Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates will meet President Xi Jinping on Friday, after his foundation pledged $50 million to help Chinese efforts to battle disease.. "On June 16, President Xi Jinping will meet in Beijing with Bill Gates, head of the Gates Foundation," state broadcaster CCTV said.
Japan's age of consent was raised from 13, among the world's lowest, to 16 years old on Friday as lawmakers passed key reforms to sex crime legislation.. Japan's had been unchanged since 1907, with children aged 13 and above deemed capable of consent.
The multi-million-dollar deal that a media group run by Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle has had with streaming giant Spotify is ending by mutual agreement, the two parties said Thursday.. But the two sides said in a joint statement that the deal is coming to an end.
South Korea's military said Friday it had successfully retrieved a large chunk of a crashed North Korean space rocket from the sea bed after 15 days of complex salvage operations.. North Korea attempted to put its first military spy satellite into orbit on May 31, but the projectile and its payload crashed into the sea shortly after launch due to what Pyongyang said was a rocket failure.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday hosts Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks in Paris, seeking to nudge the de-facto leader of the oil-rich kingdom into more full-throated support of Ukraine against the Russian invasion.. His stay in France appears set to be a long one, with the crown prince due to attend a Paris summit on a New Global Financing Pact hosted by Macron on June 22-23.
In Washington they paused; in Frankfurt they hiked; and in Beijing, they cut. . - Skip, Hike and Cut - On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve paused its aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes after 10 straight increases, which brought its benchmark lending rate from close to zero to a range between 5.0 and 5.25 percent.
The world's first international treaty to protect the high seas is scheduled to be adopted Monday at the United Nations, a huge step for the "historic" environmental accord after more than 15 years of discussions.. But with so much of the world's oceans lying outside of individual countries' exclusive economic zones, and thus the jurisdiction of any single state, providing protection for the so-called "high seas" requires international cooperation.
Pressure to speed cuts in carbon pollution took a back seat at UN climate talks that ended late Thursday night, as emerging economies, including China, demanded that rich ones vastly scale up climate financing.. A long-standing tug-of-war at UN climate talks pits the European Union against a powerful negotiating bloc: the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), which includes China, India and Saudi Arabia.
Actor Al Pacino has become a dad again, at the grand old age of 83, a representative said Thursday.. The star's 29-year-old girlfriend, Noor Alfallah, has given birth to a son the couple has named Roman Pacino, publicist Stan Rosenfield told AFP. Pacino -- known for such films as "The Godfather" (1972), "Scarface" (1983) and "Scent of a Woman" (1992), for which he won an Oscar -- has three grown children from previous relationships.
An Andy Warhol silkscreen, Jackson Pollock painting and World Series rings awarded to baseball legend Yogi Berra -- those were just a few of the high-value items US prosecutors charged nine people Thursday with stealing.. The suspects are also accused of stealing nine World Series rings, seven other championship rings, and two most valuable player (MVP) plaques awarded to Berra, considered one of the greatest catchers in baseball history.
