NORTH KOREA-UKRAINE The head of Ukraine’s top rocket-making company yesterday rejected claims that its technologies might have been shipped to North Korea, helping the pariah nation achieve a quantum leap in its missile program. KB Yuzhnoye chief Alexander Degtyarev voiced confidence that employees haven’t been leaking know-how to Pyongyang, according to remarks published by the online site Strana.ua. While denying any illicit technology transfers from the plant in the city of Dnipro, Degtyarev conceded the possibility that the plant’s products could have been copied.
CHINA-US President Donald Trump has signed an executive action that asks his trade office to explore a possible investigation into China for the alleged theft of American technology and intellectual property. The president said as he signed the memo at the White House, “This is just the beginning.”
INDONESIA Police say they’ve arrested five suspected Islamic militants and seized chemicals that were to be used for attacks on several locations, including the presidential palace. The militants arrested in Bandung yesterday are from Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of Indonesian extremist groups that pledges allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Among those arrested were a couple that was deported from Hong Kong on suspicion of spreading radical ideology.
PHILIPPINES Police says 21 alleged drug offenders were killed in raids in the northern Philippines while resisting arrest in the largest official single-day toll of the president’s anti-drug campaign.
NEW ZEALAND and Australia have close ties but also a rivalry that can sometimes turn ugly. That tension spilled into politics, when Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (pictured) accused New Zealand’s opposition Labour Party of conspiring to undermine her government, a claim New Zealand lawmakers said was “false” and “utter nonsense.” More on p13
USA A Canadian man attempted to ship live snakes to China through the mail. The U.S. attorney’s office in New York says 28-year-old Chaoyi Le, of Mississauga, Ontario, was taken into custody in Los Angeles after getting off a flight from Shanghai. Prosecutors say he previously was found with 55 live reptiles — including ball pythons — in Chicago during a trip from Toronto to China in February 2014. Officials say many of the reptiles are protected under international law.
USA Jury deliberations are set to begin in the murder trial of two Syracuse men charged with fatally shooting a college student from China during a drug deal robbery last year. The prosecutors and the defense lawyers for 24-year-old Cameron Isaac and 20-year-old Ninimbe Mitchell made their closing statements yesterday in a Syracuse courtroom. The defendants are charged with fatally shooting 23-year-old Yuan Xiaopeng on Sept. 30 during a marijuana deal.
