JAPAN
Seoul trade limit lifted
The government has lifted curbs on the export of a key microchip material to South Korea, news reports said yesterday, days before the leaders of the two countries meet in their first formal talks for more than a year. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Friday removed photoresists — used to coat semiconductor circuit boards — from Tokyo’s export restrictions against Seoul, the Asahi Shimbun and other reports said. The country in July tightened export controls on three materials essential to key products of South Korean tech companies after a series of South Korean court rulings ordered Japanese firms to compensate wartime forced labor victims.
UNITED STATES
Trump touts talk with Xi
President Donald Trump touted a “very good talk” on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on a deal to resolve their trade dispute, while Chinese media said Xi had complained about US interference in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Trump tweeted that China “already started large scale” increases in purchases of US farm goods, in line with the deal. However, he did not give a date for when the so-called “phase one” agreement would actually be signed. “Formal signing being arranged,” he said. Xi welcomed the progress, state news agency Xinhua reported.
UNITED STATES
Woman runs over teenager
A Des Moines woman was charged with attempted murder after she told police that she intentionally ran over a 14-year-old girl because she believed the teenager was Mexican, authorities said on Friday. Natalia Miranda suffered a concussion and severe bruising in the attack, but is expected to make a full recovery. Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42, admitted to steering her sports utility vehicle onto a sidewalk on Dec. 9 in the suburban Des Moines community of Clive and running over the teenager, who was walking to school to watch a basketball game, Clive Police Chief Mike Venema told a news conference. Franklin then fled the scene.
UNITED STATES
Family finds owl in tree
A Georgia family got a real hoot from its Christmas tree: More than a week after they bought it, they discovered a live owl nestled among its branches. Katie McBride Newman said on Friday that she and her daughter spotted the bird on Thursday last week. They had bought the 3m-tall tree from a Home Depot, brought it back to their Atlanta area home and decorated it with lights and, coincidentally, owl ornaments. “It was surreal, but we weren’t really freaked out about it,” McBride Newman said. The family called a nonprofit nature center to help them release the animal.
COLOMBIA
Uber to halt operations
Uber has been told to immediately suspend its ride-sharing services in the country, the industry and commerce authority announced on Friday, citing unfair competition laws. The US tech giant has about 2 million active users in the country, and about 88,000 drivers. The ruling, which is subject to an appeal, follows a lawsuit by a group of taxi drivers who have accused the company of unfair business practices. The head of the Industry and Commerce Department — which regulates the market — said that the company must cease operations immediately, citing “unfair competition” and a “significant advantage” over older and more traditional taxi services.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
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