The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“If people had jumped into the water … they could have been rescued. But we were told not to go out.”

Koo Bon-hee, a passenger on a ferry that sank off South Korea’s coast in an accident that has left hundreds missing Article, 1A

Jordan destroys convoy at Syrian border

AMMAN, Jordan - Jordanian military warplanes struck a convoy of vehicles as they were trying to enter Jordan from Syria, the army said in a statement Wednesday.

A Syrian military official said the vehicles did not belong to the Syrian army.

The Jordanian military statement said the attack happened at 10:30 a.m. after “camouflaged” vehicles driving in a rugged area near the border ignored demands to stop from security forces. The statement said Jordanian aircraft fired warning shots at the vehicles but they did not stop. The warplanes then destroyed the vehicles.

The statement did not say how many vehicles were in the convoy, nor did it offer casualty figures. It also did not specify whether the vehicles were targeted on Syrian or Jordanian soil.

The strikes occurred after Syrian aircraft killed at least four people early Wednesday in a rebel-held town along the Lebanese border, activists said, as pro-government forces intensify their campaign against some of the last rebel strongholds on a valuable supply line.

Pakistani Taliban to let cease-fire lapse

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani Taliban said Wednesday that they will not renew a cease-fire with the government they called over a month ago to facilitate peace negotiations, but said they will still continue talks.

The announcement, which came just days after the country’s interior minister said comprehensive talks with the militants would start this week, throws into doubt the future of a peace process pushed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as the best way to end years of fighting in the northwest that has killed thousands of people.

In a statement emailed to reporters, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid blamed the government, saying it had continued operations against the group even during the cease-fire.

The statement made no mention of whether the group would immediately resume attacks.

Venezuelan truth commission expanded

CARACAS, Venezuela - Negotiators from Venezuela’s government and the opposition agreed to broaden membership in a truth commission tasked with investigating who is to blame for 41 deaths tied to weeks of political unrest.

The compromise was announced after hours of private negotiations that took place Tuesday night in what both sides described as a much-needed attempt at dialogue in a nation polarized by 15 years of socialist rule.

Heading into Tuesday’s talks, the government had insisted that any probing of the protests be led by Congress, which it dominates. But it partially met the opposition’s demands for an independent commission by agreeing to include national figures trusted by both sides.

Talks that began last week are being sponsored by the Vatican as well as three South American nations.

Editor admits hearing hacked voice mail

LONDON - Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that he listened to hacked voice-mail messages while he was editor of the tabloid.

Coulson told a London jury that he was “shocked” in 2004 when a reporter at the newspaper - owned by magnate Rupert Murdoch - said he had heard voice mails that showed Cabinet member David Blunkett was having an affair.

Coulson said he felt this was “an apparent breach of privacy” and ordered the reporter to drop the story.

But later, after hearing the messages, he decided there was “some public-interest justification” in running the story, on the grounds that Blunkett was being “distracted” by the affair and may have shared sensitive information.

“I remained shocked,” he said. “This was the first and only time a voice mail had been played to me.”

Coulson said he and the reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, did not discuss how the voice mail had been obtained and he did not know it was the “product of an illegal act.”

Coulson and six others are on trial on charges stemming from the revelation in 2011 that the News of the World regularly eavesdropped on the voice mails of people in the public eye. All have denied wrongdoing.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 04/17/2014

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