World briefs

TAIWAN Former President Chen Shui-bian was granted a one-month medical parole yesterday for treatment of neural degeneration, more than four years into his 20-year prison sentence for corruption. More on p11

CHINA has eased controls on exports of rare earths, minerals used in mobile phones and other high-tech products, after losing a WTO case brought by Washington. Under the Ministry of Commerce’s trade guidelines for 2015, rare earths will no longer be covered by export quotas. Beijing imposed those quotas in 2009 while it tried to develop its own industry that transforms the minerals into lightweight magnets and other products.

SINGAPORE’s prime office rents are set to post their biggest increase in at least four years in 2014, and may extend gains this year in a supply-constrained market. The office rent index for prime areas rose 8.7 percent in the first nine months of last year, heading for its largest gain since 2010, when it was up 12 percent, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority. More on p14

SCOTLAND 8 crew members are presumed dead after a cargo ship capsized and sank north of Scotland. Rescuers have called off the search for the crew of the Cyprus-registered cement carrier Cemfjord, whose upturned hull was spotted by a passing ferry Saturday in the Pentland Firth. The vessel’s management company says bad weather was likely a factor in its sinking. The ship, which carried 7 Polish crew members and 1 Filipino, did not send a distress signal.
Mexico As he heads to Washington to meet with Barack Obama, Enrique Pena Nieto leaves behind a year that was hardly what he had envisioned. The Mexican president and his team started 2014 carrying out a slew of newly passed reforms, from breaking up telecommunications monopolies to opening the nation’s energy sector, earning him international plaudits, including a Time magazine cover with his image above the caption “Saving Mexico.”

UK Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II will make a state visit to Germany in June — the fifth such engagement of her long reign. The monarch will be accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh in the June 24-26 visit, which comes following an invitation by Joachim Gauck, Germany’s president.

GERMANY Police are investigating an attack on an Israeli who was beaten by a group of young men after he asked them to stop singing anti-Semitic songs on the Berlin subway on New Year’s Eve. Police are still looking for the attackers. The victim, 26-year-old Shahak Shapira, who lives in Berlin, told AP that after he asked the seven men to stop chanting anti-Jewish songs, he recorded them on his cell phone.

FRANCE A Roma community is burying a dead infant in a Paris suburb after questions erupted over where she should be laid to rest, raising national concerns about discrimination. About 200 family members and townspeople attended a funeral Mass yesterday.

LIBYA An unidentified warplane has bombed a Greek-owned tanker ship at the eastern Libyan port of Darna, killing two crew members and injuring two more, Greek authorities said yesterday. The Liberian-flagged Araevo was chartered by Libya’s state-run National Oil Corporation, Greece’s Foreign Ministry said. The ministry strongly condemned the attack, calling for the identification and punishment of the perpetrators, and demanding compensation for the victims’ families.