News Headlines - 17 September 2019
▽Hon Hai's Gou gives up Taiwan presidential bid | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry, announced in a surprise move on Monday that he will not stand in Taiwan's presidential election next January.
Gou had been widely expected to run as an independent in the presidential race after he recently left the main opposition Nationalist Party.
Taiwan has said it is terminating diplomatic relations with the Solomon Islands "with immediate effect" after the Government there voted to change its allegiances and recognise China.
Taiwan condemned the decision, which it blames on "dollar diplomacy"
Solomon Islands is the sixth country to cut ties with Taiwan since 2016
The move is a new blow to Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, who is seeking re-election in January amid rising tension with China.
Taiwan now has formal relations with only 16 countries worldwide, but China claims Taiwan as its territory and says it has no right to formal ties with any nation.
▽After visiting North Korea, Trump says he won't visit North Korea | MSNBC
A South Korean newspaper reported yesterday that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un invited Donald Trump to Pyongyang as a way to restart failing nuclear talks. A reporter asked Trump yesterday whether the report was accurate... A moment later, Trump was asked whether he’d be willing to go to North Korea. The Republican added:
“Probably not. I don’t think it’s ready. I don’t think we’re ready for that. I would do it sometime at - sometime at a later future. And depending on what happens, I’m sure he’ll love coming to the United States also. But, no, I don’t think it’s ready for that. I think we have a ways to go yet.”
▽Blast sparks fire at Russian laboratory housing smallpox virus | The Guardian
A gas explosion has sparked a fire at a Russian laboratory complex stockpiling viruses ranging from smallpox to Ebola, authorities have said.
The State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology denied that the fire had exposed the public to the pathogens stored inside, some of the deadliest on Earth.
The blast took place during repairs to a fifth-floor sanitary inspection room at the facility - known as Vector - in Koltsovo, in the Novosibirsk region of Siberia, the centre said on Monday. The site housed secret biological weapons research during the Soviet era and is now one of Russia’s main disease research centres.
▽Ecuador Investigates Data Breach of Up to 20 Million People - The New York Times
Ecuador has begun an investigation into a sprawling data breach in which the personal data of up to 20 million people, more than the country’s population, was made available online.
The inquiry began after vpnMentor, an internet security firm, alerted the authorities to the enormous security failure, which included the exposure of the data of adults and children, both dead and alive. Ecuador has a population of over 16 million people.
