World Briefs

CHINA Fourteen construction managers were sentenced yesterday to prison terms of three to six years for a deadly scaffolding collapse at one of Beijing’s most prestigious schools, a court said. The accident in December last year killed 10 construction workers and injured four others at Tsinghua University High School in the city’s northwest.

THAILAND’s government says it is not ignoring the slavery and forced labor in its lucrative shrimp industry that was highlighted in an Associated Press investigation published last week.

INDONESIAN police say they have foiled a plot to kill government officials and Shiite followers by suspected Muslim militants who were arrested in weekend raids. Security was raised at foreign embassies, public places and churches across Indonesia.

JAPAN A festival focused on the art of the short film is offering a new award of nearly a million dollars to a director from anywhere in the world with a great pitch for a movie.

JAPAN  Scandal-plagued Japanese manufacturer Toshiba Corp. is cutting 6,800 jobs after projecting a net loss of 550 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the fiscal year through March 2016.

INDIA A man convicted as a juvenile in the fatal 2012 gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving bus in New Delhi ended his three-year term in a reform home Sunday, as angry protesters demanded that he remain in detention.
U.S. The most polluted nuclear weapons production site is now the newest national park. Thousands of people are expected next year to tour the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, home of the world’s first full-sized nuclear reactor.

U.S.  “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” brought in a galactic USD238m over the weekend, making it the biggest North American debut of all time according to studio estimates on Sunday. The Walt Disney Co. earnings destroy the previous opening record set by Universal’s “Jurassic World,” which drew USD208.8m this summer.

BELGIUM The European Union has renewed its economic sanctions against Russia for six months, after concluding that Moscow has failed to fully respect a peace agreement in eastern Ukraine. The sanctions target Russia’s financial, energy and defense sectors as well as some dual-use goods.

FRANCE  Air France’s fourth bomb hoax since the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris led to the detention of a former police officer yesterday, the first arrest since a spate of scares began disrupting travel for thousands of its passengers. French authorities said the man, aged 58, was held after Air France Flight 463 completed its journey from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius following a diversion to Kenya early Sunday prompted by the discovery of what turned out to be a fake device left in one of the Boeing Co. 777 jetliner’s lavatories.

SPAIN A strong showing Sunday by a pair of upstart parties in the country’s general election upended the country’s traditional two-party system, with the ruling Popular Party winning the most votes but falling far short of a parliamentary majority and at risk of being booted from power.