World Briefs

NORTH KOREA A Washington envoy said the U.S. and China are united in their opposition to the North’s nuclear tests and worked together to develop the tough sanctions imposed in March. Sung Kim, the U.S. government’s top envoy for North Korea, told reporters in Beijing that China took as much part in drafting the U.N. Security Council’s March resolution as Washington or the Security Council did.

SOUTH CHINA SEA China’s Defense Ministry appeared yesterday to confirm a test of an intercontinental missile over disputed waters in the South China Sea. A three-sentence statement posted on the ministry’s website posed the question of whether China had fired an ICBM in the area of the South China Sea.

CHINA  is increasingly becoming a nation of town and city dwellers, with more than 55 percent now living in urban areas, the government says. China’s transformation to a predominantly urban society is key to realizing the government’s goals of boosting consumption and raising living standards amid slowing economic growth.

JAPAN Officials raided an office of Mitsubishi Motors following the revelation that the carmaker had falsified its fuel economy data. The officials searched its plant in the central Japanese city of Okazaki. Mitsubishi has admitted that employees altered data to flatter mileage rates on more than 600,000 vehicles.

HAWAII A pilot is preparing to take off for a flight from Hawaii to California with no jet fuel aboard his plane. The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 is scheduled to leave Hawaii today to continue its circumnavigation of the globe using only energy from the sun.

USA The CIA is expanding survivor benefits for agency employees and contractors killed in the line of duty overseas in acts of terrorism.

USA paper money is getting a historic makeover: Harriet Tubman will become the first African-American to adorn U.S. currency.

EU After the European Central Bank’s decision to keep its interest rates unchanged at record lows, President Mario Draghi said the bank can deploy more stimulus if global troubles threaten to push a modest economic recovery off the rails and further weighs on inflation. Overall, though, he sounded a relatively optimistic – and firm – tone that helped the euro rise 0.6 percent to USD1.1373.

SPAIN A hospital on the island of Mallorca says that James Bond movie director Guy Hamilton has died at age 93. Hamilton directed “Goldfinger,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Live And Let Die” and “The Man With The Golden Gun.” He lived on Mallorca and the Hospital Juaneda Miramar in Palma de Mallorca said in a statement yesterday that Hamilton died there a day earlier.