SYDNEY: Australia this week experienced its hottest day on record and the heatwave is expected to worsen, exacerbating an already unprecedented bushfire season, authorities said yesterday. The average nationwide temperatures of 40.9 degrees Celsius on Tuesday beat the previous record of 40.3 degrees Celsius in January 2013, the Bureau of
JAKARTA: Huge chunks of an Indonesian volcano litter the seabed after its eruption and subsequent collapse last year sparked a deadly tsunami, according to new research. The marine survey imagery shows parts of the strait between Java and Sumatra islands covered with triangular-shaped boulders from the Anak Krakatau volcano, some
TOKYO: A Tokyo court yesterday awarded 3.3 million yen in damages to journalist Shiori Ito, who accused a former TV reporter of rape in one of the most high-profile cases of the #MeToo movement in Japan. The civil case made headlines in Japan and abroad, as it is rare for
VIENNA: Vienna’s prestigious ballet academy is endangering children’s well-being including by encouraging them to smoke to stay slim, an Austrian commission probing abuse claims said Tuesday. The scandal broke in April when a media report accused the academy at Vienna’s renowned State Opera of inflicting serious physical and mental abuse
OTTAWA: Privacy watchdogs have launched an investigation into a hack of health records, which a laboratory said Tuesday may have compromised data on up to 15 million Canadians or nearly half the population. Life Labs, which does blood work and other tests across Canada, said in a letter to customers
SEOUL: The world’s biggest smartphone and chipmaker Samsung Electronics issued a rare apology yesterday after its chairman was jailed for sabotaging union activities. Chairman Lee Sang-hoon and executive vice president Kang Kyung-hoon were both jailed for 18 months for leading a wide ranging operation to deter staff at Samsung’s customer
LOS ANGELES: A California energy supplier has reached a nearly $1.7 billion settlement with regulators for its role in causing devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that killed more than 100 people in total. Faulty Pacific Gas and Electric power lines were blamed for sparking last year’s so-called Camp Fire
GENEVA: Women may have to wait more than two centuries for equality at work, according to a report yesterday showing gender inequality growing in workplaces worldwide despite increasing demands for equal treatment. While women appear to be gradually closing the gender gap in areas such as politics, health and education,
SYDNEY: A dozen koalas have been rescued from the path of bushfires raging near Sydney, conservationists said Tuesday, as devastating blazes increasingly encroach on critical habitat. Rescuers scaled trees this week to retrieve three adult males, five adult females and four joeys, whose habitat is under threat from a fire
HONG KONG: Hong Kong customs announced its largest seizure of methamphetamine in a decade yesterday, 110 kilograms of ice worth some HK$77 million that originated in Mexico. The seizure points towards the growing presence of meth made by Mexican cartels in Asia, a region where the local “Golden Triangle” gangs
