Briefly

SPAIN

Deadlock ends as PM Sanchez secures post

Spain's parliament voted to make Pedro Sanchez prime minister for another term on Thursday, ending a protracted deadlock after an inconclusive general election in July. His Spanish Socialist Workers' Party reached separate deals with a number of regional parties to earn their backing. His confirmation as premier ends months of uncertainty. Alberto Nunez Feijoo, a candidate with the conservative People's Party, won the most seats, but failed to secure enough support from other parties in his own bid to lead the country. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Sanchez on social media. "It is good that we can continue to work side by side. We see many challenges in the world from a very similar perspective," Scholz said.

SOUTH KOREA

5-year jail term sought for Samsung chief

Prosecutors sought on Friday a five-year jail term for Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong over charges of accounting fraud and stock price manipulation involving an $8 billion merger of Samsung affiliates in 2015. Lee has denied any wrongdoing. The hearing is the final lower court session before a ruling, which is expected within months, ending a trial that has lasted three years. The case is the last against Lee, who was pardoned for an earlier, separate conviction and cemented last year his leadership position of Samsung as executive chairman.

AUSTRALIA

Optus acknowledges failure during outage

Australia's second-largest telco, Optus, had no crisis plan when a network-wide outage left nearly half the country without phone or internet for 12 hours, an executive said on Friday, acknowledging the company's defenses had failed. The comments underscore concerns about the resilience of Australia's telecommunications networks, which have been in the spotlight since a massive data breach at Optus last year exposed the personal data of 10 million people. Now, the company is facing a fresh reputational crisis after the service blackout on Nov 8.

Agencies via Xinhua