World briefs

CHINA’s conversion of coal into natural gas could prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths each year. But there’s a catch: As the country shifts its use of vast coal reserves to send less smog-inducing chemicals into the air, the move threatens to undermine efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, researchers said.

CHINA Wang Baoan, former head of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, was indicted on suspicion of accepting bribes. Wang is accused of taking advantage of his posts as NBS chief and assistant and vice finance minister to benefit others, and “illegally accepting a huge amount of money and property” either by himself or through others, Xinhua said, citing the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. 

THAILAND Police in Thailand say a man upset with his wife hanged their 11-month-old daughter on Facebook Live and then killed himself. Police found the bodies of 20-year-old Wuttisan Wongtalay and the baby in an abandoned hotel in Phuket after receiving reports of the video. Wuttisan and his wife had been arguing. The man made the broadcast Monday evening, and the video was made inaccessible by Facebook late yesterday.

SWEDEN A Swedish court yesterday sentenced three men aged 18-24 for participating in a gang rape that was streamed live on a closed Facebook group. One of the men was given a sentence of 27 months for rape and assistance to rape. The others were given respectively one year — which was halved because he was a minor at the time of the crime — and six months. Two of the men are Afghan citizens and the third is a Swedish citizen of Afghan descent.

ATLANTIC OCEAN Authorities say two crew members are dead after an explosion on a ship in the North Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement that the captain of the Tamar, a 623-foot Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier, reported an explosion in the forward storeroom yesterday. The captain reported that one crew member was killed and three suffered massive burns. A second crewmember later died. The fire is extinguished, but the cause is unknown.

LAS VEGAS Elton John has cancelled more than a month of upcoming shows after contracting an unusual bacterial infection during a South America tour that left him in intensive care for two nights. John is scrapping all upcoming April and May dates of “The Million Dollar Piano” at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, as well as performance on May 6 in Bakersfield, California. The “Rocket Man” and “Daniel” singer says in a statement that he became “violently ill.”