World Briefs

JAPAN-KOREA In a potentially far-reaching decision, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that a major Japanese steelmaker should compensate four South Koreans for forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II.

AUSTRALIA’s critical infrastructure including electricity grids, water supplies and hospitals could not have been adequately safeguarded if Chinese-owned telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE Corp. were allowed to help roll out the nation’s 5G network, a spy chief said. 

INDIA Maoist rebels killed a cameraman working for a state-run television channel and two policemen in an ambush yesterday in an insurgency-hit state in central India.

SYRIA Tens of thousands of Syrians stranded in a desert camp near the Jordanian border are at risk of starvation amid dwindling supplies and the approach of winter, while regional powers trade blame over who is responsible for this latest humanitarian catastrophe in Syria’s civil war.

SOMALI The normal-looking campaign rally in Somalia’s capital this month was anything but. Dozens of people were praising the former No. 2 leader of Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab.

ROMANIA’s president yesterday laid a wreath to mark three years since a deadly nightclub fire in the capital Bucharest killed 64 people, and a march is planned to remember the victims and protest the slow pace of the trial.

SPAIN The Spanish government said yesterday that the Vatican has agreed to jointly find ways to prevent the remains of late Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from being reburied under a central Madrid cathedral after they are exhumed from a glorifying mausoleum. 

BRITAIN Much of Britain will continue to feel the effects of eight years of spending cuts, even after the government’s Treasury chief heralded the end of austerity by splashing out billions of pounds for health, transportation and small business in his latest budget.

BRAZIL’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro signaled his administration would make tackling the country’s budget-crushing pension system a top priority, doubling down on a campaign promise that made him the choice of the business community despite frequently saying he doesn’t understand the economy.

U.S. colleges and universities have received more than USD350 million from the Saudi government this decade, yet some are rethinking their arrangements in the wake of the killing of a journalist that has ignited a global uproar against the oil-rich nation.