World briefs

CHINA One in five foreign companies in China feels compelled to hand over technology for market access, a business group said yesterday, highlighting a key irritant in an escalating U.S.-Chinese trade dispute. 

INDONESIA Distraught relatives slammed Indonesia’s government for not enforcing basic safety measures on passenger boats and pleaded Wednesday for a bigger search effort for more than 190 people presumed drowned after a ferry sank on a picturesque Sumatran lake early this week. 

INDIA’s federal government took direct control of Kashmir state yesterday after the ruling Hindu nationalist party ended its long-troubled alliance there with a Kashmiri political party.

SINGAPORE is setting targets to reduce cash and cheque usage as it prepares to allow companies to use its digital payments service in a move towards digital economy. Cheque will no longer be in use by 2025 while cash withdrawals from automatic telling machines will come down significantly, according to the plan.

UK-US British Prime Minister Theresa May says the United States is wrong to separate migrant children from their parents, but has rejected calls to cancel President Donald Trump’s visit to Britain next month.

CANADA The government said yesterday it will soon announce the date when cannabis will become legal — but warned it will remain illegal until then.

TURKEY’s airwaves and billboards are dominated by speeches and campaign ads for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, drowning out the opposition candidates in a country where the media is strongly biased in favor of the government.

GERMANY Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies warned the German leader Wednesday against offering financial concessions to other European countries to resolve a conflict over migration that has shaken her government.

HUNGARIAN lawmakers approved a law cracking down on immigration, a show of defiance by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who’s ignored threats from his European allies of being expelled from their political group.

SOUTH SUDAN’s warring leaders were set to meet face-to-face for the first time in almost two years yesterday amid efforts to end a five-year civil war.