US charges ex-Apple engineer with stealing trade secrets to benefit China

The US has charged a former Apple engineer accused of stealing the company's technology on autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China. The department of justice on Tuesday announced charges in that case and several others involving the alleged theft of trade secrets and efforts to steal technology to benefit China, Russia and Iran. Two of the cases involved what US officials called procurement networks created to help Russia's military and intelligence services obtain sensitive technology. "We stand vigilant in enforcing US laws to stop the flow of sensitive technologies to our foreign adversaries," Matt Olsen, the head of the justice department's national security division, told reporters. "We are committed to doing all we can to prevent these advanced tools from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries."