World review: China fury after envoy's tweet porn like, flight cancelled over mask

China's UK embassy has asked Twitter to "make thorough investigations" after its ambassador's official account liked a pornographic clip.

Liu Xiaoming's account also liked posts that criticised the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and showed blindfolded Uighurs being detained.

Officials claimed that "anti-Chinese elements [had] viciously attacked" Mr Liu's account in a "despicable" plot designed to "deceive the public".Twitter has yet to comment.

The activity first drew attention after the account liked a 10-second video posted by an adult-themed page containing clips with Chinese-language descriptions.

A London-based human rights campaigner flagged this to other Twitter users just after 09:00 GMT with a screenshot as proof.

The clip was subsequently unliked by whoever was controlling the account.

A Canadian flight was cancelled and police were called because a child was not wearing a mask.

Safwan Choudhry says WestJet wanted his 19-month-old to wear a mask, but the baby girl would not stop crying.

The airline says the issue was not with the infant, who is below the age required to wear a mask, but with Mr Choudhry's three-year-old.

Tuesday morning's Flight 652 from Calgary to Toronto was stopped, and all passengers were ordered to disembark.

"It's unlike anything I have ever witnessed, let alone experienced," Mr Choudhry told the BBC.

Mr Choudhry told the BBC his oldest daughter, who is three, was eating a snack before take-off when flight attendants approached them asking that both their children wear a mask. He said he and his wife were masked.

He said he asked if his daughter could finish her snack, but that they said they had a "zero-tolerance policy" and would not close the aeroplane door without her wearing a mask. Mr Choudhry said he agreed to put one on immediately.

"Most children you have to kind of ease them into it, which is a code word for let me get the iPad out," he told the BBC.

He says the three-year-old did put on a mask, after some fussing.

Top South African human rights lawyer George Bizos, who famously defended Nelson Mandela, has died aged 92.

After representing some of the country's best known political activists during the apartheid years, Mr Bizos became one of the architects of South Africa's new constitution.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his death, saying Mr Bizos had "contributed immensely to our democracy".

His family said he "died peacefully at home of natural causes".Leading tributes on Wednesday, President Ramaphosa described Mr Bizos as an "incisive legal mind", and said his death was "very sad for us as a country".

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said, "another giant of South African history and of global struggles for justice has fallen."

Wildlife populations have fallen by more than two-thirds in less than 50 years, according to a major report by the conservation group WWF.

The report says this "catastrophic decline" shows no sign of slowing.

And it warns that nature is being destroyed by humans at a rate never seen before.

Wildlife is "in freefall" as we burn forests, over-fish our seas and destroy wild areas, says Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF.

"We are wrecking our world - the one place we call home - risking our health, security and survival here on Earth. Now nature is sending us a desperate SOS and time is running out."

Shipping a coronavirus vaccine around the world will be the "largest transport challenge ever" according to the airline industry.

The equivalent of 8,000 Boeing 747s will be needed, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said.

There is no Covid-19 vaccine yet, but IATA is already working with airlines, airports, global health bodies and drug firms on a global airlift plan.

The distribution programme assumes only one dose per person is needed.

"Safely delivering Covid-19 vaccines will be the mission of the century for the global air cargo industry. But it won't happen without careful advance planning. And the time for that is now," said IATA's chief executive Alexandre de Juniac.

While airlines have been shifting their focus onto delivering cargo during the severe downturn in passenger flights, shipping vaccines is far more complex.

Compiled by D.Tarus