While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 5th edition

Obama to confront China's Xi on cyber spying: US officials

President Barack Obama will confront Chinese President Xi Jinping at talks in Beijing next week over deep US concerns about cyber spying by China's government and military and will insist that it be stopped, US officials said on Tuesday.

The officials, briefing reporters before Obama's trip to Beijing for an Asia-Pacific summit and one-on-one meetings with Xi, said that while US complaints had brought about a temporary reduction of Chinese cyber espionage, there had been no fundamental change in behaviour.

Obama's message to Xi on cyber spying, which has become a main point of US-China tension in recent years, was that Beijing could not could continue seeking competitive advantage against other countries using methods that violate international norms, one of the officials said.

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Britain loath to pressure China over Hong Kong because of trade: Former governor

Britain is not putting enough pressure on China to stick to its side of an agreement on the transfer of Hong Kong's sovereignty because it is worried about damaging trade links, former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten said on Tuesday.

China took back control of the former British colony in 1997 through a "one country, two systems" formula which allows wide-ranging autonomy and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal.

But Beijing said in August it would effectively screen candidates who want to run for city leader, a decision which has prompted weeks of street protests by pro-democracy activists who said it rendered the notion of democracy meaningless.

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Beyonce highest-paid woman in music in 2014 with US$115 million: Forbes

Beyonce is the highest-paid woman in music in 2014, with estimated earnings of US$115 million (S$148 million), more than double what she pulled in last year, Forbes magazine said on Tuesday.

The huge sum, most of which was from her world tour, propelled Beyonce, 33, from fourth place last year and put her firmly ahead of pop star Taylor Swift, 24, with US$64 million, who jumped up one spot from last year to No. 2.

Pop singer Pink, 35, climbed up from No. 8 in 2013 to third with US$52 million.

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Football: FBI used US soccer chief to spy on Fifa, according to report

Chuck Blazer, once the most powerful man in US football, was an FBI informant used to spy on Fifa, the New York Daily News reported.

Blazer, who is now suffering from cancer, secretly recorded conversations with officials he arranged to meet at his London hotel during the 2012 Olympics, the report said.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, pressured Blazer into working for them from 2011 because he failed to pay income taxes on millions of dollars he made as a leader of Concacaf, football's governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, said the report published at the weekend.

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Canadian astronaut's Space Oddity video back on YouTube after public outcry

The first music video recorded in space - a cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield - is back after a public outcry over its removal from YouTube.

Hadfield, who made the video in zero gravity during a five-month mission last year to the International Space Station, said on his website it is being made available online for free for two years.

It had originally been posted on YouTube for one year, and during the period was viewed 23,489,187 times. Hadfield estimates that with re-posts and re-broadcasts on television it may have been seen by hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

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