News Headlines - 17 December 2020
▽UN strikes agreement with Taliban leaders to set up thousands of schools in insurgent areas
The United Nations has reached an agreement with the Taliban leadership to set up thousands of schools inside insurgent-controlled territory.
A nationwide scheme with the UN's children's body, Unicef, will see as many as 4,000 informal schools operate in Taliban territory in Afghanistan, after months of negotiations with militant envoys in Doha... Unicef said it hoped the agreement would reach more than 120,000 young children in a country where an estimated 3.7 million are out-of-school, three-fifths of them girls.
▽Chinese capsule returns to Earth carrying moon rocks
A Chinese lunar capsule returned to Earth on Thursday with the first fresh rock samples from the moon in more than 40 years, offering the possibility of new insights into the history of the solar system and marking a new landmark for China’s rapidly advancing space program.
The capsule of the Chang’e 5 probe landed just before 2 a.m. (1800 GMT Wednesday) in the Siziwang district of the Inner Mongolia region, the China National Space Administration reported.
▽Moon formally suspends top prosecutor from duty | NHK WORLD
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has formally temporarily suspended the country's top prosecutor from his duty.
Moon on Wednesday approved the decision of the Justice Ministry disciplinary panel, which earlier in the day suspended Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl for two months.
Yoon has been at odds with Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae.
Yoon led the investigation into a corruption allegation involving the Moon administration, while Choo was tapped by the president to reform the prosecution service.
▽Man referred to prosecutors for cyberbullying 'Terrace House' star
A man in his 20s was referred to prosecutors Thursday by Tokyo police for allegedly posting hateful messages on social media against Hana Kimura, a cast member on the popular reality TV show "Terrace House" who died earlier this year in an apparent suicide.
The man, from the western Japan prefecture of Osaka, is suspected of having cyberbullied Kimura on Twitter by anonymously and repeatedly posting malicious comments, such as "Hey, when are you going to die?" according to investigative sources.
The highest grossing film in the history of Japan, the Oscar-winning Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away, 2001), has revised up its collection after new screenings in the country this year.
The film production company Toho has updated the film’s collection from 30.8 billion yen (244 million euros / 297 million dollars) to 31 thousand 680 million (251.5 million euros / 305.7 million dollars), according to data from the agency specialized Kogyo, which measures attendance and box office in Japan.
The new figure, which emerged on Tuesday night, includes the collection obtained in 2020 with the projection between June and August in more than 370 Japanese theaters of the aforementioned animated film and three other works by the famous Studio Ghibli on the occasion of the postponement of dozens of premieres for the COVID-19 pandemic.
