Month: March 2023

Protesters have filled the streets of Paris and other French cities, with violence marring several marches, a day after President Emmanuel Macron further angered his critics by standing strong on a bill raising the retirement age that his government forced through parliament without a vote. Strikes upended travel as protesters blockaded train stations, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, refineries and ports. More than 250 protests were organised across the country and union leaders praised the "significant" mobilisation. READ MORE: World athletics bans transgender women, tightens rules for Caster Semenya In Paris, street battles between police and black-clad, masked groups who attacked at least two fast food restaurants, a supermarket and a bank reflected inten...

A top Russian security official has warned about the rising threat of a nuclear war and blasted a German minister for threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin with arrest, saying such action would amount to a declaration of war and trigger a Russian strike on Germany. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council chaired by Putin, said in video remarks to reporters that Russia's relations with the West have hit an all-time bottom. Asked whether the threat of a nuclear conflict has eased, Medvedev responded: "No, it hasn't decreased, it has grown". READ MORE: Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian missiles and drones In this file photo taken from a video distributed by the Russian Defence Ministry Press Service, a ground-based intercontinent...

Many of the world's most iconic structures come with unusual stories. French intellectuals and artists at first hated the "monstrous" Eiffel Tower; the British hid the Taj Mahal under bamboo scaffolding to stop it being bombed by the Luftwaffe during World War II; and it took a big leap of faith for the Golden Gate Bridge to be painted its now iconic, but then unorthodox, burnt orange. If Saudi Arabia's proposed one-kilometre-high Jeddah Tower ever gets finished, architectural historians will also have a rich storybook to dig into. An architectural rendering of a finished Jeddah Tower, and the actual building which has not moved at all since 2017. (Jeddah Economic City) READ MORE: Transgender athletes banned from track and field But, right now, that seems a big if....

Friends and family desperately tried to save New Zealand man Mike Worley when he began choking at a barbecue. Despite their best efforts, he died in hospital four days later. The 55-year-old Christchurch man was a passionate family man, sport enthusiast and was "larger than life", brother Anton Worley said. READ MORE: Protesters fill French streets as anger at President Macron mounts On March 3, Worley was at a barbecue at his brother's home. He was eating leftover steak in the kitchen when some of the meat obstructed his throat. "He sort of said 'I'm choking' and at that stage there were two other good mates there. Straight away we started first aid on him," his brother said. Anton Worley and a friend who was there both had their current fi...

A zebra was on the loose for hours in Seoul after it escaped from a South Korean zoo. Videos and images of the zebra wandering through the streets of Seoul flooded social media after it escaped from the Seoul Children's Grand Park Zoo on Thursday. Police and zoo staff worked together to get the male zebra, named Sero, back to its enclosure. READ MORE: Why the 'tallest tower in the world' has ground to abrupt halt Video shows authorities using a tranquiliser dart to safely sedate the zebra, which was roaming through an alleyway. They then placed a net under the zebra and lifted it onto the back of a truck to take it away. The zebra was on the loose for three hours and was also caught on camera trotting through traffic on a busy city road. READ MO...

There's cause for optimism in the latest report on world happiness. For one, benevolence is about 25 per cent higher than it was pre-pandemic. "Benevolence to others, especially the helping of strangers, which went up dramatically in 2021, stayed high in 2022," John Helliwell, one of the authors of the World Happiness Report, said. For the sixth year in a row, one nation has been crowned the world's happiest country, according to the rankings, based largely on life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll. The country and its neighbours all score very well on the measures the report uses to explain its findings: healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support, low corruption and generosity in a community where people look after each other and freedom to make key life deci...