Foreign Report: Poland removes food over salt fears

1. Poland, a major food exporter, removed from the market half a million pounds of food, including pickles and bread, because of fears it contained industrial salt, used for de-icing roads.

2. A performance this month of North Korea’s Unhasu Orchestra in Paris, arranged by the principal conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic, may signal a slight thaw in relations with the West.

3. Five men were flogged six times each in the Aceh province of Indonesia after their conviction on gambling charges. The province in the Muslim nation operates under a modified Sharia law, which prohibits games of chance.

4. A renewed U.S. State Department travel warning on Colombia notes that the situation has improved but also says “narco-terrorist groups continue to affect some rural areas and large cities.”

5. Bulgarians, known for their elaborately decorated eggs, have seen skyrocketing prices for them. Farmers blame European Union rules pertaining to raising chickens, but others say the increase is a way to profit just before Easter.

6. A Tibetan poet, under house arrest in Beijing, issued an online plea for Tibetans to stop self-immolations as a protest of China’s policies. Poet Tsering Woeser urged Tibetans to “cherish life.”

Sources: Associated Press and U.S. State Department