World Briefs

TAIWAN Chinese attempts to interfere in Taiwan’s presidential election campaign are happening “every day,” the island’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen, said yesterday. Tsai gave no details, but she said China was using “every means they can” to influence the Jan. 11 vote for president and lawmakers.

US-CHINA The United States government has failed to stop China from stealing intellectual property from American universities and lacks a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the threat, a congressional report concluded.

NORTH KOREA said yesterday it won’t consider a recent U.S. decision to postpone a joint military exercise with South Korea a major concession that can bring it back to nuclear talks. Senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol said the U.S. must completely scrap that military drill and abandon its hostility against his country if it wants to see the resumption of the nuclear negotiations.

INDIA The Parliament yesterday debated the toxic air threatening the lives of the capital region’s 48 million people, with opposition leaders demanding the creation of a parliamentary panel to remedy the situation on a long-term basis.

NEW ZEALAND Prince Charles met with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday and later joined wife Camilla to greet people along the Auckland waterfront. The heir apparent to the British throne and the Duchess of Cornwall were on the third day of a weeklong trip to New Zealand.

PAKISTAN Ailing former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was convicted of corruption, left the country yesterday to travel to London for medical treatment.

LEBANON Thousands of protesters rallying against the Lebanese political elite blocked roads in central Beirut yesterday, preventing lawmakers from reaching the parliament and forcing the postponement of a legislative session. The session had been scheduled even though the country is still without a Cabinet following the prime minister’s resignation amid unprecedented demonstrations that have gripped Lebanon since mid-October.

MALTA A man arrested in a money-laundering case in Malta claims to have information identifying the mastermind behind the car-bomb assassination of a leading investigative journalist, Maltese officials said yesterday. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he has offered an official pardon to the suspect if his evidence leads to the arrest of the mastermind behind the Oct. 16, 2017, assassination of Daphne Caruan Galizia [pictured].

SWEDEN A Swedish prosecutor says the alleged rape investigation involving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently in prison in Britain, has been discontinued. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson spoke yesterday as she gave an update on the Swedish case.

UK BRITAIN’s Prince Andrew is facing further disgrace as charitable backers begin to distance themselves from him amid unfavorable fallout of an interview on his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.