Britain will bring forward a ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles to 2035, including hybrids.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make the announcement at an event launching the 2019 United Nations Climate Change conference, COP26, to be held in Glasgow in November.
The changes bring forward the ban by five years -- and now include hybrid vehicles.
Britain has pledged to reduce  greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, with a mixture of cuts and off-setting pollution measures such as planting trees.
At the COP26 launch event in London, Johnson will be joined by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and naturalist David Attenborough.
Johnson will urge other countries to join Britain in striving towards the 2050 net zero emissions goal through investment in cleaner technology and efforts to protect natural habitats.
Edmund King, president of Britain's AA motoring association, said the new target on car sales was incredibly challenging.
"We must question whether we will have 

UK to ban new petrol car sales from 2035

PTI Automatic

China's embassy in Uzbekistan accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of slander on Tuesday after he raised the plight of Muslims in the Xinjiang region during a visit to Central Asia.
"No matter how many times it is repeated, a lie does not become the truth. Any attempt to slander China and sow discord in friendly relations between China and the states of Central Asia is doomed to defeat," the embassy said in a statement on its website.
Pompeo on Monday ended a week-long diplomatic tour with a visit to Uzbekistan, where he met with the ex-Soviet country's leadership and foreign ministers from the five ex-Soviet 'stans' of Central Asia.
In both Uzbekistan and its oil-rich neighbour Kazakhstan the day before, Pompeo brought up what he called China's "repression" of Muslims in Xinjiang.
In Kazakhstan he also met with citizens who said they have family members missing or incarcerated over the border in the region.
Pompeo's counterpart in Uzbekistan, Abdulaziz Kamilov, told reporters on 

China accuses Pompeo of 'slander' over Xinjiang comments

Some of sumo's biggest stars will put on a special exhibition between the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, seeking to introduce their rarefied traditions to sports fans from around the globe.
The two-day event on August 12-13 will come just days after the Olympic closing ceremony and is expected to feature grand champions or "yokozuna", who are massive stars in Japan.
Kakuryu, one of these yokozuna, said Tuesday he was looking forward to introducing sumo to a "global audience" and "receiving people from all over the world".
Sumo association chief Hakkaku Nobuyoshi said he wanted a global audience to better understand the sport, which is steeped in Shinto ritual tradition.
"We want visitors to understand that sumo is not just a sport but also a tradition and culture," Hakkaku told reporters at the Ryogoku Kokugikan arena in Tokyo, where the event will take place.
There will be explanations of the meaning behind some of the traditions, such as how wrestlers enter the ring and why they ...

Sumo to put on big show for Tokyo Olympics

A suspected case of deadly coronavirus has been detected in Pakistan's Sindh province in an engineering student who has been quarantined by authorities following his return from China.
Shahzaib Ali Rahuja, a petroleum engineering student at a Chinese university situated around 1,000 kms from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, returned to the country from China via Qatar, his brother Irshad Ali said.
He returned to Karachi on Saturday night on our insistence and unable to take a direct flight he came via Qatar on Saturday. They screened him at the airport in China and also in Karachi but he showed no problems. It was after returning home that he developed a fever and cough and took some medicines but when his nose started to bleed we rushed him to the hospital," he said.
The brother posted a video on social media, showing him sitting on a hospital bed and bleeding from the nose in a government hospital in Pir Jo Goth near Khairpur.
In the video, the brother claimed that .

First suspected case of coronavirus in Pakistan's Sindh province

Pakistan has urged its nationals residing in China to register themselves with its embassy in Beijing as the flight operations resumed between the two countries amid the coronavirus outbreak that has claimed 425 lives.
Pakistan on Monday allowed two Chinese flights to land here, a day after it received special medical kits from Beijing to detect the deadly virus cases.
A public notice was put out on Pakistan Embassy's website on Sunday after several students in China contacted Pakistani TV channels and complained that the embassy had no proper database about its citizens in China.
All Pakistani nationals residing in China are kindly requested to register themselves and their family members with the Embassy of Pakistan as early as possible, according to the notice.
It said that the registration can be made by filling electronic forms given at the embassy's website.
It is further requested that complete details of all family members including spouses/children may also be furnished ...

Pak embassy in China asks its nationals to register amid coronavirus scare

Democratic party officials in Iowa worked furiously Tuesday to deliver the delayed results of their first-in-the-nation caucus, as frustrated presidential candidates claimed momentum and plowed ahead in their quest for the White House.
Technology problems and reporting "inconsistencies" kept Iowa Democratic Party officials from releasing results from Monday's caucus, the much-hyped kickoff to the 2020 primary. It was an embarrassing twist after months of promoting the contest as a chance for Democrats to find some clarity in a jumbled field with no clear front-runner.
Instead, caucus day ended with no winner, no official results and many fresh questions about whether Iowa can retain its coveted "first" status.
State party officials said final results would be released later Tuesday and offered assurances that the problem was not a result of a "hack or an intrusion".
Officials were conducting quality checks and verifying results, prioritizing the integrity of the results, the party ...

Dems lay a big caucus egg: No results from Iowa election

US President Donald Trump, seeking reelection, on Monday coasted to victory in the 2020 Iowa Republican caucuses, trouncing his two lesser-known ruling Republican Party rivals.
While the focus of this year's Iowa Caucus  which formally kicks off the 2020 presidential season  has been on the tough race among the over a dozen odd Democratic presidential aspirants, Trump, according to The Des Moines Register newspaper, garnered the support of more than 95 per cent of his party votes on Monday night when the reports last came in.
"President Trump recaptures overwhelming Iowa Republican support," the local newspaper reported.
Trump, seeking a second term in the White House, won the Republican contest with 97 per cent of the vote and 8 per cent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. Former Illinois Representative Joe Walsh received 1.4 per cent of voters and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld garnered 1.2 per cent of the votes.
The official Twitter account for ...

President Trump triumphs in Iowa caucuses

French police on Tuesday cleared the last migrant tent camp in northeast Paris, moving 427 people to shelters as part of a plan to take migrants off the streets.
The migrants, who included four women, were living in 266 tents and makeshift shelters in a canal-side camp "strewn with waste and refuse, overrun by rats and giving off a pestilent and foul-smelling odour of urine and excrement", according to the authorities.
The operation to tear down the camp began at 6:00 am (0500 GMT) and lasted two hours, the regional prefecture said.
Dozens of informal settlements have sprung up in recent years around the French capital.
Many of the migrants have their sights on the northern Channel port of Calais, a jump-off point for crossings to Britain.  The authorities regularly tear down the camps, saying they pose a health hazard.
Last week, police moved more than 1,400 migrants, including 93 children, from another camp in northern Paris.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had promised to ...

French police clear last migrant camp in north Paris

A Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against the country's last rebel enclave has displaced more than half a million people in two months, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
"Since December 1, some 520,000 people have been displaced from their homes, the vast majority -- 80 per cent -- of them women and children," David Swanson, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said.
The wave of displacement, which coincides with a biting winter, is one of the largest since the start of the Syrian war nearly nine years ago.
"This latest displacement compounds an already dire humanitarian situation on the ground, when over 400,000 people were displaced from the end of April through the end of August, many of them multiple times," Swanson said.
He said the UN was alarmed by the plight of more than three million people -- half of them displaced from their homes -- who live in Idlib province and surrounding areas.
Government troops and militia backed by ...

NW Syria violence displaces 500,000 in two months

British energy giant BP on Tuesday said annual net profit slid to USD 4.0 billion last year, hit by weaker oil prices, as long-time chief executive Bob Dudley bowed out.
The figure was down sharply compared with profit after tax of $9.38 billion in 2018, the company said in a statement marking the end of American Dudley's time at the helm.
It was announced in October that Bernard Looney, head of BP's upstream division, would replace Dudley.
"After almost ten years, this is now my last quarter as CEO," Dudley said in Tuesday's statement.
"In that time, we have achieved a huge amount together and I am proud to be handing over a safer and stronger BP to Bernard and his team.
"I am confident that under their leadership, BP will continue to successfully navigate the rapidly-changing energy landscape," he added.
In the latter years of Dudley's reign, BP increasingly moved into cleaner energies, mirroring the strategy of rivals like Royal Dutch Shell and Total, amid changing public attitudes 

BP says annual net profit slides to USD 4.0bn in 2019

Belgium has reported its first case of a new virus in a person who was repatriated from the Chinese epicenter of the outbreak.
The health ministry said Tuesday the person was in good health and does not show any symptoms of the disease. The individual was among nine Belgians repatriated from Wuhan, China, over the weekend.
The infected person was taken to a special hospital for further care while the other returnees remain under observation.
More than 180 cases of the new type of coronavirus have been confirmed beyond mainland China, which has more than 20,000 cases.

Belgium confirms its 1st case of virus

Oscar-nominated actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste is set to star in the independent action comedy, "Fatman", fronted by Mel Gibson.
According to Deadline, the film will be directed by Ian and Eshom Nelms from their own script.
The movie follows Gibson's rowdy, unorthodox Santa Claus who is fighting his business decline, while a neglected and precocious 12-year-old hires a hitman to kill Santa after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking.
Walton Goggins also stars in the film.
Jean-Baptiste's credits include Peter Strickland's indie "In Fabric", Amazon series "Homecoming" and Netflix's "Soundtrack".

Marianne Jean-Baptiste joins Mel Gibson in 'Fatman'

Sri Lanka will not allow extremist organisations to be active in the country, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa vowed at the Independence Day ceremony on Tuesday during which his government dropped the rendering of the national anthem in Tamil for the first time since 2016.
Addressing the nation on the occasion of the 72nd National Day in Colombo, Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that he will be the president of all Sri Lankans.
He said he would ensure civil freedoms like free press and the right to expression.
"We will not allow extremist organisations that pave way for terrorism to be active in the country," Gotabaya Rajapaksa said recalling that thirty years of conflict in the north and east had delayed the development of the country.
"I wish to fully strengthen the freedom of people to think and write freely...my government is ready to tolerate and accommodate opposing views," he said.
"Sri Lanka is a unitary state. A free, sovereign, independent, democratic republic...I pledge to strengthen ...

Will not allow extremist organisations to be active in Sri Lanka: Prez Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Consumption of red and processed meats like pepperoni and bologna may be associated with a slightly higher risk of heart disease and death, according to a large-scale study.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, found that eating two servings of red meat, processed meat or poultry -- but not fish -- per week was linked to a 3 to 7 per cent higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
Eating two servings of red meat or processed meat -- but not poultry or fish -- per week was associated with a 3 per cent higher risk of all causes of death, according to the researchers from Northwestern University, and Cornell University in the US.
"It is a small difference, but it is worth trying to reduce red meat and processed meat like pepperoni, bologna and deli meats," said Norrina Allen, an associate professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
"Red meat consumption also is consistently linked to other health problems like cancer," Allen said.
Modifying intake 

Eating red, processed meat linked with higher heart disease, death risk: Study

Matching behaviour with feeling is more productive than faking emotions at work, according to a study which suggests being one's true self may lead to higher levels of support and trust from co-workers.
The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, surveyed working adults in a wide variety of industries including education, manufacturing, engineering, and financial services for two types of emotion regulation -- surface acting and deep acting.
"Surface acting is faking what you're displaying to other people. Inside, you may be upset or frustrated, but on the outside, you're trying your best to be pleasant or positive," Allison Gabriel, study co-author from Eller College of Management in the US, said in a statement.
"Deep acting is trying to change how you feel inside. When you're deep acting, you're actually trying to align how you feel with how you interact with other people," Gabriel explained.
The researchers sought to know whether people choose to engage in emotion ...

Authentic behaviour at work may lead to greater productivity: Study

South Korea's largest automaker Hyundai Motor will suspend all domestic production this week because of a lack of parts due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, it said Tuesday.
The global car industry operates on tight supply lines and was thrown into turmoil when Japan's Fukushima earthquake and tsunami in 2011 knocked out a Renesas Electronics factory producing a vital and widely used computer chip.
The outbreak of the coronavirus had disrupted the supply of parts for Hyundai, the company said.
"Hyundai Motor has decided to suspend its production lines from operating at all of its plants in Korea," the carmaker said in a statement.
The order of suspensions would vary, it said, but all production would cease by the end of the week.
Hyundai operates 13 plants worldwide, including seven in South Korea, and last year sold a total of 4.4 million vehicles.
Its South Korean production amounted to around 1.8 million vehicles, or approximately 35,000 a week.
The virus outbreak had ...

Hyundai suspends domestic production over China outbreak

Japan has quarantined a cruise ship carrying 3,711 people and was testing those onboard for the new coronavirus Tuesday after a former passenger was diagnosed with the illness in Hong Kong.
Eight people on the vessel, which arrived in Yokohama Bay on Monday, have symptoms such as fever, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.
Television footage showed several quarantine officers boarding the Diamond Princess on Monday evening to check all 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew.
The move comes after an 80-year-old passenger who disembarked on January 25 in Hong Kong tested positive for the virus, which has killed 425 people in China.
The man "did not visit a medical centre inside the ship while he was sailing with us", cruise operator Carnival Japan said in a statement.
"According to the hospital where he is staying, his condition is stable and infection was not found among his family members who sailed with him," the statement said.
A woman in her twenties on the ship with her mother ..

Japan quarantines 3,700 on cruise ship over new coronavirus

Indonesia has called off a contest offering a cash reward to anyone brave enough to remove a motorbike tyre stuck around the neck of a giant crocodile.
Authorities in Palu, capital of Central Sulawesi, said no would-be crocodile wrangler stepped forward to take up the challenge of removing the unwanted necklace from the 13-foot (4-metre) reptile.
The contest was rolled out last month, but made headlines again last week when an unspecified reward was offered.
The local conservation agency offered few details about the reward -- or how outsiders might pull off the dangerous task -- but its chief said the money would come out of his own pocket Conservationists who fear the croc is being slowly strangled have been trying -- and failing -- for years to find a way to untangle the beast.
Rumours circulated that popular TV personality Panji the Explorer -- Indonesia's answer to late Australian "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin -- was keen for another shot after a failed attempt two years ...

No takers for Indonesia's 'pluck a tyre off the croc' contest

Two Taiwanese men have been caught trying to smuggle 15 kilograms of heroin in packets of instant noodles from a Bangkok airport, Thai police said, in a kingdom which is a key regional drug route.
Police found the haul inside packets of MAMA noodles -- a Thai brand ubiquitous across Asia -- as well as tins of prickly heat powder.
The pair were trying to return to Taiwan when they were arrested on January 30 at Suvarnabhumi Airport after a tip-off, police said Monday, without saying from where the heroin originated.
The lawless border areas of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos have for decades been a hub for heroin.
But the large-scale production of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine, ketamine and fentanyl has overtaken heroin in recent years.
Opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar fell 11 per cent in 2019 from the year before, according to data released Tuesday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
But the agency said the region still has around three million heroin users in a ...

Taiwan duo in hot water for smuggling heroin in instant noodles

Netflix has pulled the plug on ice skating drama "Spinning Out" after its debut season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Samantha Stratton-created series launched on January 1 to mixed reviews. It starred Kaya Scodelario and January Jones.
"Spinning Out" starred Scodelario as a high-level singles skater who reinvents her career following an injury as a pairs skater.
The 10-episode series ended with a cliffhanger that Stratton said viewers would find out about should the show gets a second season.
The cast also included Johnny Weir, Sarah Wright Olsen, Will Kemp, Kaitlyn Leeb, Amanda Zhou and Mitchell Edwards.

Netflix axes 'Spinning Out' after first season

Practising yoga may increase levels of a messenger molecule involved in regulating brain activity, and completing one yoga class per week may maintain elevated levels of this chemical, according to a study which may lead to better ways of mitigating depressive symptoms.
The study, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, assessed a group of 30 clinically depressed patients who were randomly divided into two groups.
According to the researchers, including those from Boston University in the US, both groups engaged in coherent breathing, and Iyengar yoga -- a form of hatha yoga, developed by B. K. S. Iyengar, emphasising on detail, precision, and alignment in the performance of yoga postures.
The only difference between the groups, the scientists said, was the number of 90 minute yoga sessions, and home sessions in which each group participated.
Over three months, they said, the high-dose group (HDG) was assigned three sessions per week, while the ...

Page 932 - PTI Stories National