World News

The baptistery of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, designed by French artist and designer Guillaume Bardet, in Paris on November 29, 2024. Photo: AFP French President Emmanuel Macron praised on Friday (local time) the more than 1000 craftspeople who helped rebuild Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral in what he called "the project of the century", five-and-a-half-years after fire gutted the Gothic masterpiece. The 12th-century cathedral, one of the French capital's most beloved and visited monuments, will reopen its doors next week to tourists and to the Catholic faithful. Notre Dame is one of Paris' most beloved monuments. Photo: CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON / AFP "Never before have we seen such a construction site. You all had your share in the project of the century," Macron told a gathering t...

World wine output is on course to hit another 60-year low in 2024. Photo: World wine output is on course to hit another 60-year low in 2024 as vineyards in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres endured adverse weather as they did last year, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said on Friday. In its first global projections for 2024, the OIV pegged world wine output, excluding juices and musts, at between 227 million and 235 million hectolitres (mhl), with a mid-range estimate of 231 mhl. The mid-range figure was 2 percent lower than last year's output and the smallest since 1961, the OIV said. A hectolitre is the equivalent of 133 standard wine bottles. "Globally, 2024 appears to be a re-run of 2023," the OIV said in a note. "As with 2023, extreme or atypical met...

By Rob Picheta for CNN Debate over the issue sharply divided lawmakers, many of whom have laboured to choose a side during an unusually strained week in Westminster. Photo: Unsplash/ Marcin Nowak British members of parliament have voted to legalise assisted dying, approving a contentious proposal that would make the United Kingdom one of a small handful of nations to allow terminally ill people to end their lives. Lawmakers in the House of Commons voted by 330 to 275 to support the bill, after an hours-long debate in the chamber and a years-long campaign by high-profile figures that drew on emotional first-hand testimony. Britain is now set to join a small club of nations to have legalised the process, and one of the largest by population to allow it. The bill must still clear the Ho...

A man rides his motorbike through a flooded street after a heavy downpour in Kota Bharu, in Malaysia's Kelantan state, on November 29, 2024. Photo: AFP / Mohd Rasfan Three people have died and more than 80,000 have been evacuated from floods across several Malaysian states, the government said on Friday as officials warned the monsoon season could bring the country's worst flooding in a decade. Floods are common on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia during the monsoon period between October and March, but this week's torrential rain has led to the mass evacuations, mostly in the northeastern state of Kelantan that borders Thailand. The National Disaster Command Centre's website said as of Friday morning three people had died and 80,589 people had been evacuated to 467 temporary shelt...

By Chris Lau and Yoonjung Seo, CNN South Korean veterans drink coffee at an observation deck of the Starbucks Coffee in Gimpo. Photo: SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg / Getty Images Coffee lovers with a keen interest to catch a glimpse of life in the world's most reclusive nation should get ready to travel: Starbucks has the perfect spot for them to hang. The American chain's latest outpost in South Korea is located on an observation tower at the border with North Korea, allowing patrons to sip on their brews while looking out at the hermit kingdom from across the Jo River that separates the two sides. The 30-seat cafe is located at the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo city, about 20 miles north of the capital Seoul. It's near the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), one of the world's most heav...

Social media giants have hit back at Australian lawmakers over a ban on social media for those under 16 years old, which is due to come into effect late in 2025. Photo: Unsplash/ Annie Spratt Big Tech corporations on Friday hit out at a landmark Australian law that bans youths under the age of 16 from accessing social media, saying the law was "rushed" through parliament. Australia approved the social media ban for children late on Thursday. The law forces tech giants, from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok, to stop minors logging in or face fines of up to $AU49.5 million. TikTok, the hugely popular platform where teen users upload and share videos, said in a statement to Reuters on Friday that it was likely the ban could see young people pushed to darker corners of the inter...

By Andrew MacAskill, Reuters Britain's transport minister Louise Haigh has resigned over a historical conviction. Photo: Supplied/ UK Labour Party UK MP Louise Haigh resigns over historical conviction Says case would only become a 'distraction' Conservatives ask why Starmer appointed her Britain's transport minister Louise Haigh has resigned after pleading guilty years ago to an offence in connection with misleading police over a work mobile phone, in another blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Her resignation, the first from Starmer's top team of ministers since winning a landslide election victory in July, came after media reports that she had been convicted and given a conditional discharge in 2014 for what she described as a "mistake". Haigh said in a letter to Starmer date...

By Sarah Young, Reuters British lawmakers will cast a conscience vote on whether to progress a bill that could give people the right to choose to end their lives, if they meet criteria. Photo: Unsplash/ Marcin Nowak The proposed assisted dying law has split the UK parliament and the country A lawmaker says the bill has the "strictest safeguards" Supporters and opponents plan to protest outside parliament British lawmakers must decide on Friday whether to support assisted dying, following what is likely to be a heated debate inside parliament and protests for and against outside. Were parliament to back the bill, and see it through the full legislative process, Britain would follow other countries such as Australia, Canada and some US states in launching what would be one of its b...

By Eden Gillespie, ABC News Ashley Paul Griffith appeared emotionless as he fronted the Brisbane District Court on Friday. Photo: ABC News / Sharon Gordon Warning: This story contains details of child sexual abuse. One of Australia's most notorious paedophiles has been sentenced to life in prison after confessing to raping and abusing scores of children in daycare centres in Australia and overseas. Former childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith pleaded guilty in September to more than 300 charges against 69 children in early learning centres in Brisbane and Italy over almost two decades. Griffith will have a non-parole period of 27 years, with Judge Paul Smith describing his offending as "depraved". He will not be eligible to apply until 2049. He appeared emotionless as he fronted the ...

Local residents take shelter in a metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv, on 28 November. Photo: TETIANA DZHAFAROVA / AFP Russia's widespread overnight attack targeting critical energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine was a response to strikes on Russian territory using US-made ATACMS missiles, President Vladimir Putin says. Putin claimed Russia hit 17 targets that were "military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems," without acknowledging the hits to power infrastructure. "As I have said many times, there will always be a response from our side (to the use of American ATACMS)," Putin said on Thursday during comments made at a security summit in Kazakhstan. More than a million households in Ukraine were left without power following the aerial b...