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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — International stock markets rose today with Europe off to a strong start in early trading as investors reassessed an unexpectedly wide array of stimulus measures announced a day earlier by the European Central Bank. Futures point to opening gains on Wall Street. Benchmark U.S. crude added close to a dollar to rise above $38.50 per barrel. The dollar gained against the yen and the euro.
SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian court today sentenced a Chinese former executive to more than eight years in prison for insider trading in 2011. At the time, Hui Xiao's privately-owned energy conglomerate Sichuan Hanlong Group subsidiary was preparing takeover bids for two Australian mining companies. He must serve five years and six months in prison before he is eligible for parole. Xiao fled Australia for China in 2011 and was arrested in Hong Kong in January 2014.
BEIJING (AP) — China's environment minister says the country will not return to its era of pursuing economic growth at the expense of the environment despite its slowing economy. Chen Jining says China will continue to restructure its economy away from heavily polluting companies to create more room for "good companies" to develop and focus on technological innovation. Chen pointed to the need to rein in local governments, some of whom are still leery of enforcing environmental laws.
DETROIT (AP) — It's a first for police cars: Doors that can protect against armor-piercing bullets. Ford will soon be offering the doors on its Police Interceptor sedans and SUVs. They'll be the first in the U.S. to meet the Justice Department's highest standard for body armor, the equivalent of a bulky SWAT team vest. The doors are designed to stop a .30-caliber bullet shot from a high-powered rifle. That's more powerful ammunition than many soldiers carry.
MINAMISANRIKU, Japan (AP) — Today is the fifth anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant melt down that killed more than 18,000 people and left a devastated coastline along the country's northeast that has still not been fully rebuilt. In one town, a handful of tourists offered prayers in the morning at the skeletal remains of the former disaster prevention center, where 43 workers died as tsunami waves engulfed the three-story building.
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