World

SHANGHAI – China is considering raising its notoriously low limits on damages for intellectual property violations and strengthening litigation on trade secret theft, a Shanghai city official said Tuesday. The comments by Lyu Guoqiang, commissioner of Shanghai’s Intellectual Property Office, echo an action plan issued in December by the State …

MADRID – Spanish authorities say tax inspectors have searched the home of Rodrigo Rato, a former head of the International Monetary Fund and one-time senior member of government in Spain. The Madrid regional court said in a statement Thursday that a judge granted a request from the tax authorities to …

NEW DELHI – India’s navy and coast guard seized a suspicious boat from international waters off the western coast and detained eight Pakistanis after finding a huge drug shipment aboard, the defense ministry said Tuesday. Authorities believe the 232 packets of drugs found aboard the boat are heroin worth more …

BEIRUT – The Lebanese army says it arrested eight wanted militants, including a soldier who deserted to join the Islamic State group and four Syrians. An army statement late Thursday said the arrests came during a raid earlier in the day in the northern town of Akkar. The eight are …

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Witnesses say hundreds of bodies of alleged civilian victims of Boko Haram have been found in a recaptured Nigerian border town. Local government spokesman Babagana Mustapha says a committee sent to Damasak at the weekend found the town littered with bodies of women, children and some adult …

UNITED NATIONS – Israel is blaming its Arab neighbors for the failure of progress toward achieving a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, saying that “if a serious regional effort has not emerged in the Middle East during the last five years, it is not because of Israel.” The statement …

JERUSALEM – An Israeli group that collects testimonies from combat soldiers has published accounts from last year’s Gaza war alleging indiscriminate fire killed Palestinian civilians. Breaking The Silence charged Monday that accounts gathered from dozens of unnamed soldiers show a “change in the military’s combat norms.” Director Yuli Novak said: …

OTTAWA, Ontario – A meeting of Canada’s federal Conservative party was described as being like a “morgue” a day after Alberta, Canada’s most conservative province, elected a left-of-center provincial government, ending a 44-year-old conservative party dynasty. Voters in the western oil-rich province chose a New Democratic Party government Tuesday. The …

FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique – French President Francois Hollande told Caribbean leaders on Saturday that a planned international green fund could help the vulnerable, tourism-dependent region mitigate the effects of climate change. Hollande headlined the Caribbean Climate Summit, which drew about 40 leaders or top officials from regional nations including the Bahamas, …

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s defense minister says prosecutors are investigating possible ties between members of the military and a U.S.-based Muslim cleric. Ismet Yilmaz told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency Wednesday that following tips, military prosecutors have launched probes into more than a thousand personnel suspected of links to Fethullah Gulen’s …