1. US rejects N. Korea peace treaty bid

    The United States said on Sunday it received a North Korean proposal to discuss a peace treaty for the Korean Peninsula* but rejected it when Pyongyang refused to consider reducing its nuclear arsenal*.

    State Department spokesman John Kirby disclosed the exchange when asked about a Wall Street Journal report that President Barack Obama’s administration had secretly agreed to peace talks, days before Pyongyang carried out its latest nuclear test early this year.

    That January 6 test — the country’s fourth after previous tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 — brought an end to the exploratory* contacts that took place at the United Nations.

    2. London mayor backs Brexit

    London’s mayor Boris Johnson has thrown his weight behind* the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in a blow to his old friend and rival Prime Minister David Cameron, who had appealed for his backing.

    “After a great deal of heartache... I will be advocating vote ‘Leave,’” Johnson said, making his long-awaited announcement to a large crowd gathered outside his home in London on Sunday.

    Johnson, a popular politician from Cameron’s Conservative Party who is seen as a potential successor to the British premier, said he wanted ties with Europe based on “trade and cooperation” and not “a political project.”

    3. Fiji cyclone toll hits 20 as tourists flee

    Tourists began fleeing cyclone-ravaged* Fiji on Monday and aid efforts intensified as the death toll climbed to 20, with officials warning it could rise further as reports trickle in from devastated remote communities.

    Aerial* photographs revealed entire villages were flattened* when severe tropical cyclone Winston struck overnight on Saturday, lashing* the Pacific island nation with gusts* of 325 kilometers per hour.

    4. Thousands rally over cop’s conviction

    About 10,000 supporters of a former police officer convicted of fatally shooting an unarmed man in a darkened stairwell* rallied in New York in one of several demonstrations held across the United States on Saturday to protest his conviction.

    Peter Liang, who has said the shooting was an accident, was convicted of manslaughter* this month in the death of Akai Gurley, who was fatally shot in 2014 inside a New York City public housing building.

    Many of Liang’s supporters say he is being scapegoated* because of anger over other police shootings in New York and across the country and that he has been treated unfairly because he is Asian-American.

    5. Jeb Bush ends White House bid

    Jeb Bush withdrew from the U.S. presidential race on Saturday after another humiliating primary defeat in South Carolina.

    The former Florida governor — son of one president and brother of another — started his campaign as the odds-on* favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination, backed by a prodigious* political brain trust and millions of dollars in donations from private and corporate supporters.

    Although the 62-year-old Bush led some opinion polls very early in the campaign, his support had dwindled by Saturday to single digits nationally, and his White House aspirations were on life support.

    6. Obama to make historic trip to Cuba

    U.S. President Barack Obama will pay a historic visit to Cuba in the coming weeks, senior Obama administration officials said on February 17, becoming the first U.S. president to step foot on the island in nearly nine decades.

    The brief visit in mid-March will mark a watershed* moment for relations between the United States and Cuba, a communist nation estranged* from the United States for half a century until Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro relaunched ties in 2014. (SD-Agencies)