IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Kenya

Treaty targets plastic waste

More than 200 countries signed a UN resolution in Nairobi on Wednesday to eliminate plastic pollution in the sea, a move some delegates hoped would pave the way to a legally binding treaty. If current pollution rates continue, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050, said the United Nations Environment Programme which organized the meeting. Eight million tons of plastic - bottles, packaging and other waste - are dumped into the ocean every year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain.

France

Halfway milestone for nuke project

A vast international experiment designed to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a viable source of clean and cheap energy is halfway toward completion. The organization behind the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor announced the milestone on Wednesday and confirmed it's aiming to conduct a first test run in 2025.

Australia

Parliament OKs same-sex marriage

Gay couples will be able to legally marry in the country after a same-sex marriage bill sailed through Parliament on Thursday, ending decades of political wrangling. There were loud cheers, hugs and sustained clapping in the 150-seat Lower House of Representatives when all but four MPs voted in support of marriage equality, after the upper house Senate passed the bill 43-12 last week.

New species of 'marsupial lion'

A new species of "marsupial lion" extinct in Australia for 19 million years has been discovered at one of the most significant fossil deposits in the world, researchers said on Thursday. The predator, with blade-like, flesh-cutting premolars used to tear up prey, stalked the country's rain forests during the late Oligocene to early Miocene era.

Japan

A boaring day at Kyoto school

Two wild boars caused pandemonium at a school by charging into classes and even taking a dip in the school pool, forcing pupils to interrupt their exams. Television footage showed a wild boar charging around a classroom, bashing its snout against a window in an apparent attempt to escape the school in the western city of Kyoto.

(China Daily 12/08/2017 page11)