CHINA
BBC editor quits over pay
The BBC’s China editor has resigned her position in Beijing in protest over what she called a failure to sufficiently address a gap in compensation between men and women. Carrie Gracie’s departure is the latest aftershock from the public firm’s forced publication last year of pay levels for its top earners that showed two-thirds of those in the top bracket were men. A 30-year veteran of the BBC, Gracie said in a statement on her Web site that she could no longer perform her job at a high level while battling with bosses over pay equality. Gracie said she learned that the two male international editors made at least 50 percent more than their two female counterparts.
AUSTRALIA
Near-record heat in Sydney
Dangerous heat is roasting parts of the nation with temperatures that have not been seen in decades. The temperature in Sydney on Sunday hit a nearly 80-year high of 47.3°C. The temperature was just shy of the city’s all-time high of 47.8°C, set in 1939. New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said the state’s heatwave plan had been activated. Thousands were left without power and total fire bans were put in place. Residents were urged to drink extra water and limit their time outdoors because of air pollution resulting from the hot weather.
ISRAEL
Firm grows smallest tomato
In the succulent world of cherry tomatoes, one company is going smaller than ever before. The Kedma company in the nation’s southern Arava Desert has developed the “drop tomato,” about the size of a blueberry — the smallest ever cultivated in Israel, perhaps even in the world. It is a point of pride in a country known for its agricultural innovation, where fruits and vegetables are taken seriously and where several strands of the cherry tomato were first invented. The seed, originally developed in the Netherlands, was modified to match the arid growing conditions in southern Israel.
SRI LANKA
Slain editor’s family protests
The family of a newspaper editor murdered in Sri Lanka criticized the government for failing to bring his killers to justice as they marked the ninth anniversary of his death yesterday. Lasantha Wickrematunga, a prominent critic of the former administration, was stabbed days before he was due to testify in a corruption case involving then-minister of defense Gotabhaya Rajapakse. The killing sparked an international outcry and shone a light on human rights violations under former president Mahinda Rajapakse, Gotabhaya’s brother. President Maithripala Sirisena promised to bring the perpetrators to justice when he came to power in 2015, but no one has yet been prosecuted.
UNITED KINGDOM
Porn popular at parliament
About 160 requests a day were made late last year to access pornography Web sites from computers within the Houses of Parliament, the Press Association reported yesterday. A total of 24,473 attempts were made since the general election in June last year from devices connected to the parliamentary network, data obtained by a freedom of information request showed. Authorities say most attempts are not deliberate and point to a decrease in recent years. “All pornographic Web sites are blocked by parliament’s computer network,” a parliamentary spokesman said. “This data also covers personal devices used when logged on to parliament’s guest Wi-Fi.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing