Word briefs

CHINA’s auto market had a bumper year in 2016 as sales grew by 15 percent, with drivers rushing to buy cars before a tax break expired at the end of the year. Automakers sold 24.4m cars, minivans and sport-utility vehicles. 

PH-JAPAN Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged USD8.7 billion worth of business opportunities and private investment along with speedboats and other counterterrorism equipment to the Philippines, whose president has boosted ties with China.

SOUTH KOREA, in the throes of a bird flu outbreak, has asked the United States to ship it shell eggs, marking the first time the Asian country has sought to buy large quantities of fresh U.S. eggs. The demand is good for a U.S. egg industry that’s awash in the product, having replenished its flocks after the 2015 bird flu outbreak and ending up with an oversupply that sent domestic prices to industry lows.

INDIA’s consumer inflation eased to a two-year low as demand slumped in the first full month of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cash clampdown, adding pressure for stimulus measures in the budget next month.

AFGHANISTAN The Taliban release a video showing an American and an Australian who were kidnapped in August, the first time they have been seen since their abduction.

NORWEGIAN mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a 2011 bomb-and-shooting rampage, told a court yesterday that his isolation in prison has hurt him, causing him to become even more radicalized. The 37-year-old right-wing extremist, who has been held in solitary confinement since being sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in prison, talked calmly in court before a three-judge panel and complained that he had been forced to strip naked in front of prison officials as frequently as five times a day.

UK Chelsea Football Club, the Premier League soccer team owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, was granted approval to demolish its stadium at Stamford Bridge in London to build a larger one. Hammersmith & Fulham borough council approved plans to build the 60,000-seat stadium, about a third more capacity than it currently has, late yesterday. The club has agreed to contribute USD4.33 million toward affordable housing in the area as part of the deal.

ISRAEL’s prime minister said yesterday that an upcoming conference in Paris aimed at reviving peace talks with the Palestinians was “rigged” and that Israel was not bound by the meeting. Dozens of countries are set to attend the conference on Jan. 15, where they may endorse an international framework for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vehemently opposes such a move, saying it would undermine the negotiating process.