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Great Barrier Reef avoids UNESCO 'in danger' listing
BRISBANE: Australia on Friday avoided having the Great Barrier Reef listed as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO, despite extensive climate change-fuelled damage to the ecosystem's corals. After a concerted lobbying effort by Canberra, members of the World Heritage Committee -- including leading fossil fuel producers Russia and Saudi Arabia -- voted to give Australian conservation efforts more time. The group brushed aside UNESCO...
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Blasted by flames, California to modernize its power grid
LOS ANGELES: Across California, thousands of miles of overhead power cables run through cities, countryside, and forests. It only took a tree to fall on one of these lines to start a devastating fire this summer.With its fragile and aging infrastructure, the most populous US state is falling behind in its race against climate change. Every summer Californians understand that they risk plunging into darkness at any moment. As soon as the red fire...
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Frenzied appetite for India food delivery giant Zomato's IPO
MUMBAI: Shares of Indian food delivery giant Zomato soared on its market debut Friday, following a 93.75 billion rupee ($1.3 billion) IPO, the country's biggest this year. Around 30 Indian companies have announced plans to list shares this year, with start-ups attracting billions of dollars in investment even though many are yet to make a profit.Zomato, which counts subsidiaries of Chinese tycoon Jack Ma's Ant Group and Uber among its...
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10 years after Winehouse death, family 'reclaims' her story
Amy Winehouse may still be best known for her line: "They tried to make me go to rehab. But I said no, no, no." But 10 years after the British singer's death at 27, her family and friends say it is time to stop defining her by her well-documented struggles with addiction and destructive relationships. Winehouse's parents have cooperated with a BBC documentary to air on the anniversary of her death on Friday, which her father Mitchell, known as...
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Alaska Coast Guard rescues man who fended off grizzly bear for days
This handout image provided by the US Coast Guard, shows a remote mining camp near Nome, Alaska, where a Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak aircrew rescued the survivor of a bear attack, on July 16, 2021. - A man who fended off attacks from a wild grizzly bear for a week straight in the Alaskan wilderness is recovering from his injuries after he was found stranded at an encampment, the US Coast Guard said. — AFP ALASKA: A man who fended off...
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UK 'pingdemic' leads to supermarket shortages
LONDON: British supermarkets and suppliers warned Thursday of possible food shortages due to staff self-isolating, as rising coronavirus cases threaten chaos after the government controversially eased all restrictions earlier this week.With millions of workers and school children currently forced to stay home under COVID-19 tracing rules -- in what has been dubbed a "pingdemic" after the phone app used to contact, or ping, people who need to...
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New US unemployment benefit claims jump above 400,000
NEW YORK: New applications for US unemployment benefit saw a surprise uptick last week, the government said Thursday, data analysts said may be evidence of the rising threat posed by the Delta variant of COVID-19. Initial jobless claims climbed to 419,000, seasonally adjusted, in the week ended July 17, an increase of 51,000 over the previous week, according to the Labor Department report. "The unexpected bump in claims could be noise in the...
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ECB keeps cheap money taps open amid virus 'uncertainty'
FRANKFURT: European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde warned of growing economic "uncertainty" caused by the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus, as the bank kept its vast stimulus for the eurozone firmly in place. "The euro area economy is rebounding strongly," Lagarde said. "But the pandemic continues to cast a shadow, especially as the Delta variant constitutes a growing source of uncertainty."The highly contagious variant --...
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Academy Museum to open with 'Wizard of Oz'
There's no place like home: and the Academy will finally open the doors to its very own Hollywood film museum in Los Angeles with live screenings of "The Wizard of Oz," it said Wednesday. Dedicated to the magic of movies and first dreamt up almost a century ago by the group that hands out the Oscars, the museum has been long delayed by construction and funding issues and more recently the pandemic.Opening on September 30, the museum's first...
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Harvey Weinstein denies 11 Los Angeles sex assault charges
Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty in a courtroom in Los Angeles on Wednesday to all 11 charges of rape and sexual assault against five women in California hotel rooms. The convicted rapist, who is already serving 23 years in jail in New York, has been brought across the country to face further sex crime charges in the city where he once presided over massive film deals.The 69-year-old Weinstein—who could face an...
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'Nomadland' winner Chloe Zhao to sit on Venice film jury
Director Chloe Zhao, fresh off her "Nomadland" best film win at this year's Academy Awards, will sit on the jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival, organisers said Wednesday. The annual international festival, to be held on the glitzy island of Lido from September 1-11, will be headed by Jury President Bong Joon Ho, the South Korean director whose "Parasite" won an Oscar for best film in 2019.Zhao, who was born in China but lives and works in...
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Plath love letters to Hughes, wedding rings sold at auction
Sylvia Plath's possessions from the early days of her marriage to fellow poet Ted Hughes, including love letters and their wedding rings, sold for over £770,000 ($1.1 million) at auction on Wednesday. The online sale of 55 lots from the private collection of their daughter Frieda Hughes had opened on July 9 at Sotheby's in London, and raised more than three times the estimate. The standout item was a deck of Tarot cards, reflecting the couple's...