World briefs

CHINA Police have detained a prominent human rights campaigner for allegedly using ID that wasn’t his own to buy train tickets, his lawyer said yesterday. Family and friends of Jiang Tianyong [pictured] last heard from him on Nov. 21 while he was in Changsha city in southern China visiting the wife of a rights lawyer detained in a broad crackdown that began last year.

CHINA appears to have installed anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons on its man-made islands in the strategically vital South China Sea, a U.S. security think tank says, upping the stakes in what many see as a potential Asian powder keg. 

JAPAN-RUSSIA The leaders of Russia and Japan hold talks at a hot springs resort in western Japan on a territorial dispute that has divided their countries for 70 years. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the summit meeting in Nagato city marks his first official visit to a G-7 country since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. 

SOUTH KOREA Liberal opposition politician Moon Jae-in (pictured), a possible presidential contender, says his country should reconsider plans to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system to cope with North Korean threats, a move Washington is likely to see as disruptive.

THAILAND Police say a rubber farmer has been shot dead in the southern Thai province of Sonkhla, in the latest attack in a region that has been in the grip of an ethnic Malay Muslim insurgency for over a decade.

AUSTRALIA-JAPAN A Japanese-Australian community leader says he has filed a racial discrimination complaint against a Sydney church that he alleged intimidated Japanese nationals by erecting a memorial to women forced to work as sex slaves by Japan’s World War II army.

SYRIA A cease-fire deal between rebels and the government in the city of Allepo foundered yesterday, threatening plans to evacuate the remaining rebels and tens of thousands of civilians out of harm’s way in what would effectively seal the enclave’s surrender. The withdrawal was supposed to start at dawn but shelling resumed in the morning hours and buses meant for the evacuations.

USA President-elect Donald Trump has pledged deep tax cuts and increased infrastructure spending to restore lost jobs, accelerate the economy and bring prosperity to more Americans. Janet Yellen has her doubts. The Federal Reserve chair sought yesterday to make a nuanced point: The moment for a deficit-fueled stimulus to improve job creation has likely passed. Meanwhile, the Electoral College convenes on Monday in the final act of a lengthy election. A vote swing against Trump is very unlikely. 

BOXING The Muhammad Ali Center in Kentucky says it’s planning a four-day celebration early next year to coincide with what would have been the boxing great’s 75th birthday. The community activities at the downtown center in Ali’s hometown of Louisville will start Jan. 14 and continue through Ali’s birthday on Jan. 17. Ali died June 3 at the age of 74.