World Briefs

CHINA’s rubber-stamp national legislature yesterday approved the country’s first anti-terrorism law, amid concerns that its requirements that tech companies share information with the government could hurt business interests and further infringe upon human rights.

JAPAN A court gave the go-ahead for the restart of two nuclear reactors after its operator said in an appeal that they were safe. The Fukui District Court in western Japan lifted an April injunction that was filed by a group of residents who said that a massive earthquake exceeding the facility’s quake resistance could cause a disaster similar to the Fukushima crisis following the March 2011 quake and tsunami.

PHILIPPINES The government’s tax research unit said it supports pending bills in Congress to charge entrance fees in casinos and tax lottery winnings because horse racing, another form of gambling, is taxed, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on its website. The Department of Finance’s National Tax Research Center backs a 3,500 pesos (USD74) entrance fee for casinos, the newspaper said, citing the center’s “Profile and Taxation of Selected Gambling and Betting Activities in the Philippines.”

VIETNAM’s economic growth quickened in the fourth quarter helped by rising industrial output and record-high foreign investment.

INDONESIAN police said they have arrested two more suspected militants including a member of China’s ethnic Uighur minority who was allegedly preparing to be a suicide bomber.

AUSTRALIA Hundreds of surfers dressed as Santa Claus caught the waves and celebrated on the shore in what has become an annual tradition at Florida’s Cocoa Beach.

USA Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was poised to pass USD1b in worldwide ticket sales this weekend and become the first picture to reach that mark so quickly.

USA A boy who was driving a car that crashed near Pittsburgh has been tentatively identified by the government as the eighth death in the U.S. due to an explosive air bag inflator made by Japanese auto parts maker Takata.

THAILAND A court on Thursday sentenced two Myanmar migrants to death for the murder of two British backpackers on a resort island last year, in a case that raised questions about police competence and the judicial system in Thailand.

SYRIAN activists say government forces set off explosives planted at a farm where Islamic rebel factions were gathering, killing 17 militants.