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After almost 20 months of Covid travel restrictions in Thailand, several different species of sea turtle have returned to nesting around Phuket, an ultra-popular beach destination before the pandemic. But as the country tentatively begins to reopen its doors to fully vaccinated international tourists, scientists have tempered their optimism.
Source: france24.com
An 11-year-old has become the first patient in the UK to have kidney surgery using specialist 3D equipment. Libby, from Watchet, Somerset, was suffering from kidney and bladder complications which meant she was often in severe pain. Surgeons were able to operate on her faster and with greater accuracy using 3D technology during keyhole surgery.
Source: bbc.com
Japan announced Friday it won’t send a delegation of ministers to represent the government at the Beijing Games but three Olympic officials will attend, a decision that follows a U.S.-led move to diplomatically boycott the Games to protest China’s human rights conditions. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a regular news conference that “we have no plans to send a government delegation.”
Source: apnews.com
Dozens of officials have been punished over a virus outbreak in the locked-down city of Xi'an, China's disciplinary body said Friday -- the latest state reprimands under Beijing's strict zero-Covid approach. China, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, is on high alert for new infections as it prepares to hold the Winter Olympics in February in the capital Beijing.
Source: france24.com
At least 37 people have been killed and about 100 others injured after a packed ferry caught fire in southern Bangladesh, local officials say. The blaze on the three-decked vessel started mid-river near the town of Jhalakathi as it sailed from the capital Dhaka to the town of Barguna. Some of the victims drowned after jumping into the water. As many as 500 people were reportedly on board the vessel.
Source: bbc.com
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s legal team has filed an application to appeal to Britain’s Supreme Court, after a lower court ruled this month that he can be extradited to the United States on spying charges.
Source: aljazeera.com
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have issued the first photograph of their daughter Lilibet on their festive card. The image shows Meghan raising Lilibet in the air as she sits alongside Prince Harry, who is holding their two-year-old son Archie on his knee. Lilibet, who was born in June, is dressed in a white baby gown.
Source: bbc.com
Pep Guardiola confirmed Ferran Torres is on the brink of a move from Manchester City to Barcelona on Thursday after revealing the Spanish international had asked him to leave the English champions. Despite their financial struggles, the Catalan giants have reportedly agreed a deal worth an initial 55 million euros for the 22-year-old.
Source: france24.com
Joan Didion, the sharp-eyed and influential journalist, essayist and novelist who chronicled the social upheavals of the 1960s, the cultural landscape of California and the inner struggles of grief, died Thursday. The cause was complications from Parkinson's disease, according to a statement from Penguin Random House.
Source: nbcnews.com
At least three people were transported to hospital by air ambulance as authorities responded to the "major industrial accident" in Baytown, just over 25 miles east of Houston.
Source: nbcnews.com
U.S. officials denied Thursday that an American citizen arrested in Turkey for allegedly providing a fake passport to a Syrian man is a U.S. diplomat. Turkish officials said Wednesday they detained a U.S. diplomat at Istanbul Airport on Nov. 11. Authorities in Turkey publicly identified the man only by his initials D.J.K., and said he worked for the U.S. Consulate in Lebanon.
Source: apnews.com
Coldplay will stop recording music as a band in 2025, frontman Chris Martin has revealed. Martin made the announcement on Radio 2 on Wednesday, in a clip trailing ahead to his Christmas Show with Jo Whiley on the same channel on Thursday evening.
Source: bbc.com
Maritime authorities said 138 people were on the 12-foot-long boat carrying cargo which sank on Monday, adding that only 50 had been rescued. The dead include five children.
Source: france24.com
An 1875 almanac and other documents were discovered on Wednesday inside a time capsule that was encased in the pedestal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that formerly stood in Richmond, Virginia's capital. Conservators in a laboratory at the state's Department of Historic Resources opened the lead box after hours of meticulous scraping and drilling to reveal the almanac, two other unidentified books and a cloth envelope with unknown contents. A coin was stuck to one of the books.
Source: reuters.com
A Tunisian court has sentenced former President Moncef Marzouki in absentia to four years in prison for “assaulting” the security of the state, according to state media. The 76-year-old, who currently lives in France, had previously criticised President Kais Saied and called for protests.
Source: aljazeera.com
The world's first SMS has been sold at auction in Paris, according to the auctioneer Aguttes. Reading "Merry Christmas," the message was sent by British programmer Neil Papworth from his computer on December 3 1992 to Richard Jarvis, then director of UK telecommunications company Vodafone. Jarvis received the message on his Orbitel 901 cellphone during the company's Christmas function.
Source: cnn.com
U.S. authorities have taken issue with Turkey over its sales of armed drones to Ethiopia, where two sources familiar with the matter said there was mounting evidence the government had used the weapons against rebel fighters. Washington has "profound humanitarian concerns" over the sales, which could contravene U.S. restrictions on arms to Addis Ababa, a senior Western official said.
Source: reuters.com
South Korea set a new record for COVID-19 deaths on Thursday as officials warned that the highly transmissible omicron variant could soon become the dominant strain. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said a record 109 people died in the last 24-hour period, raising the country’s total number of pandemic fatalities to 5,015. It said the number of patients in serious or critical conditions also hit a fresh high of 1,083.
Source: apnews.com
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