Australia has listed the koala as an endangered species across most of its east coast, after a dramatic decline in numbers. The once-thriving marsupial has been ravaged by land clearing, bushfires, drought, disease and other threats. The federal government said the listing was for Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It has been urged to do more to protect koalas from rapidly diminishing habitats and climate change. The species was listed as “vulnerable” in those states and territory only in 2012. Despite the rapid deterioration, governments have been accused of dithering. “This listing adds priority when it comes to the conservation of the koala,” Environment Minister Sussan Ley said on Friday.(BBC)…[+]

French President Emmanuel Macron refused a Russian Covid test ahead of his meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has confirmed. The test required a health protocol that was unacceptable and did not fit with the French leader’s schedule, a French source told the BBC. It follows reports that Mr Macron refused the PCR test over fears the Russians would get hold of his DNA. The leaders subsequently held a socially-distanced meeting. They did not shake hands and sat with a four-metre-long table between them, with observers wondering whether Mr Putin was using it to send a diplomatic message. But French diplomatic sources told Reuters that Mr Macron had been told to choose between accepting a Russian PCR test to get closer to Putin or abide by strict social distancing rules. “We knew very well that meant no handshake and that long table. But we could not accept that they get their hands on the president’s DNA,” one of the sources told Reuters. The source did not elaborate on how the Russian intelligence services could exploit Mr Macron’s DNA.(BBC)…[+]

The US actor and comedian Bob Saget died after suffering an accidental blow to the head, his family has revealed. A statement said that the Full House star had “accidentally hit the back of his head on something, thought nothing of it and went to sleep”. They added that authorities had concluded that drugs and alcohol were not involved in his death. Saget, 65, was found dead in his hotel room at the Ritz Carlton in Orlando, Florida last month.

“In the weeks since Bob’s passing, we have been overwhelmed with the incredible outpouring of love from Bob’s fans, which has been a great comfort to us and for which we are eternally grateful,” the family statement read. “Now that we have the final conclusions from the authorities’ investigation, we felt it only proper that the fans hear those conclusions directly from us.“(BBC)…[+]

A kit purportedly used to tattoo people at the Auschwitz death camp that is being sold by a Jerusalem auctioneer was probably made after World War Two, an Israeli court has been told. The court suspended the sale of the set of stamps in November at the request of Holocaust survivors and asked the Yad Vashem memorial centre to investigate. Its report says a booklet accompanying the kit was printed in 1949. It also says most victims tattooed with such stamps at Auschwitz were not Jews. Nazi Germany systematically murdered almost one million Jews at the camp in what was then occupied Poland during WWII.Some 75,000 Polish civilians, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 25,000 Roma and Sinti, as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and political prisoners were also put to death at Auschwitz.(BBC)…[+]

A leading opposition Australian lawmaker has made an emotional plea not to rush through a controversial bill aimed at protecting religious people. Critics says the bill enables discrimination and would allow religious schools to exclude transgender students. Mentioning his late gay nephew, Labor MP Stephen Jones said the bill had not been thought through. “He was just 15 when he took his own life,” he told parliament.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced the Religious Discrimination Bill in November, and said it will ensure protection for religious people and organisations to express beliefs and avoid “cancel culture”. During a speech in parliament in Canberra on Tuesday, Mr Jones, the shadow assistant treasurer, said the bill in its current form “pleases no-one”. “I support freedom of religion. I understand many in our community who want to see the existing laws strengthened to protect their freedom of religious expression. I support that too,” he said.(BBC)…[+]

The University of California has agreed to pay nearly $250m (£185m) to over 200 women who allege they were sexually assaulted by a campus gynaecologist. Multiple women accuse the university’s Los Angeles site (UCLA) of deliberately hiding James Heaps’ alleged sexual abuse of patients. Mr Heaps was based at the UCLA student health centre during his 35-year career between 1983 and 2018. Hundreds of women, some of whom had cancer, say they were abused by him. The university did not begin investigating complaints against Mr Heaps until 2017. It has been accused in hundreds of lawsuits of deliberately hiding the gynaecologist’s alleged sexual abuse of patients. His medical licence was suspended by a judge in 2019 for the duration of the sex abuse case.(BBC)…[+]

An Indian state has shut high schools and colleges for three days after a row over the hijab that has gained international attention after Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai weighed in. The government of Karnataka state in southern India took the decision after protests by students over Muslim women wearing headscarves in the classroom escalated into violence. On Wednesday, the state’s high court, which was hearing two petitions filed on behalf of some of the Muslim women, requested the chief justice to set up a larger bench to deliberate the matter. The developments occurred after protests by six teenage students at a government-run college over wearing hijabs spread to other colleges. Several Hindu students then turned up wearing saffron shawls – the colour seen as a Hindu symbol – to protest against Muslim women wearing hijabs.(BBC)…[+]

Two knife-wielding robbers entered a secondary school in Sweden on Monday and stole computers from students, local media have reported. Lessons were taking place in the school in Vasteras when the masked men entered the classroom. They took all of the class’s computers but were forced to discard some after teachers chased after them. No students or staff were injured but a passerby who tried to intervene was treated by paramedics on site. Police did not provide full details of the robbery but said officers had been called to the scene after “multiple perpetrators” forced people to hand over electronic devices. Tobias Ahlen, spokesman for the local police, said officers are patrolling the area. School principal Henrik Pettersson said a number of the students did not feel well during the afternoon.(BBC)…[+]