IN BRIEF (Page 19)

China Daily | Updated: 2019-04-26 08:27

Japan

Court grants $4.5M bail to Carlos Ghosn

Detained former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn paid 500 million yen ($4.5 million) in bail, the Tokyo District court said on Thursday, clearing the way for his release but under strict conditions. Prosecutors appealed the decision by the court earlier in the day to grant release on bail. They said he may tamper with evidence or influence witnesses. Ghosn's lawyers can protest the appeal and push for his release. Ghosn was arrested in November, released on bail in March but rearrested in April on new allegations and taken to the Tokyo Detention House. He has been charged with underreporting his post-retirement compensation and breach of trust in diverting Nissan money and allegedly having it shoulder his personal investment losses. Ghosn denies all the charges, with his spokesperson saying on Monday that he would "vigorously defend himself against these baseless accusations and fully expects to be vindicated".

United States

Staggering loss of world's forests in 2018

The world lost 12 million hectares of tropical tree cover last year - the equivalent of 30 soccer fields a minute - researchers said on Thursday, warning the planet's health was at stake. It was the fourth-highest annual decline since records began in 2001, according to new data from Global Forest Watch, based at the University of Maryland, which uses satellite imagery and remote sensing to monitor tree cover losses from Brazil to Ghana. The loss of huge swaths of forest around the world also has major implications for climate change as they absorb a third of the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions produced globally.

AP - Reuters

(China Daily 04/26/2019 page19)