For a long time, however, cosplay was seen as nothing but a pastime by some fans because many “adults” raised an eyebrow at young people dressed up in outrageous costumes, given the persistent peer pressure of Japanese society.

The simple design of the character -- who is not a cat, but a little girl from London according to Sanrio, the company behind Kitty -- has mileage as a money-spinner for years to come, experts say.

The proposals come following widespread public anger a few months ago over the exorbitant cost of some tickets to see Britpop band Oasis's reunion tour this year.

French director Jacques Audiard's Mexico-set Emilia Perez took four prizes, including best comedy or musical film, while The Brutalist was named best drama and also picked up best actor for Adrien Brody, who plays a Hungarian Holocaust survivor.

Emilia Perez, which is almost entirely in Spanish, is hoping to throw down the gauntlet in the race to the Academy Awards, which will take place in early March.

US copyright law expires after 95 years for books, films and other works of art, while sound recordings from 1924 will also be copyright-free.

The artist was a nomad for years because of a crackdown on her paintings, installations and performances, which were viewed as provocative in Indonesia.

Today's smart glasses, all paired with smartphone apps, increasingly resemble traditional eyewear.

Researchers examined genetic data from 388 wild chimpanzees in 18 countries, documenting adaptations driven by the nature of their habitat and revealing previously unknown genetic diversity within this species shaped by local conditions.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors suing Meta for copyright infringement made the accusations in filings made public on Wednesday in California federal court. They said internal documents produced by Meta during the discovery process showed the company knew the works were pirated.

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the company was going to "get rid" of its third-party fact-checkers in the United States, in a sweeping policy shift that analysts saw as an attempt to appease US President-elect Donald Trump.

Hussain collaborated with musicians including George Harrison from The Beatles, Mickey Hart from The Grateful Dead and jazz musician John Handy in a career spanning decades.

Over nearly 60 years, New Zealander John McArthur collected more than 20,000 specimens, a kaleidoscope of colour and life that he painstakingly pinned into hundreds of boxes that lined the walls of his home.

Across the world, in protesters demanding an end to Israel's war in Gaza have worn the black-and-white keffiyeh head scarf, a symbol of Palestinian self-determination.

There have been moments of worry, such as when the head of the Catholic Church, who has struggled with bronchitis, took some moments to clear his throat when making his first speech in Papua New Guinea, the second of four countries he was visiting.

As we near the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, the world has seen immense developments in science and technology. In parallel, education has evolved accordingly to keep up with the ever changing demands of the global economy to properly prepare students for their futures.

Parents often worry about the harmful impacts of video games on their children, from mental health and social problems to missing out on exercise. But a large new United States study published in JAMA Network Open on Monday indicates there may also be cognitive benefits associated with the popular pastime.

Indonesia, with its abundant natural resources and large demographic, is preparing for its demographic peak in 2045, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of its independence.

Deaths related to HIV, which are generally caused by other diseases during the late stages of AIDS, fell by about 40 percent to below a million a year, a study has found. 

The Public Health Agency of Canada said this travel-related case was associated with an ongoing outbreak of clade I mpox in central and eastern Africa.

The serious health condition affected around 14 percent of all adults worldwide in 2022, compared to seven percent in 1990, according to the new analysis in The Lancet journal.

"Climatic challenges across both hemispheres are once again major contributors to the reduced global production volume."

Products sold by companies including Nestle, Pepsico and Unilever were assessed as part of a global index published by the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI), its first since 2021. 

Mizutani Shuzo is among the growing number of sake breweries using a digital tool developed by the Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau to automatically calculate the degree of fermentation of sake and present the data in graph form.

Since 2019, Japan has caught whales in its own waters after abandoning under international pressure hunting for "scientific purposes" in the Antarctic Ocean and the North Pacific, with the catch list was limited to sei, minke, and Bryde's whales. But this year, fin whales, the planet's second-largest animal, were added and on Aug. 1 the first killed.

Ghosh "has delved deeply into the question of how to do justice to this existential threat that defies our imagination," the prize committee said in a statement.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed the 1.5 degrees Celsius breach, after reviewing data from United States, United Kingdom, Japan and European Union scientists.

This year is the hottest in history, with record-breaking temperatures in the atmosphere and oceans acting like fuel for extreme weather around the world.

African manatees are found in fresh water along the coast of western Africa, such as in Cameroon's vast Lake Ossa where marine biologist Aritide Takoukam Kamla first saw them more than 10 years ago.