AMSTERDAM: A fearsome stuffed crocodile hangs menacingly from the roof, mouth wide open, sharp teeth ready to strike: welcome to the Art Zoo, the new offbeat museum opening in Amsterdam. Aiming to elevate taxidermy to high art, Art Zoo opens Thursday in the heart of the Dutch capital, in a famous building from the 17th…
ATHENS: Greece has repatriated 105 of its citizens and foreign nationals from Israel, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, as the Iran-Israel conflict raged. “The people repatriated were transported to Athens from Sharm El-Sheikh, in Egypt, onboard C-130 and C-27 Greek air force planes,“ it said in a statement. Along with Greek citizens and their families,…
NEW YORK: Meta offered $100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative AI teams, the startup’s CEO, Sam Altman, has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding $100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman…
STRASBOURG: The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Wednesday that Russia does not “stand a chance” against NATO, but the alliance needs to “stick together” in the face of a belligerent Moscow. Speaking ahead of a NATO summit in the Netherlands with alliance members under US pressure to massively ramp up military budgets, Kallas warned…
BOGOTÁ: Colombia’s Senate has approved contested labor reforms, after leftist President Gustavo Petro decreed a referendum to get public approval for the bill. Senators voted 57-31 to approve the reform bill on Tuesday, which will end the working day at 6:00 pm instead of 9:00 pm, extend social security to some informal workers and create…
BEIJING: Almost 800 Chinese citizens have been evacuated from Iran since Israel launched military strikes against the country last week, Beijing said Wednesday. “Currently… 791 Chinese nationals have been relocated from Iran to safe areas,“ foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular news conference. “More than 1,000 other people are in the process…
MOSCOW: The families of Russian diplomats have left Israel, Russia’s ambassador to Tel Aviv Anatoly Viktorov said on Wednesday, as Israel and Iran traded fire for a sixth day. “Almost all the wives and children of embassy employees” left on Tuesday via Egypt “to return to their homeland,“ Viktorov said, interviewed by pro-Kremlin presenter Vladimir…
TEHRAN: Iran said Wednesday it had detained five suspected agents of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency on charges of tarnishing the country’s image online, Iranian news agencies reported. “These mercenaries sought to sow fear among the public and tarnish the image of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran through their calculated activities online,“…
SEOUL: North Korea will send military builders and sappers to help restore Russia’s Kursk region after Ukraine’s incursion, Moscow’s security chief said, in a fresh sign of deepening ties between the two countries. Sergei Shoigu, head of Russia’s Security Council, was in Pyongyang for the second time this month for talks with leader Kim Jong…
WELLINGTON: New Zealand on Wednesday approved the medicinal use of psilocybin, a hallucinogenic compound notably found in so-called “magic mushrooms”. Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said rules had been relaxed so psilocybin could be used to treat certain types of depression. Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in some species of mushroom and…
