Briefly

FRANCE

Ex-PM Fillon jailed over wife's fake job

French former prime minister Francois Fillon, convicted of embezzlement of public funds by creating a fake job for his wife, was sentenced to five years in prison with three suspended, a Paris court ruled on Monday. His wife Penelope was given a suspended three-year sentence. Both were fined 375,000 euros ($420,000). The couple's lawyer said they would appeal after the court ruling was read. Fillon served as prime minister from 2007 to 2012. In January 2017, when he was campaigning in the presidential election, the French press reported that Penelope, as Fillon's assistant, was paid up to 10,000 euros a month for little to no work.

JAPAN

Space tie-up with US to 'counter threats'

Japan said on Monday it will step up its defense capability in space and improve its ability to detect and track missiles, while cooperating with the United States in response to what it called a growing threat from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and China. A revised basic space policy adopted by the government's strategic space development panel endorses plans for a number of small-scale intelligence-gathering satellites to quickly assess DPRK's missile movements. In civil aerospace, Japan will seek to cooperate with the US in sending astronauts on a US lunar mission. The revised policy was adopted by the Cabinet on Tuesday. Japan aims to double the scale of its space industry from the current 1.2 trillion yen ($11 billion) by the early 2030s.

NEW ZEALAND

APEC's summit next year to go virtual

The annual APEC summit of Asia-Pacific leaders will be virtual next year to avoid travel risks associated with the global coronavirus pandemic, 2021 host New Zealand said on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Winston Peters said holding the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit online, instead of in Auckland, was a "pragmatic" response to the crisis. He said in a statement that the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected the way of conducting international diplomacy, and given the global environment, planning to have such a large volume of high-level visitors in New Zealand from late 2020 is impractical, he added. The decision to go virtual also eases a logistical headache for organizers, who were struggling to find sufficient hotel rooms in Auckland after the construction of the planned venue was delayed by a huge fire last year.

Agencies - Xinhua