IN BRIEF (Page 12)

European Union

Bloc to go climate neutral by 2050

The EU's executive branch proposed on Wednesday that the bloc should cut its emissions of greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050, a measure that scientists said needs to be adopted worldwide in order to avoid catastrophic global warming. The European Commission is the first major economy to set its sights on achieving climate neutrality in the next three decades. But the plan is far more ambitious than the national targets set so far by many of the EU's 28 member nations.

South Korea

Mitsubishi told to pay WWII laborers

South Korea's top court ruled on Thursday that Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd must compensate 28 South Koreans for their forced labor during World War II, a ruling that drew an immediate rebuke from Tokyo. The decision echoed the Supreme Court's landmark verdict last month that ruled in favor of South Koreans seeking compensation from Japan's Nippon Steel& Sumitomo Metal Corp for their wartime forced labor. It upheld a 2013 appeals court decision that Mitsubishi must pay 80 million won ($71,000) to each of 23 plaintiffs. In a separate ruling, the court also ordered Mitsubishi to pay up to 150 million won to each of another five plaintiffs or their families. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono quickly issued a statement in which he said the court's decisions were "totally unacceptable".

France

Tutankhamen show set to tour world

Four decades after the boy pharaoh caused a sensation in the United States and Europe, treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamen are to tour the world again - many for the first time. More than 50 of the 150 artworks from his tomb in the show will only ever leave Cairo once, said the Egyptian authorities, who are organizing the tour in the run-up to the 2020 opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. "Treasures of the Golden Pharoah" - which opened in Los Angeles in March - will go on show in Paris in March. It is the show's only stop in Europe.

Mauritius

UNESCO adds reggae to its list

Reggae music, whose chill, lilting grooves found international fame thanks to artists like Bob Marley, on Thursday won a spot on the United Nations' list of global cultural treasures. UNESCO, the world body's cultural and scientific agency, added the genre that originated in Jamaica to its collection of "intangible cultural heritage" deemed worthy of protection and promotion. Reggae music's "contribution to international discourse on issues of injustice, resistance, love and humanity underscores the dynamics of the element as being at once cerebral, sociopolitical, sensual and spiritual," UNESCO said.

Reuters - Ap - Afp

(China Daily 11/30/2018 page12)