashes.

INDIA Security personnel evacuate two aircraft at New Delhi’s international airport after receiving an anonymous phone call of explosives being placed on the planes, in the third such scare affecting Indian airlines in less than 24 hours.

NEPAL When Britain’s Prince Harry visits Nepal this weekend, ordinary people hope his tour of earthquake-hit areas will draw attention to the country’s struggle to recover from last year’s disaster.

JAPAN  Scandal-plagued Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. sells its medical unit to Japanese camera maker Canon Inc. for 665.5 billion yen. Separately, Toshiba says it reached an agreement with Chinese home appliance manufacturer Midea Group on selling its refrigerator and other so-called “white goods” business.
JAPAN posted its biggest trade surplus in over four years in February, thanks to a strengthening in the yen and weak oil prices, though both imports and exports fell, suggesting persisting slack demand both in Japan and overseas.

INDONESIA’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 6.75 percent to help enhance domestic demand to bolster economic growth momentum.

PHILIPPINES A Senate committee investigates how USD81 million stolen by hackers from the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank account of Bangladesh’s central bank was transmitted to four private Philippine bank accounts and then to three casino companies.

TURKEY The Kurdish militant group TAK says it carried out Sunday’s deadly attack in Ankara. In an online statement it said the attack, which killed 37 people, was in revenge for military operations in the mainly Kurdish south-east. The TAK, an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), had already said it was behind another bombing in Ankara last month.

CYPRUS  President Nicos Anastasiades says Turkey must open its airports and ports to Cypriot ships and planes if it wants to join the European Union — a standoff that is hampering efforts to seal an EU-Turkey migrant agreement. Anastasiades said yesterday that “every candidate country should fulfill its obligations and it’s obvious that unfortunately, until now, Turkey hasn’t.”

USA Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father’s legacy with his own music career and whose kidnapping as a young man added a bizarre chapter to his father’s legendary life, died yesterday [Macau time]. He was 72.