World Briefs: France fines Google $800m

PARIS • France's antitrust watchdog slapped a €500 million (S$800 million) fine on Alphabet's Google yesterday for failing to comply fully with temporary orders it had given in a row with the country's news publishers.

The US tech giant must within the next two months come up with proposals on how it would compensate news agencies and other publishers for use of their news. If it does not do that, it would face additional fines of up to €900,000 per day.

APIG, which represents major print publishers like Le Monde, and Agence France-Presse accuse the tech giant of failing to open talks in good faith with them to find common ground for the remuneration of news content online, with Google luring away billions of euros in advertising revenue.

REUTERS

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Boeing cuts 787 production rate

SEATTLE • Boeing said yesterday that it would cut its 787 production rate as it works through a new production-related structural defect in its troubled twin-aisle airliner programme.

The latest new issue involved gaps where components are joined together in a forward pressure bulkhead, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

The FAA had said late on Monday that Boeing, whose backlog has increased from 4,121 to 4,166 aircraft, would fix the issue before the planes are delivered.

REUTERS

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8 killed in China hotel collapse

NANJING • Eight people have been confirmed dead and nine remain missing after a budget hotel collapsed in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, the local government said yesterday.

Six others were rescued from the rubble of the Siji Kaiyuan hotel, which collapsed on Monday afternoon, the government of the district of Wujiang said on an official social media feed.

The authorities had earlier suggested that 14 people had already been rescued but offered the new tally following "further analysis and screening of new information". No cause for the disaster has yet been given.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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92 dead in Iraq Covid-19 hospital fire

NASSIRIYA • The death toll from a fire that tore through a coronavirus hospital in southern Iraq has risen to 92, health officials said yesterday, as the authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving relatives and a doctor who works there.

More than 100 others were injured in the blaze, which an investigation showed began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded, the police and civil defence authorities said.

It was Iraq's second such tragedy in three months, and the head of the country's semi-official Human Rights Commission said the blast showed how safety measures were still ineffective in a health system crippled by war and sanctions.

REUTERS