World briefs

THAILAND A parcel delivery company in Bangkok put three packages bound for the United States through a routine X-ray and made a startling discovery: preserved human parts, including an infant’s head, a baby’s foot and an adult heart. The body parts were stolen from the medical museums of one of Bangkok’s biggest hospitals, its administrators say.

N KOREA An anxious North Korea will see how the boldest effort yet to bring its leaders to account for alleged crimes against humanity will move forward, as the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee votes on a resolution that demands the country’s referral to the International Criminal Court.

JAPAN has slashed its whale catch target in the Antarctic by two-thirds in a bid to resume its annual whale hunt, which an international court ruled must stop.

JAPAN Ken Takakura, a craggy-faced, quiet star known for playing outlaws and stoic heroes in scores of Japanese films, has died of lymphoma. He was 83.

Afghanistan  A Taliban suicide bomber and two gunmen targeted a foreigners’ compound in Kabul early yesterday, killing four people in the latest fatal blast to hit the Afghan capital. The attack started with a small, explosives-laden truck ramming the gate of the compound housing foreigners on the city’s eastern outskirts soon after sunrise, said Interior Ministry spokesman Seqid Sediqqi.

MYANMAR Students in Myanmar are threatening to hold nationwide protests unless the government amends an education law that they say restricts their academic freedom and prohibits them from engaging in political activities. After rallying in the streets of Yangon for four consecutive days Monday — and defying the threat of arrest — they gave the government 60 days to meet their demands.

GERMANY A burst of spring sunshine could be just the wakeup call for Europe’s comet lander. Scientists raise hopes that as the Philae lander nears the sun its solar panel-powered battery will recharge, and the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet will send a second round of scientific data back to Earth.

USA Mass murderer Charles Manson acquires a license to marry a 26-year-old woman who visits him in prison. The marriage license, which The Associated Press has obtained, was issued Nov. 7 for the 80-year-old Manson and Afton Elaine Burton, who left her Midwestern home nine years ago and moved to Corcoran, California — the site of the prison — to be near Manson.

UKRAINE  Germany’s foreign minister yesterday urged the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists to respect their cease-fire agreement, which has helped to halt ground combat but failed to stop daily artillery exchanges.