World Briefs

CHINA President Xi Jinping says that China must be on guard against nefarious religious influences from abroad. His comments over the weekend follow a tightening of religious space that has seen bans on the wearing of veils and beards in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang and the removal of church crosses in eastern China.

VIETNAM-US Before joining President Barack Obama on his first trip to Vietnam next month, Secretary of State John Kerry will take a day to reflect on his long and complicated history with the Asian country, first as a soldier and later as a war protester and statesman.

USA In an extraordinary move, Trump’s Republican rivals announced plans to coordinate primary strategies in upcoming states to deprive the GOP front-runner of the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination. Cruz and Kasich issued near-simultaneous statements outlining an agreement that may be unprecedented in modern American politics. The Kasich campaign will give Cruz “a clear path in Indiana.” In return, the Cruz campaign will “clear the path” for Kasich in Oregon and New Mexico.
USA The Obama administration will likely soon release at least part of a 28-page secret chapter from a congressional inquiry into 9/11 that may shed light on possible Saudi connections to the attackers.

SOLAR PLANE A solar-powered airplane on a mission to fly around the world lands in California, completing a risky, three-day flight across the Pacific.

MEXICO There is strong evidence that Mexican police tortured some of the key suspects arrested in the disappearance of 43 students, according to a report released by an outside group of experts.

SYRIA An opposition monitoring group says at least 26 people, including two young siblings, killed in Aleppo, as rebels and government forces trade fire. Also yesterday, a car bomb has exploded in a suburb of Damascus that is home to one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Syria, killing six people.

SERBIA An official vote tally has confirmed Serbia’s incumbent pro-EU populists won a landslide victory in the country’s general election. The tally presented by the state electoral commission yesterday also shows pro-Russian nationalists are returning to Parliament. With about 96 percent of the vote counted, the Progressive Party won 48 percent and its Socialist coalition partner got 11 percent in Sunday’s vote. Two right-wing parties lagged far behind — the Radical Party with 8 percent and DSS-Dveri with 5 percent.

AUSTRIA The law-and-order candidate of Austria’s right-wing party sweeps the first round of presidential elections, winning over 35 percent of the vote for the party’s best-ever result.