News Headlines - 03 December 2020

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai remanded into custody on fraud charge - CNA

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was remanded into custody on Thursday (Dec 3) after being charged with fraud, the latest in a string of prosecutions brought against high-profile Beijing critics and democracy campaigners.
Lai, 73, is the owner of Hong Kong's best-selling Apple Daily, a popular tabloid that is unashamedly pro-democracy and fiercely critical of authorities.
Lai and two of the firm's executives - Royston Chow and Wong Wai-keung - face fraud charges that court documents say are related to the paper's offices allegedly being used for purposes not permitted by the building's lease.

China: Moon probe preparing to return rock samples to Earth : The Asahi Shimbun

China’s latest lunar probe has finished taking samples of the moon’s surface and sealed them within the spacecraft for return to Earth, the government announced Thursday.
The Chang’e 5, the third Chinese probe to land on the moon, is the latest in a series of increasingly ambitious missions for Beijing’s space program, which also has a probe en route to Mars carrying a robot rover.
The Chang’e 5 touched down Tuesday on a mission to return lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since 1976.

Suspected North Korean hackers targeted COVID vaccine maker AstraZeneca - sources | Reuters

Suspected North Korean hackers have tried to break into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as the company races to deploy its vaccine for the COVID-19 virus.
The hackers posed as recruiters on networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers, the sources said. They then sent documents purporting to be job descriptions that were laced with malicious code designed to gain access to a victim’s computer.
The hacking attempts targeted a “broad set of people” including staff working on COVID-19 research, said one of the sources, but are not thought to have been successful.

Japan mobile carrier Docomo to introduce cheaper 20-gigabyte plan in March

Japan's leading wireless communication carrier NTT Docomo Inc. said Thursday it will introduce a 20-gigabyte monthly plan in March for 2,980 yen ($29), pricing it lower than comparative services its rivals announced in October to launch under their budget carrier brands following government pressure.
The new plan called "ahamo" is likely to pressure KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. to cut their fees for their new 20-gigabyte plans. The three firms together control roughly 90 percent of Japan's mobile phone market.

Ex-Japan minister may have taken cash in alleged egg farming bribery

Former farm minister Takamori Yoshikawa is suspected of taking cash from a former representative of a major egg production company in western Japan in return for favors for the egg farming industry, sources close to the matter said Tuesday.
Besides Yoshikawa, the 87-year-old former representative of Akita Foods Co. in Hiroshima Prefecture, whose name has not yet been revealed, may have handed cash to other lawmakers with vested interests in the agriculture industry, the sources said.
Tokyo prosecutors appear to be investigating the alleged bribing of Yoshikawa, 70, a House of Representatives member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, by questioning officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, as well as Akita Foods, according to the sources.