ICYMI: Feel-good stories from around the world

World's most peaceful countries revealed

The world's most peaceful nations were revealed this week by the Institute for Economics and Peace think-tank.

Iceland topped the table for the 13th consecutive year, followed by New Zealand and Denmark. 

The list was dominated by European countries, with Germany featuring in 18th place ahead of Hungary and Belgium.

The Global Peace Index looks at how safe a society is, the level of domestic and international conflict, and a country's degree of militarization.

According to the index, some 75 per cent of global citizens reported feeling as safe or safer than they did five years ago.

Chinese Buddhist monk helps man's best friend

A Chinese Buddhist monk has saved more than 8,000 stray dogs.

Zhi Xiang keeps his canine friends at his ancient monastery in Shanghai and a nearby shelter he has set up in the Chinese city.

A few hundreds of them will eventually be resettled in Europe or North America.

Zhi started saving animals in 1994, when he started helping dogs and cats who had been hit by vehicles on the road.

China's growing wealth has seen the demand for pets soar in recent years.

But sometimes people abandon them when they do not want to care for them anymore.

Zhi said that this is not a question of people disliking dogs.

He said pet owners need to make sure they acquire "proper animal-caring knowledge” before taking the plunge.

Astronaut job applicants reach for the stars

The European Space Agency put out a call to find Europe's future astronauts.

They received a "stunning" 22,589 applications, but praised the higher number of females who wanted to do the job.

ESA said 24% of applications came from women, up from 15% in the last recruitment drive.

There were also 257 candidates with disabilities, with the most coming from France, Germany, Italy and the UK.

ESA's Director General Josef Aschbacher said the number of candidates was "historic," given that it was only for "a handful of jobs."

Greek police uncover stolen artworks

A Greek man, reportedly claiming to be an art lover, confessed to robbing the National Gallery in Athens and stealing several artworks in 2012, Greek officials said this week.

The police managed to recover two out of three paintings — the "Woman's Head" by Pablo Picasso and Dutch painter Mondrian's "Mill."

According to the local media, the suspect gave their location to the police, who found them wrapped in plastic and stashed in a dry riverbed outside of Athens.

World's most premature baby beats the odds to survive

Richard Scott William Hutchinson was born 4 months premature on June 5, 2020.

Doctors thought that he was going to die, given that he weighed only 0.3 kilos (11.9 oz) at birth.

It is roughly one-tenth of the average weight for a full-term newborn baby.

Against all odds, Richard celebrated his 1st birthday this month and was recognized by Guinness World Records "the most premature baby to survive."

jf/ (AP, AFP, Reuters)