South Korea's parliament passed emergency measures on Wednesday to tackle the "social disaster" of air pollution, after the country saw record levels of pollution earlier this month.
The measures include the mandatory introduction of air purifiers in schools and day care centres, and access to an emergency fund to help tackle the issue.
The country's poor air quality has become a serious political problem for Seoul amid growing public discontent that the government is not doing enough, with many South Koreans blaming Asian neighbour China for the poor air quality.
The eight new bills designate air pollution as a "social disaster", meaning the government can use state funds and conduct extraordinary countermeasures to tackle it.
They also encourage the purchase of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cars, which emit less air pollutants than diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles and were previously only available for taxis, rental cars and disabled drivers.
China is the world's biggest ...

Seoul passes emergency bills to fight air pollution

PTI Automatic

Britain on Wednesday slashed it forecast for its economic growth this year, as finance minister Philip Hammond said lifting Brexit uncertainty was parliament's "most urgent task".
The UK economy is forecast to grow by 1.2 per cent this year, down on the government's prediction of 1.6 per cent in October, Hammond said as he gave a budget update hours before MPs vote on whether to allow the country to leave the EU with no deal.

UK slashes 2019 economic growth forecast: Budget

At least 115 people were killed in Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa after heavy rains affected 843,000 people across southeast Africa, officials and the UN said, prompting calls for emergency aid.
At least 66 people have been killed in Mozambique, 45 in Malawi and four in South Africa following torrential rains that have triggered flash floods.
Mozambique cabinet spokeswoman Ana Comoana said the "government has decreed a red alert due to the continuing rains and the approach of the tropical cyclone Idai, expected to reach the country between Thursday to Friday".
She spoke to reporters late Tuesday after a cabinet meeting in Maputo to discuss the emergency.
The floods in Mozambique, one of Africa's poorest countries, have already destroyed 5,756 homes, affecting 15,467 households and 141,325 people.
In neighbouring Malawi, floods have left over 230,000 people without shelter and affected around 739,000 people, according to the UN.
Malawi's Meteorological Department has warned of ...

Floods in southern Africa kill 115

World number one Naomi Osaka crashed out of Indian Wells on Tuesday, routed by Belinda Bencic on a day that saw second-ranked Simona Halep sent packing, too.
Bencic, ranked 23rd in the world, defeated Osaka 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the prestigious WTA premier mandatory event, where Osaka won her first tour title last year.
That marked the start of a remarkable rise that included Osaka's first Grand Slam title at the US Open. She followed that with an Australian Open crown that sent her to number one.
But she never found her feet against Bencic, whose crisp groundstrokes and precise service game propelled her to victory in 66 minutes.
"I didn't play that well," Osaka said. "Honestly, at a time like this with that scoreline, I would usually feel very depressed and sad. But I feel pretty good right now, because I tried my best and I don't really have any regrets.
"She was just playing so well ... there wasn't anything that I could do in that situation."
Bencic, who turned .

Top-ranked Osaka, Halep crash out of Indian Wells

Ethiopia said Wednesday it would send the black boxes from last weekend's deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash to Europe for analysis as urgency mounted for answers amid safety concerns for the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
The second deadly crash involving the plane type in less than six months prompted governments worldwide to ban the American aerospace giant's bestselling jet from their airspace.
The move has heaped pressure on Boeing to provide proof the workhorse is safe.
In Ethiopia, families of victims were taken to the remote site Wednesday where the plane smashed into a field with 157 passengers and crew from 35 countries, leaving a deep black crater and tiny scraps of debris.
Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Asrat Begashaw told AFP the company would decide by Thursday which country would examine the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder recovered from ill-fated Flight ET 302.
"We are going to send it to Europe, but the country is not specified yet," said Asrat.
Another airline ...

Ethiopia to send black boxes to Europe as questions mount over crash

Low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle, which has grounded its 18 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft pending an investigation into the cause of a crash in Ethiopia, said Wednesday it will demand financial compensation from Boeing.
Norwegian, whose finances are currently under pressure, cancelled 19 flights on Wednesday, the day after it decided to ground all flights with the Boeing 737 MAX 8, the same model that crashed in Ethiopia on Sunday killing all 157 passengers and crew.
"We're going to send the invoice to those who built the plane," a spokesman for the company, Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen, told AFP in an email.
Sandaker-Nielsen said the airline "should not suffer financially from this."
Norwegian said it had reorganised its operations and transferred passengers to other flights to remedy the situation.
"We've worked very hard to find solutions for our passengers and have succeeded for the most part. There are only a few hundred left" to rebook, he said.
A string of countries and carriers ...

Norwegian Air Shuttle demands Boeing pay for grounding of 737 MAX planes

Swedish music streaming giant Spotify said Wednesday it had filed a formal complaint with the EU Commission against Apple, accusing its US rival of stifling competition in the online music market.
Analysts were quick to point out that there is no guarantee that the EU's executive arm will actually investigate the case, or even be quick about a decision whether to do so.
"In recent years, Apple has introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience - essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers," Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement.
Ek said Spotify had tried unsuccessfully to resolve the issues directly with Apple, and was now asking the Commission to "take action to ensure fair competition".
Spotify, launched in Sweden just over a decade ago, claims 207 million users in the world, of whom 96 million are paying subscribers.
Ek said Apple's ...

Spotify lodges EU complaint against Apple over unfair music competition

Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber stunned Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday, claiming his first career win over a world No. 1 player to reach the fourth round of the ATP Indian Wells Masters.
Serbian superstar Djokovic was playing his first tournament since lifting a record seventh title in Melbourne, taking his tally of Grand Slam victories to 15.
He had won eight of nine prior meetings with Kohlschreiber, but could find no answer to the 39th-ranked veteran, who had come up empty in 11 prior attempts to beat a top-ranked rival.
"It's a very special moment," Kohlschreiber said.
"Of course, playing the top guys is always a big pleasure, but most of the time they beat you."
In match that resumed after rain stopped play just one game in on Monday night, Kohlschreiber said the warmer daytime conditions suited him better, and Djokovic agreed.
"I liked my chances more at night against Kohlschreiber," Djokovic said.
"Completely different conditions today: Ball bounces 

Kohlschreiber stuns Djokovic at Indian Wells, Rafa, Federer advance

Sebastian Vettel said Wednesday that Ferrari have "tried to turn the page" after being dominated by Mercedes in 2018 and their new car "feels good" ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The German four-time world champion was speaking as the new Formula One season officially launched with all 20 drivers taking part in a first-of-its-kind public meet-and-greet with fans in the heart of Melbourne.
"For the whole team we have tried to turn the page," Vettel told the thousands of fans who turned up for a glimpse of their heroes in the city's Federation Square.
"We had some weaknesses here and there last year and we have tried to fix those and do much better," he added after the drivers arrived by boat on the Yarra River, signed autographs and posed for pictures with the event live streamed on Formula One's social media channels.
"The team is on track and the car feels good," he said of his Ferrari, which was fastest in pre-season testing and is the bookmakers' favourite going 

Vettel says Ferrari feeling good as new Formula One season launches

Juventus shares soared by over 20% on the Milan stock exchange on Wednesday, the morning after Cristiano Ronaldo's incredible hat-trick rescued the Italian giants Champions League campaign.
The Portuguese superstar added a late penalty to a pair of headers for a 3-0 win on the night and 3-2 on aggregate over Atletico Madrid to seal a place in the quarter-finals.
The Turin club's shares jumped by 23% after the Milan stock exchange opened before dipping to 17.09% later in the morning.
In 90 minutes the five-time Ballon d'Or winner demonstrated why Juventus splashed out 100 million euros ($117 million) last summer to bring the Real Madrid star to Italy, in addition to his annual salary of 31 million euros.
"That's why Juventus bought me, to help them in games like this," the 34-year-old Ronaldo said after the game.
The seven-time reigning Italian title-holders have not won the Champions League since 1996, and have finished runners-up twice in the past four seasons.

Juventus shares soar after Ronaldo hat-trick rescues Champions League

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday accused Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a "tyrant" who "massacred" Palestinian babies, in the latest exchange between the two leaders.
"Hey Netanyahu, behave yourself. You are a tyrant, you are a tyrant who massacred seven-year-old Palestinian children," Erdogan told a rally, in response to the Israeli leader branding him a "dictator".
Turkey and Israel have tense relations and Erdogan, who sees himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, is a vocal critic of Israeli policies.

Turkey's Erdogan brands Netanyahu 'tyrant' who 'massacred' children

A shooting at a school near Sao Paulo on Wednesday left several people dead, police sources said, with initial reports putting the death toll as high as eight.
Sao Paulo's state military police department told AFP that "several people were shot" when "an individual" entered the institution in Suzano and opened fire.
Brazilian media said the death toll was at least five people, while TV Globo put that figure at eight, including two teenagers believed to be the shooters.

Several dead in Brazil school shooting: Police

A three-storey residential building collapsed Wednesday in a densely-populated part of Lagos, and local media said there could be many casualties, including schoolchildren.
The Nigerian news station Channels TV reported that a primary school was located on the top floor of the building, "with pupils feared killed and others trapped." The collapse occurred in the Itafaji area of Lagos Island.
A spokesman for the Nigerian emergency services, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the incident.
"I can't give you the details for now. Our teams are on the ground, the situation is confused," he told AFP.
Building collapses are tragically common in Nigeria, where building regulations are routinely flouted.
In September 2014, 116 people, 84 of them South Africans, died when a six-storey building collapsed as a celebrity televangelist, Joshua TB, was preaching.
An inquiry found the building had been built illegally and had structural flaws.
In December 2016, at least 60 people were killed when a roof ...

Building collapses in Lagos, many casualties feared

A quarter of all premature deaths and diseases worldwide are due to manmade pollution and environmental damage, the United Nations said Wednesday in a landmark report on the planet's parlous state.
Deadly smog-inducing emissions, chemicals polluting drinking water, and the accelerating destruction of ecosystems crucial to the livelihoods of billions of people are driving a worldwide epidemic that hampers the global economy, it warned.
The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) -- a report six years in the making compiled by 250 scientists from 70 nations -- depicts a growing chasm between rich and poor countries as rampant overconsumption, pollution and food waste in the developed world leads to hunger, poverty and disease elsewhere.
As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise amid a preponderance of droughts, floods and superstorms made worse by climbing sea levels, there is a growing political consensus that climate change poses a future risk to billions.
World leaders in 2015 came up ...

Environment damage behind 1 in 4 global deaths, disease: UN

The Malaysian government was Wednesday accused of a "shocking" U-turn on plans to abolish capital punishment after a senior official said only the mandatory death penalty would be axed.
A reformist alliance which stormed to power last year announced in October that it had decided to scrap capital punishment entirely, a move that would have handed a reprieve to more than 1,200 people on death row.
Executions are currently mandatory for murder, kidnapping, possession of firearms and drug trafficking, among other crimes.
The decision to axe capital punishment, carried out by hanging in Malaysia, had however sparked opposition from murder victims' families and opposition politicians.
Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, a deputy minister in the prime minister's department, told parliament about the change of plan.
"We have made a decision. The government will only repeal the mandatory death penalty," he was cited as saying by official news agency Bernama.
This means it will be at a judge's discretion ..

Malaysia accused of U-turn on death penalty abolition

Britain on Wednesday expanded the no-fly zones around airports in response to a spate of drone sightings that temporarily shut down some of London's biggest hubs.
The new law extends the radius around which drone flights are not permitted to five kilometres (three miles) from one kilometre.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said penalities will range "from significant fines to a life sentence".
Existing rules ban all drone flights above 122 metres (400 feet) and within 50 metres of buildings and people.
Several reports of drone sightings at London's Gatwick airport during the Christmas holiday season sparked the suspension of around 1,000 flights.
Drones were also spotted over the past few weeks around London's Heathrow and Dublin Airport in Scotland.
Those shut down only briefly to conduct security checks.
Britain's Press Association news agency reported that there were 125 near-misses recorded between drones and air planes last year.
It said that just six incidents were recorded in 

Britain expands airport drone no-fly zones

Lebanon's civil aviation authority said on Wednesday it has banned Boeing 737 MAX passenger jets from the country's airspace after a deadly plane crash in Ethiopia at the weekend.
The authority also barred the aircraft from taking off and landing in Lebanon, according to a statement carried by the official National News Agency.
On Sunday, a new Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.
This followed the October crash of a Lion Air jet of the same model in Indonesia, claiming 189 lives.
Despite Boeing's assurances that the 737 MAX is safe and reliable, countries including Britain, China and India have grounded the model or banned it from their airspace as they await the results of an investigation into the latest crash.
The widening action against the aircraft has put pressure on Boeing -- the world's biggest plane manufacturer -- to prove it is safe, and the company has said it is rolling out flight ...

Lebanon closes airspace to Boeing 737 MAX: civil aviation

Malaysia has closed 34 schools after hundreds of people fell ill when toxic waste was dumped into a river, the education minister said Wednesday, warning the situation was getting worse.
A lorry is believed to have dumped the waste in southern Johor state last week, sending toxic fumes across a wide area and causing those affected to display symptoms of poisoning such as nausea and vomiting.
About 300 people, many of them children, received medical treatment after inhaling the fumes and scores have been admitted to hospital, according to official news agency Bernama.
Reports said it was unclear what type of poisonous gas had been emitted near the industrial town of Pasir Gudang.
Education Minister Maszlee Malik said he visited the area and saw scores of students being brought by ambulance to a makeshift emergency centre.
He then decided to order the immediate closure of 34 schools.
"Unfortunately, the situation has become more critical," he said in a statement.
"The education ministry 

Malaysia shuts schools after hundreds affected by chemical dump

Greece's civil aviation agency on Wednesday said it had closed its airspace to Boeing 737 MAX aircraft after the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people over the weekend.
"All airports have been ordered to ban flights of the specific model in Greek airspace as of yesterday afternoon," civil aviation agency head Constantinos Lintzerakos told state news agency ANA.
The EU aviation safety agency announced a ban on Tuesday, as this is the second fatal crash of the model in five months.

Greece closes airspace to Boeing 737 MAX: official

Serbia's aviation authorities barred Boeing 737 MAX planes from the country's airspace, a spokesperson told AFP Wednesday, joining a wave of government bans worldwide after a second deadly crash involving the model.
Serbia has also banned the aircraft "for take-off and landing at all airports" in the country, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Directorate said of the measure, which went into effect Tuesday.
He explained that "Serbia is aligning itself with the directives of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency", which decided on Tuesday to close European airspace to Boeing 737 MAX.
On Sunday, a new Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.
This followed the October crash of a Lion Air jet of the same model in Indonesia, claiming 189 lives.
Despite the aviation giant's assurances that the aircraft is safe and reliable, countries including Britain, India and China have grounded the plane or banned it from their ...

Serbia bars Boeing 737 MAX flights from airspace

German sporting goods maker Adidas said Wednesday it booked vaulting profits in 2018, but crimped its expectations for this year as it runs into limits on production capacity.
Net profit at the Herzogenaurach-based group leaped 45 per cent year-on-year, to 1.7 billion euros (USD 1.9 billion), Adidas said.
The firm booked an 3.0-per cent increase in revenues to a record 21.9 billion euros last year, a figure it aims to lift by "between five and eight per cent" in 2019.
But while Adidas claimed in a statement to see a "strong increase in demand" for its clothing, "supply chain shortages" mean it will not manage to keep up.
"Growth is expected to be negatively impacted, particularly in North America during the first half of the year," it added.
The region had been one of the "strategic growth drivers" contributing double-digit expansion to 2018's result alongside China and the group's growing e-commerce operation, chief executive Kasper Rorsted said.
Across the world, Adidas' flagship ...

AFP

AFP

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