China's top economic official, Premier Li Keqiang, has met with the CEO of electric car brand Tesla Inc., Elon Musk.
Musk and other businessmen met with Li on Wednesday in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People.
Tesla broke ground this week in Shanghai on its first factory outside the United States.
Musk says production of Tesla's Model 3 will start late this year.
Li told Musk he hoped Tesla can become an "in-depth participant in China's opening and a promoter of the stability of Chinese-U.S. relations.

Chinese premier meets with Tesla's Musk as trade talks end

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China may further fortify man-made islands in the South China Sea depending on threats faced by the outposts, a Chinese naval officer said Wednesday.
Navy academy researcher Senior Capt Zhang Junshe repeated China's stance that it has the legal right to take whatever measures it deems appropriate on the islands in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety.
"If our on-island personnel and installations come under threat in future, then we necessarily will take measures to boost our defensive capabilities," Zhang, a senior researcher at the institute, said at a briefing for Chinese and foreign journalists.
Pentagon officials have long said that China has failed to fulfill a 2015 pledge by President Xi Jinping not to expand development in the area, where it has built seven islands by piling sand and cement on coral reefs, equipping some with airfields.
China says the development primarily serves civilian purposes.
Five other governments have territorial claims ...

China officer says island fortification driven by threats

Israel's Shin Bet security service assured the public Wednesday it was well prepared to thwart any foreign intervention in the country's upcoming elections, after its director warned a world power was making such efforts.
The statement followed reports that Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman recently told a closed audience that a foreign country was trying to intervene in the April elections and that operatives were trying to meddle via hackers and cyber technology.
"The Shin Bet would like to make clear that the state of Israel and the intelligence community have the tools and capabilities to identify, monitor and thwart foreign influence efforts, should there be any," it said.
"The Israeli defense apparatus is able to guarantee democratic and free elections are held in Israel." Argaman did not say for whose benefit the alleged meddling was being done. Initial reports about his comments were placed under a military gag order that was later lifted, though the naming of the country is ...

Israel says it can foil foreign election meddling amid scare

The Kremlin says there is "understanding" on how crucial data on drug use by Russian athletes will be handed over to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
WADA officials are due to arrive in Moscow on Wednesday for their third visit seeking the lab data. The Moscow laboratory data could help WADA file doping charges against numerous Russian athletes.
Russia missed a deadline to hand over the data by Dec. 31, meaning its anti-doping agency could face sanctions from WADA.
"There were some working disagreements which arose last time related to which storage devices (the data) will be transferred onto and how, and so on. I would say these are not so much substantial matters as issues of logistics," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Wednesday.
"As far as we know via our sports authorities, there are intensive contacts under way and now understanding has been reached with the WADA representatives regarding how the work will continue."
Despite protests from many ...

Russia says 'understanding' reached on doping data for WADA

Facebook was defending itself Wednesday against allegations that it allows illegal content in violation of Vietnam's new cybersecurity law.
The social media giant said it has restricted illegal content and is in discussions with the government.
"We have a clear process for governments to report illegal content to us, and we review all those requests against our terms of service and local law," the company said in a statement. "We are transparent about the content restrictions we make in accordance with local law in our Transparency Report ," it said.
The comments were in response to Vietnamese state media reports that the Ministry of Information and Communication had complained Facebook was allowing users to upload slanderous content and anti-government comments, among other alleged violations of a cybersecurity law that took effect January 1.
The law requires service providers such as Google and Facebook operating in Communist-ruled Vietnam to store user data locally, open local ...

Facebook rebuts Vietnam claims over alleged illegal content

The Afghan president's special peace envoy has expressed hopes the war that has ravaged Afghanistan for over 17 years and cost the United States about USD 1 trillion will end in 2019.
Mohammad Omer Daudzai summed up his optimism in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, saying: "We are naming 2019 as a year of peace for Afghanistan."
However, he cautioned there won't be peace until the Taliban, who have held several rounds of talks with Washington's special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, agree to direct talks with the Afghan government.
So far, the insurgents have refused.
Khalilzad is on a new tour of the region and will travel to India, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. This time he isn't expected to visit Qatar, where the Taliban have a political office.

Afghan envoy hopes 2019 to be year of peace for Afghanistan

Australia will assess runaway Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun for settlement after the United Nations on Wednesday deemed her a refugee.
The Department of Home Affairs confirmed in a statement that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had referred 18-year-old Alqunun to Australia for consideration for refugee settlement.
Alqunun arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait on Saturday, and planned to continue to Australia, for which she held a tourist visa.
But after being detained by Thai authorities, she refused to board a flight back to Kuwait, barricading herself in a hotel room.
After publicising her case via social media, saying she feared for her safety if made to return home to her family, she was placed in the care of UNHCR workers as her bid for refugee status was considered, leading to her referral to Australia on Wednesday afternoon.
"The UNHCR has referred Ms Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun to Australia for consideration for refugee resettlement," Australia's Home Affairs ...

Australia considering resettlement for runaway Saudi woman

The Maldives' government has asked citizens to report information regarding allegations of corruption and abuse of power during the tenure of the strongman leader defeated in elections last year.
The request, in a statement from the president's office on Wednesday, came a day after police questioned former President Yameen Abdul Gayoom over alleged illegal financial transactions for a third time.
The statement said information on cases of corruption and abuse of power within state institutions from January 1, 2012, to November 17, 2018, could be reported via written submission to the Presidential Commission on Corruption and Asset Recovery. Yameen was president for most of that period. Submissions should be made before February 24.
The commission was established by new President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih when he assumed office in November, in keeping with his electoral pledge of a clean government and to investigate alleged misdeeds of Yameen's administration. Solih defeated Yameen in ...

Maldivians asked to report on possible graft of prior gov't

Thousands of garment workers staged demonstrations to demand better wages for the fourth straight day on Wednesday, shutting down factories on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.
The Daily Star newspaper reported that one protesting worker was shot dead and three dozen others were injured in clashes with police.
Police fired tear gas and water cannons and used batons to prevent people from blocking off the road leading to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Workers responded by hurling bricks at police and setting vehicles ablaze.
Bangladesh's garments industry generates around $30 billion in exports a year, making it the second largest in the world after China. Bangladeshi garment workers make products for big-name fashion retailers including Zara, H&M and Uniqlo.
For months workers have been demanding higher minimum pay than what the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has proposed.
Protesting garment worker Shefali Begum told The Associated Press on Tuesday ...

Bangladesh garment worker protest continues for 4th day

The Maldives' government has asked citizens to report information regarding allegations of corruption during the tenure of a strongman leader defeated in elections last year.
The statement from the Maldives president's office Wednesday comes a day after police questioned ex-President Yameen Abdul Gayoom over alleged illegal financial transactions for a third time.
The statement said information on cases of corruption and abuse of power within state institutions from January 1, 2012, to November 17, 2018, could be reported via written submission to the Presidential Commission on Corruption and Asset Recovery.
Submission of information should be made before February 24.
Yameen was president for most of that period.
The commission was established by new President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih when he assumed office in November, after defeating Yameen in elections.

Maldivians asked to report on possible graft of prior govt

China is allowing more than 2,000 ethnic Kazakhs to abandon their Chinese citizenship and leave the country, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said, in a sign that Beijing may be starting to feel a mounting backlash against its sweeping crackdown on Muslims in the far west region of Xinjiang.
The detention of Uighur, Kazakh and other ethnic minorities in internment camps has been a touchy issue in neighbouring Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country of 18 million people.
China is a major trading partner, and Kazakhstan's state-restricted media had generally avoided reporting on it.
But activists say pressure for action has slowly built, following an Associated Press story on the camps in May and other international media coverage.
The Foreign Ministry press office, in an email response, confirmed Kazakh media reports in December that China has agreed to let 2,000-plus ethnic Kazakhs leave.
It did not say who could leave or why. They will be allowed to apply for Kazakh citizenship or permanent ..

China allowing 2,000 ethnic Kazakhs to leave Xinjiang region

Taiwan's military on Wednesday announced a series of newly designed large-scale military drills for this year aimed at countering China's renewed threat to use force to gain control over the island.
While Taiwan's armed forces regularly hold such exercises, this year's drills are "being drafted based on newly adopted tactics for defending against a possible Chinese invasion," the official Central News Agency quoted Defence Ministry planning chief Maj Gen Yeh Kuo-hui as saying.
China claims sovereignty over the self-governing island democracy, which split from the mainland amid civil war in 1949.
Chinese President Xi Jinping renewed the threat of force in his January 2 message to the island, saying China reserved that right if necessary to counter interference by external forces and what he called an extremely small number of Taiwanese separatists.
Although Xi didn't mention the US by name, Washington is a key supplier of weaponry to the island and is legally bound to respond to ...

Taiwan announces new-look military drills to counter China

The motorcade of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un headed out Wednesday morning to an unannounced destination on the second full day of a visit to China that has been shrouded in secrecy but is seen as part of preparations for a possible second summit with President Donald Trump.
Kim could not be seen but the limousine he uses was observed zipping east down a main thoroughfare in Beijing and then returning about an hour later.
His trip to China, the fourth in the past 10 months, is believed to be an effort to coordinate with his only major ally ahead of a possible second meeting with Trump.
It comes after US and North Korean officials are thought to have met in Vietnam to discuss the site of the summit.
North Korean and Chinese state media have announced his visit but provided no details of what he has done since arriving aboard his personal armoured train on Tuesday morning.
He was believed to have met with President Xi Jinping Xi on Tuesday afternoon, but no news has been released ...

Kim Jong Un's motorcade heads out on day 2 of China trip

A South Korean district court said Wednesday it has decided to freeze the local assets of a Japanese company involved in compensation disputes for wartime Korean labourers.
Last October, South Korea's top court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp to pay 100 million won (USD 88,000) each to four plaintiffs forced to work for the company when Japan colonised the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.
The Daegu District Court's branch office in the southeastern city of Pohang said Wednesday it had approved a request by lawyers for the plaintiffs to seize Korean assets held by the Japanese company as it was refusing to compensate the former labourers.
Japan maintains all colonial-era compensation issues were settled by a 1965 treaty between the governments.
The Japanese company holds 2.34 million shares, or around USD 9.7 million, in its joint venture in Pohang with South Korean steelmaker POSCO.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified official at the Pohang office, ...

S. Korea freezes Japan company assets over forced labour spat

US President Donald Trump made a televised plea for border wall funding Tuesday night, seeking an edge in the shutdown battle with congressional Democrats as he declared there is "a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul".
Addressing the nation from the Oval Office for the first time, Trump argued for funding on security and humanitarian grounds as he sought to put pressure on newly empowered Democrats amid an extended partial government shutdown.
The US president called on Democrats to return to the White House to meet with him, saying it was "immoral" for "politicians to do nothing."
Trump, who has long railed against illegal immigration at the border, has recently seized on humanitarian concerns to argue there is a broader crisis that can only be solved with a wall along the US-Mexico border.
But critics say the security risks are overblown and his administration is at least partly to blame for the humanitarian situation.
Trump has been discussing the ..

Trump urges wall funding to fix border crisis in TV address

Police served a search warrant Tuesday to get DNA from all male employees at a long-term care facility in Phoenix where a patient who had been in a vegetative state for years gave birth, triggering reviews by state agencies and putting a spotlight on safety concerns for patients who are severely disabled or incapacitated.
Hacienda HealthCare said it welcomed the DNA testing of employees.
"We will continue to cooperate with Phoenix Police and all other investigative agencies to uncover the facts in this deeply disturbing, but unprecedented situation," the company said in a statement.
Local news website Azfamily.com first reported the woman, who had been in a vegetative state for more than 10 years after a near-drowning, delivered a baby on December 29.
Her identity has not been reported, and it's not known if she has a family or a guardian. It's also unclear if staff members at the Hacienda de Los Angeles facility were aware of the pregnancy until the birth.
In a statement, board ...

Facility's CEO resigns after vegetative patient gives birth

An Oklahoma woman looking for love got more than she bargained for when she unwittingly shared her exhilaration about illegally shooting a "bigo buck" on a dating app with a state game warden.
Oklahoma Game Warden Cannon Harrison says he uncovered the poaching in a conversation on Bumble with a McIntosh County woman.
She talked about using a spotlight to shoot the deer at night, outside the rifle season.
The woman only harvested the head and back-strap meat  and she sent Harrison pictures as proof.
The woman has pleaded guilty to charges of improper possession of an illegally taken animal and taking game out-of-season. She and an accomplice face USD 2,400 fines.
The incident was posted to the Oklahoma Game Wardens Facebook page on Sunday night.

Oklahoma game warden catches poacher via dating app

The Russian lawyer who attended the Trump Tower meeting that is a focus of the special counsel's investigation into possible collusion was charged with obstructing an unrelated tax-fraud case, federal prosecutors in New York has said.
Natalya Veselnitskaya was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice after prosecutors said she teamed up with a senior Russian prosecutor and submitted deceptive declarations in a civil proceeding involving a Russian tax refund fraud scheme.
The indictment, which is unrelated to Russian election interference and brought by the Manhattan US attorney, illustrates Veselnitskaya's close ties to the Russian government, which she has denied.
It renews questions about the circumstances of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, which also was attended by Donald Trump Jr. and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump Jr. has acknowledged that he met with Veselnitskaya because he had been told she could offer damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton from the ..

Russian lawyer who met Trump Jr. charged in unrelated case

Deadly winter weather blasted Europe, trapping hundreds of people in Alpine regions, whipping up high winds that caused flight cancellations and increasing the risks of more deadly avalanches.
At least 13 people have been killed in weather-related accidents in Europe over the last week, most of them from avalanches.
In Norway, attempts to find the bodies of four skiers were again put on hold on Tuesday due to poor visibility and heavy snowfall. A 29-year Swedish woman and three Finns, aged 29, 32 and 36, were presumed dead after a 300-metre wide avalanche hit a valley near the northern city of Tromsoe last week.
Romanian police on Tuesday found the frozen body of a 67-year-old man in a parking lot in the southern city of Slatina after his wife reported he hadn't returned from work. Temperatures in Romania plunged to a low of minus 24 Celsius.
In Austria, hundreds of residents were stuck in their homes due to blocked roads and some regions experienced power outages after snow-laden ...

Winter storm blasts Europe; 13 dead amid heavy snow, gusts

Sears is getting another reprieve from liquidation after its chairman and largest shareholder revised his bid to save the iconic brand.
The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based retailer says it has accepted Eddie Lampert's bid through an affiliate of his ESL hedge fund that could keep 425 stores open and save tens of thousands of workers, according to a hearing on Tuesday at the bankruptcy court in White Plains, NY.
The bid now requires Lampert to deposit USD 120 million by 4 pm Wednesday through his hedge fund.
The revised bid is not official, and will be evaluated in an auction set for January 14 that will compete with other bids from liquidators looking to shut it down.

Sears gets another reprieve from liquidation

Amazon has eclipsed Microsoft as the most valuable publicly traded company in the US as a see-sawing stock market continues to reshuffle corporate America's pecking order.
The shift occurred Monday after Amazon's shares rose 3 per cent to close at USD 1,629.51 and lifted the e-commerce leader's market value to USD 797 billion.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's stock edged up by less than 1 per cent to finish at USD 102.06, leaving the computer software maker's value at USD 784 billion.
It marks the first time Amazon has held the top spot and ends Microsoft's brief return to the pinnacle after it surpassed Apple in late November.
The repositioning has been triggered by mounting concerns that the Trump administration's trade war with China and rising interest rates will bog down the worldwide economy.
If that were to happen, it's likely to slow the growth of companies in technology and other industries that generate a substantial chunk of their revenue outside the US.
That's one reason most ...

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