Top Asian News 2:59 a.m. GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Canada moved away from diplomatic caution on Friday and made its first formal demand for China to immediately release two Canadians who have been detained in apparent retaliation for Canada's arrest of a top Chinese tech executive. The U.S., the U.K. and the EU also issued statements in support of Canada. "We are deeply concerned by the arbitrary detention by Chinese authorities of two Canadians earlier this month and call for their immediate release," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said. A senior government official said China's ambassador to Canada was called on Friday and told of Canada's demand.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban welcomed news of the U.S. plan to withdraw half its troops in Afghanistan by the summer, as Afghan generals warned it would be a blow to the morale of the country's beleaguered security forces who come under daily attacks from the insurgent fighters. The announcement seems certain to complicate efforts to reach a peace deal, mostly because it gives the Taliban leverage by allowing them to hold off until a total U.S. withdrawal, or step up their demands over a weakened Afghan government. "I believe the Taliban will see this as a reason to stall, and therefore it disincentivizes the Taliban to actually talk to the Afghan government, which it has refused to do," said Bill Roggio, an Afghanistan analyst with the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Chinese billionaire Richard Liu will not face charges over a rape accusation by a Chinese woman studying in Minnesota because prosecutors said Friday they could not prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Liu, founder of the Beijing-based e-commerce site JD.com, was arrested Aug. 31 in Minneapolis on suspicion of felony rape and released within hours. He returned to China. Prosecutors said that "profound evidentiary problems" would have made it "highly unlikely" that any charge could have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In a statement, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said that as prosecutors reviewed surveillance video, text messages, police body camera video and witness statements, "it became clear that we could not meet our burden of proof and, therefore, we could not bring charges." After the prosecutor's decision was announced, Liu issued a statement on his Chinese social media account saying, "This proves I broke no law." "My interactions with this woman, however, have hurt my family greatly, especially my wife.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday that a Chinese national employed by an Oklahoma petroleum company has been charged with stealing trade secrets. Authorities said Hongjin Tan, 35, is accused of stealing trade secrets from his unnamed U.S.-based employer that operates a research facility in the Tulsa area. An affidavit filed by the FBI alleges that Tan stole trade secrets about an unidentified product worth between $1.4 and $1.8 billion to his employer to benefit a Chinese company where Tan had been offered work. Authorities say Tan allegedly downloaded hundreds of computer files, including research reports, regarding the manufacture of a "research and development downstream energy market product." The reports described not only how to make the product, which the company says "is a complicated and technically difficult process," but also the company's plans to market the product in China and in cellphone and lithium-based battery systems, according to the affidavit.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia finalized the transfer of majority control over a giant gold and copper mine from U.S. company Freeport-McMoRan, the government said Friday, in a long-awaited deal that boosts the president's re-election campaign. The Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. initially owned about 90 percent of the Grasberg mine since it began operating in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua in 1973. The rest has been owned by the Indonesian government. "Today is a historic moment," President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo told a news conference at the presidential palace in the capital, Jakarta, attended by related ministers of his cabinet and Freeport-McMoRan chief executive Richard Adkerson.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's Cabinet approved a record 5.26 trillion yen ($47 billion) defense budget Friday as the country seeks to bolster its arms capability by increasingly buying advanced U.S. weapons. The budget plan endorsed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet rises 1. 3 percent from the previous year, a seventh annual increase since Abe took office in 2012. The defense spending is part of the 101 trillion yen ($910 billion) national budget for 2019 and still needs to be approved by the parliament when it resumes early next year. It's also the first of Japan's 27.5 trillion yen ($250 billion) five-year midterm plan released Tuesday under defense guidelines designed to bolster Japan's defenses amid potential threats from North Korea and China.

TOKYO (AP) — Nissan Motor Co. former chairman Carlos Ghosn, charged with financial improprieties and detained in Tokyo for more than a month, has also been accused of breach of trust that caused a multimillion-dollar financial loss for Nissan. Speculation that he could leave on bail surged on Thursday after a court rejected prosecutors' request for extended detention. The fresh allegation dashes his hope for a quick release, forcing his detention to extend after Christmas and New Year's Day. A look at what is going on and what could happen next: THE NEW ALLEGATION Prosecutors on Friday accused Ghosn of breach of trust causing Nissan a financial loss of more than 1.8 billion yen ($16 million).

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A bus carrying college students and their instructors back from a botany field trip drove off a highway in a mountainous area on Friday, leaving 21 dead and 15 injured, police said. The bus plunged down a mountainous slope and rolled about 500 meters (1,640 feet), police said. The Nepalese students and instructors from Krishna Sen Ichhuk Polytechnic Institute had been visiting a farm in a nearby district. Rescue operations were difficult at the crash site near Ramri village, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, because the crash happened in a remote area and the wreckage was scattered.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is slapping asset freezes and travel bans on seven more people accused of human rights violations against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. EU headquarters said Friday that the seven army and border police officials are being put on the bloc's sanctions list "for serious human rights violations committed against the Rohingya population, ethnic minority villagers or civilians." It brings to 14 the total number of people in Myanmar under EU sanctions for such abuses. Around 700,000 Rohingya have fled their homes in western Myanmar since last year because of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the military, which has been accused of massive rights violations.

BEIJING (AP) — China called the U.S. arrogant and selfish on Friday after two Chinese citizens were charged with stealing American trade secrets and other sensitive information on behalf of Beijing's main intelligence agency. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said "the Chinese government has never participated in or supported anyone in stealing trade secrets in any way." She accused the U.S. of undermining the development of other countries in order to defend its own hegemony. "The U.S. is a world superpower, and it's quite arrogant and selfish," she said during a regular press briefing. The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday the indictment of Chinese nationals Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong for allegedly carrying out an extensive cyberespionage campaign against government agencies and major corporations.