IN BRIEF (Page 12)

LATIN AMERICA

Poverty on the rise again, says UN report

After more than a decade of decline, poverty in Latin America is once again on the rise, driven in part by economic crises in Venezuela and Brazil, according to a report released by a United Nations agency on Wednesday. Following 12 years of falling numbers, the poverty rate has increased two years in a row, growing 29.8 percent in 2015 and 30.7 percent in 2016, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean said. The report said the number of people in the region that live in poverty is now 186 million, including 61 million in extreme poverty.

YEMEN

Coalition hits back after missile attack

The Saudi-led coalition conducted multiple air raids in Yemen on Wednesday, a day after Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh. The Saudi-led strikes killed 11 civilians in the Houthi stronghold of Saada, a tribal chief and witnesses said, while unidentified assailants attacked Houthis guarding the Sanaa residence of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed by the Shiite rebels earlier this month. Teheran has denied supplying ballistic missiles to the Houthis.

UNITED KINGDOM

May accepts Brexit date compromise

British Prime Minister Theresa May gave her backing to a legislative compromise Wednesday allowing Brexit to be delayed, avoiding another parliamentary defeat while promising that pushing back the departure date would only happen in "exceptional circumstances". The comments came as the European Commission said that it wants a post-Brexit transition period, during which Britain must continue to obey EU rules, to finish at the end of 2020.

INDIA

Defendants cleared in telecom scam trial

A special court in the national capital on Thursday acquitted all the accused, including the country's former Telecom Minister A. Raja, in a multibillion dollar telecom scam. Special Judge O.P. Saini freed Raja and 19 other accused, including three companies, saying that the prosecution failed to prove its case. The scandal pertains to the mis-selling of bandwidth to telecom companies in 2008 by Raja, who was the telecom minister in the previous government, which caused a loss of $40 billion to exchequer.

SOUTH KOREA

'Nut rage' heiress spared prison time

South Korea's top court kept a Korean Air heiress out of prison on Thursday in the final verdict on the "nut rage" incident that triggered national uproar in 2014. Cho Hyun-ah became infuriated when a flight attendant served her some nuts in a bag rather than in a bowl. She lambasted the chief steward over the behavior of his cabin crew and ordered the Seoul-bound flight, which had just left the gate in New York, to turn back. Cho was initially sentenced to a year in jail, but her penalty was reduced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, on appeal.

(China Daily 12/22/2017 page12)