Beijing vows taxi industry reforms

China: The government promised yesterday to reform the taxi industry after a series of drivers’ strikes in major cities.

Cabbies are angry at high charges imposed by taxi companies, low pay and competition from ride-hailing applications.

The Ministry of Transport said it would take action to protect drivers’ rights — most are treated by firms as independent contractors without set salaries or benefits — and limit company charges.

Unions offered deal over airline sell-off

Portugal: The government offered a sweetener to trade unions yesterday over its plans to privatise its national airline.

Authorities said the successful bidder for a controlling stake in TAP Air Portugal could not carry out mass layoffs for two-and-a-half years.

Staff will receive 5 per cent of shares in the airline as another incentive.

Stalin’s grandson loses privacy case

Russia: Stalin’s grandson was rebuffed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) yesterday after it rejected his complaint against a Russian court.

Yevgeny Dzhugashvili filed a defamation case against newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 2009 after it labelled Stalin “a bloodthirsty cannibal.”

After his suit was rejected he took the case to the ECHR, saying the courts had violated his right to respect for private and family life, but the court said Stalin was a public figure and “inevitably open to scrutiny.”

Activists urge end to prison boat plan

Thailand: Rights groups wrote to ex-army Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who seized power last May, urging him to drop a proposal to make prisoners work on fishing boats.

The government said the work would help train and rehabilitate prisoners and that they would be paid.

But critics including Human Rights Watch say sending convicts to work at sea is reminiscent of the galley slaves once seized around the world.

Executions start up in Oklahoma

United States: Oklahoma was set to resume executions yesterday following a nine-month hiatus prompted by the botched killing of Clayton Lockett.

Mr Lockett writhed and moaned after drugs were supposed to have rendered him unconscious. State authorities have modified the formula used to avoid such incidents.

Frederick Warner was due to be executed at 6pm local time for murdering a baby girl in 1997.

Pope: Humans cause of global warming

Climate change: Pope Francis threw the Catholic church’s weight behind environmental campaigners yesterday, saying global warming was mostly man-made.

He intends to meet survivors of 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

“It is man who has slapped nature in the face,” the pontiff told reporters.

Manila said that climate change was making such natural disasters more common.