BBC to lay off 300 employees

LONDON • A restructuring will see Britain's national broadcaster BBC cut 300 production jobs, according to media reports.

The redundancies are part of a "wider plan to make the BBC simpler, leaner and more adaptable to meet the challenges of the future", Sky News quoted the broadcaster as saying yesterday.

As part of the restructuring, which will affect staff in the factual, drama, comedy, entertainment, events and music departments, some staff will be hired on a project basis, while others will be retained to work on regularly aired programmes, according to Sky News.

Two Aussie teens on terror charge

SYDNEY • Two 16-year-old boys were charged yesterday with planning a terror attack after being arrested with "bayonet-type" knives in Sydney, with the police saying the pair were inspired by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria terror group.

The boys, who have not been named, were arrested in the city's south-west after buying the weapons in a shop, renewing fears about youth radicalisation.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Moon gets 'facelift' every 81,000 years

PARIS • The Moon is bombarded by so much space rock that its surface gets a complete facelift every 81,000 years, according to a study .

This churn - affecting the top 2cm of mostly loose moon dust - happens 100 times more frequently than previously thought, scientists reported.

The findings, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, come from "before and after" pictures taken by American space agency Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, which has been mapping the Moon since 2009.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE