Author: Reporter

Syrian President Bashar Assad fled the country on December 8, bringing to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto control as his country fragmented in a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers. Assad’s exit stood in stark contrast to his first months as Syria’s unlikely president in 2000, when many hoped he would be a young reformer after three decades of his father’s iron grip. Only 34 years old, the Western-educated ophthalmologist appeared as a geeky tech-savvy fan of computers with a gentle demeanor. But when faced with protests...

Half a century of rule by the Assad family in Syria crumbled with astonishing speed after insurgents burst out of a rebel-held enclave and converged on the capital, Damascus, taking city after city in a matter of days. Opposition forces swept across the country and entered Damascus with little or no resistance as the Syrian army melted away. President Bashar Assad, Syria’s ruler for 24 years — succeeding his father, Hafez Assad — was reported to have fled the country for an undisclosed location. It is a stunning development in Syria’s devastating 13-year conflict. Anti-government protests in 2011 met...

The U.S. Commerce Department has expanded the list of Chinese technology companies subject to export controls to include many that make equipment used to make computer chips, chipmaking tools, and software. The 140 companies newly included in the so-called “entity list” are nearly all based in China. But some are Chinese-owned businesses in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. The revised rules were posted on December 1 on the website of the U.S. Federal Register for publication later. They also limit exports of high-bandwidth memory chips to China. Such chips are needed to process massive amounts of data in advanced...

China announced on December 3 that it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony, and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports. The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after the Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications. The ratcheting up of trade restrictions comes as President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other...

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te arrived in Hawaii for a two-day transit in the U.S. as part of a trip to the South Pacific, his first since assuming office. The stopover in Hawaii and one planned for the territory of Guam have drawn fierce criticism from Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and objects to official exchanges between the self-ruled democracy and the U.S., the island’s biggest backer and military provider. There were no high-ranking U.S. or Hawaii state officials to greet Lai at the Honolulu hotel on December 1 where supporters cheered in Mandarin, some waving Taiwanese...

In the groundswell of fury and defiance that erupted among South Koreans after their president declared martial law, curtailing the country’s hard-won freedoms, it was perhaps the iconic moment. As parliamentarians scrambled to get inside the National Assembly building to reverse the emergency measure, a woman in a leather coat confronted one of the soldiers who was trying to stop the lawmakers, grabbed his automatic rifle and tried to tug it away while yelling “Aren’t you ashamed?” As the soldier backed away, he raised the rifle’s barrel toward the woman. She pressed on, grabbing it as it was pointed...