US State chief Kerry heads to Europe, Asia on multi-issue global tour

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry is headed to Europe and Asia this week on a trip focusing on climate change, the Mideast, tensions in the South China Sea and North Korean missile tests.

Kerry begins his trip in Vienna on Friday for a conference on reducing hydrofluorocarbon emissions. From there, he travels to Paris to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss efforts to promote peace with Israel. Kerry then attends a Southeast Asian security conference in Laos to be dominated by South China Sea disputes between China and its neighbors and North Korean missile tests.

China has rejected an arbitration panel's invalidation of its claims to vast swathes of the South China Sea. That decision came in a suit filed by the Philippines, which will be Kerry's last stop.