Short takes
Gunmen kill 4 cops in Baluchistan
AFP, QUETTA: Gunmen on motorcycles shot dead four policemen in Pakistans separatist-insurgency wracked southwestern Baluchistan province yesterday, officials said.
The shootings took place in the Pashtunabad neighbourhood of the provincial capital Quetta as the police were conducting a patrol in their vehicle. Four policemen were martyred when their vehicle came under attack from both sides while passing through Pashtunabad area, local police official Zahid Shah said. They were rushed to a government hospital where doctors pronounced them dead. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
UK scientist resigns over remarks
AFP, LONDON: British Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tim Hunt has resigned from his post at University College London over controversial comments he made about female scientists. Hunt has apologised for causing offence after his suggestion Tuesday that female scientists could not take criticism without crying and that relationships between men and women in the laboratory disrupted work. The 72-year-old said his comments, made at a lunch for women attending the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea, were intended to be light-hearted but also honest.
University College London said in a statement that Hunt had resigned from his position as honorary professor with the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences following the remarks.
Erdogan looks for new coalition
AFP, ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday called for the formation of a new coalition government as soon as possible, ending almost four days of unusual silence after legislative polls seen as a blow to his authority. Everyone should put their egos aside and a government must be formed as soon as possible, within the constitutional process, Erdogan said in his first public comments since the ruling party he co-founded lost its majority in Sundays vote. Erdogan insisted that the election result certainly does not mean Turkey will remain without a government. He said he hoped political parties will prefer solution rather than crisis. We cannot leave Turkey without a government, without a head. Those who are condemned to their egos will neither be able to give account to history, nor to our people.
China ex-security chief jailed
AFP, BEIJING: Former Chinese security chief Zhou Yongkang, the highest ranking ex-official to be investigated for corruption in decades, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison on charges of bribery, abuse of power and leaking state secrets, state media said. Zhou admitted guilt following a secret trial in the northern city of Tianjin, the official Xinhua news agency said. Zhou is a former member of the ruling Communist partys all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, and wielded extensive power as head of the police and courts until his retirement in 2012.
