'Fish and chips' for Xi on Britain visit

BEIJING • Chinese President Xi Jinping has reportedly put in a request to have a simple meal of English fish and chips during his visit to Britain. Mr Xi is expected to dine at a traditional English pub in the countryside on Thursday afternoon and "wants to try the dish" there, The Sunday Times of London reported.

Mr Xi and his wife, Madam Peng Liyuan, were scheduled to arrive in London yesterday for a four-day visit.

Meanwhile, Alibaba founder Jack Ma has been appointed by British Prime Minister David Cameron to advise him on business, Downing Street said yesterday. The two were due to meet yesterday and Mr Ma would be joining Mr Cameron's business advisory group.

CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Protests over draft of climate rescue pact

BONN • Home-stretch negotiations for a 195-nation climate rescue pact got off to a halting start yesterday, with developing countries protesting that several of their key demands were being sidelined.

In the last round of official talks before a year-end Paris conference, more than 130 developing nations demanded to reinsert core suggestions on fairness and finance they said had been dropped from a streamlined draft text. The new blueprint "is extremely unbalanced and lopsided", South Africa's climate envoy Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE