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Record-breaking heat wave grips western United States

A record early heat wave striking the western United States on Friday is a one-in-500-year event and almost certainly the result of human-caused climate change, experts say. The heat has been toppling records this week and is set to continue into the weekend across western cities while expanding eastward. Four locations in the desert area near the California-Arizona border registered 44.4 degrees Celsius on Friday, a US national record for March. The readings were recorded near Yuma and Martinez Lake in Arizona, and around Winterhaven and Ogilby in California. Read: Intense heatwave grips US, triggering record-breaking temperatures Already, 65 cities have recorded new March highs, ranging from Arizona and California to Idaho, Weather.com reported. Death Valley reached 40°C on Thursday, while typically cool and foggy San Francisco tied its historic March record at 29°C. In Colorado, skiers were seen hitting the slopes shirtless. The National Weather Service issued extreme heat warni...

100,000 on strike in New Zealand for better pay

More than 100,000 New Zealand teachers, nurses, doctors, firefighters and support staff walked off the job on Thursday demanding more money and resources for the public sector in a sign of growing discontent with the country's centre-right government. Public servants marched with placards and banners in towns across New Zealand, chanting and listening to speeches. However, protests in capital Wellington as well as Christchurch had to be cancelled because of dangerous weather conditions. The unions in a joint statement last week billed the strike as the largest in decades with more than 100,000 public servants taking part. The government dismissed the protests as a "union-orchestrated political stunt", even as the demonstrations highlight growing public unease over its direction. Middlemore Hospital emergency doctor and Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Vice President Sylvia Boys told a crowd at Aotea Square in Auckland the government had been elected on promises to reduce the cost of living but "the cost of living has worsened".

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