Geneva / AFP A jailed scholar defending China’s mostly-Muslim Uighur minority was awarded a leading honour for human rights on Tuesday, a move swiftly condemned by Beijing. Ilham Tohti, who was handed a life sentence in 2014, won the Martin Ennals award for his outspoken criticism of Beijing’s policies towards Uighurs. “Ilham Tohti has worked for two decades to foster ...

  Paris / AFP Big cities worldwide have expanded faster than their rapid transit systems, leading to higher levels of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and commuter misery, a report released Tuesday showed. “Low-density, car-oriented development — known as ‘sprawl’ — has been the predominant urban form for cities in the past century,” said Michael Marks, a researcher at the non-profit, New ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Most major bourses in the Gulf rose on Tuesday as oil prices held near one-year highs, while Egypt retreated after news that Saudi Arabia had suspended oil product supplies to the country this month. Riyadh’s stock index gained 1.5 percent, trimming its loss over the last four weeks to 8.4 percent. All 14 listed petrochemical producers ...

  London / AFP Shares in Samsung Electronics tumbled Tuesday after the company junked its Note 7 smartphone, while the anaemic pound helped push Britain’s stock market to a record high. The weak pound, flailing in the wake of Britain’s June vote to quit the European Union, helped push London’s FTSE 100 index of top blue-chip companies to 7,129.83 points, ...

  Bloomberg Britain risks losing access to the European Union’s development bank when it leaves the bloc, adding to the economic harm caused by Brexit, according to Werner Hoyer, the bank’s president. The European Investment Bank lent Britain a record 7.8 billion euros ($8.7 billion) in 2015, part of a U.K. loan book of almost 50 billion euros. Projects funded ...

  Milton Keynes / AFP Driverless vehicles carrying passengers took to Britain’s streets for the first time on Tuesday in a landmark trial which could pave the way for their introduction across the country. The compact two-seater cars trundled along a pedestrianised zone in Milton Keynes, north of London, in a trial by Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) which plans to ...

  The Hague / AFP Dutch authorities said on Tuesday they have suspended plans to sue the US makers of Pokemon Go after the company deleted its virtual pets from a protected beach in The Hague. The so-called Pokestops and Pokegyms, which attract Pokemon and allow players to buy accessories to capture, treat and train the virtual monsters, “have been ...

  Frankfurt / AFP Sentiment among investors in Germany sharply improved this month from its post-Brexit doldrums, data showed on Tuesday, but analysts warned against overconfidence. The ZEW economic institute’s headline investor confidence index hit 6.2 points in October, an increase of 5.7 points over September and beating the 4.0 points analysts surveyed by Factset had predicted. Sentiment had hovered ...

  Geneva / AFP The UN health agency on Tuesday urged countries to start taxing sugary beverages as they fight against an obesity epidemic, pointing to evidence that price hikes can dramatically reduce consumption. The World Health Organization’s recommendations on sweetened beverages came as the world seeks to bring down whopping obesity rates, with one in three adults overweight. “There ...

  The US government reiterated its request that construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota be paused, while authorities consider the impacts of its route on a Native American tribe. The Dakota Access Pipeline has been the subject of a months-long protest, in which Native Americans and their supporters have camped out in the state’s prairie lands to block ...