World briefs

Financial Markets Wall Street

US The Dow Jones industrial average surpassed 19,000 for the first time Tuesday as a post-election rally drove indexes further into record territory. Discount store chains made large gains, but health care companies tumbled.

CHINA The U.N.’s intellectual property agency says China continued to set the pace worldwide for patent applications last year, filing a record 1 million that nearly all focused on its giant home market.

Rodrigo Duterte

PHILIPPINES Armed forces chief says five military exercises with the United States, including at least two major naval drills, will be scrapped next year at the direction of President Rodrigo Duterte.

THAILAND The head of a powerful Buddhist sect in Thailand will be indicted next week on charges of money laundering and related crimes involving millions of embezzled funds that allegedly reached the temple’s coffers, prosecutors said yesterday.

South Korea Japan

JAPAN SOUTH-KOREA An intelligence-sharing agreement between South Korea and Japan took effect yesterday after the countries signed the pact to better monitor North Korea, Seoul officials said.

INDIA-PAKISTAN Artillery fire and shelling from India targeted several Pakistani villages and struck a passenger bus near the dividing line in the disputed region of Kashmir yesterday, killing 12 civilians wounding more than a dozen others, the Pakistani military and officials said.

RUSSIA has accused the International Paralympic Committee of “extortion” after it required Russian officials to pay for extra drug-testing following the country’s doping scandal.

Turkey EU

TURKEY’s president declared yesterday that an upcoming vote in the European Parliament on whether to freeze membership talks with Turkey is of “no value” to his country.

ITALY Police in southern Italy and Germany have arrested 13 people, most of them Somalis, accused of transporting migrants who had arrived in Italy by sea to locations throughout Europe

APTOPIX Brazil Austerity Protest

BRAZIL More than 1,000 public workers protested in front of Rio de Janeiro’s state legislature as lawmakers prepared to vote on steep austerity measures that many fear could exacerbate a deteriorating security situation and cause myriad other problems.

DALAI LAMA Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama says he has “no worries” about Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president, adding that he expects the businessman will align his future policies with global realities. 

Categories World