world

Protests over soaring prices and a collapsing currency are spreading across Iran, with students joining shopkeepers in calling on the government to take action. Source link

A head-on collision between two tourist trains near Peru’s most famous landmark kills a train driver and injures dozens. Source link

Tatiana Schlossberg revealed in an essay published in November that she had a rare form of terminal leukaemia.  Source link

Ory Yoshifuji’s Tokyo business employs housebound individuals to operate robots as waitstaff at a cafe and as personal tour guides in the city.  Source link

Vladimir Putin has towered over politics in Russia since ascending to the country’s top office, initially as president for eight years, then as prime minister until that pesky thing called the constitution could be altered to allow him to run again. Source link

The UAE has denied shipping weapons to Yemeni separatists after Saudi-led forces said they had bombed arms at the port city of Mukalla. Source link

About 80 passengers on the Coral Adventurer are flown home after the cruise ship ran aground on a reef off Papua New Guinea.   Source link

South Korea is one of the few countries that allow farming to extract bile from bears, for traditional medicine or food believed to promote vitality and stamina. Source link

Begum Khaleda Zia was leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party which was seen as the frontrunner to win the next parliamentary election in February. Source link

A defence analyst tells the ABC an attack on the Russian President’s state residence would be “technically” possible but would not make sense strategically for Ukraine.  Source link