China passes new law to protect vital tech

BEIJING • China yesterday passed a new law to restrict sensitive exports to protect national security, helping Beijing gain reciprocity against the United States as tech tensions mount.

The country's top legislative body, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, adopted the measure that applies to all firms in China, including foreign-invested ones, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The law will be effective from Dec 1, it said.

Souring ties between China and the US had led Washington to take action against several Chinese companies. The new law provides a framework for Beijing to better fight back.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry made an amendment in August that included technology such as algorithms and drones. The list could be further expanded to include even more products and technologies.

BLOOMBERG

Azerbaijan, Armenia allege truce violations

BAKU/YEREVAN • Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other yesterday of fresh attacks in violation of a week-old Russian-brokered truce that has failed to halt the worst fighting in the South Caucasus since the 1990s.

Baku said 13 civilians were killed and more than 50 wounded in the city of Ganja by an Armenian missile attack, while Yerevan accused Azerbaijan of continued shelling.

The fighting is the worst in the region since Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces went to war in the 1990s over Nagorno-Karabakh.

REUTERS

Outrage over gruesome attack on boy in Jordan

AMMAN • Jordan's public prosecutor has charged several people after a 16-year-old boy had his eyes gouged and hands partly sliced off in an apparent revenge act that has shocked the Arab kingdom.

The mutilation was carried out last Tuesday in Zarqa, a centre of Islamic conservatism north-east of the capital Amman, after a group kidnapped the boy, allegedly in retribution against the boy's father, who is in custody accused of murder.

Outraged Jordanians have called for those responsible to face the death penalty, after security forces said this week they had arrested the main perpetrator along with five other suspects. The prosecutor has charged an unspecified number of defendants with kidnapping and attempted murder.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE