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Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film One Million Years B.C. would propel her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and '70s, has died. She was 82.

Welch died on Wednesday after a brief illness, according to her agent, Stephen LaManna of the talent agency Innovative Artists.

Welch's breakthrough came in 1966's campy prehistoric flick One Million Years B.C., despite having a grand total of three lines. Clad in a brown doeskin bikini, she successfully evaded pterodactyls but not the notice of the public.

"I just thought it was a goofy dinosaur epic we'd be able to sweep under the carpet one day," she told The Associated Press in 1981.

"Wrong. It turned out that I was the Bo Derek of the season, the lady in the loin cloth about whom everyone said, 'My God, what a bod' and they expected to disappear overnight."

She did not, playing Lust for the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their film Bedazzled in 1967 and playing a secret agent in the sexy spy spoof Fathom that same year.

Her curves and beauty captured pop culture attention, with Playboy crowning her the "most desired woman" of the 70s, despite never being completely naked in the magazine. In 2013, she graced the No. 2 spot on Men's Health's Hottest Women of All Time list.

In the film The Shawshank Redemption, a poster of Welch covers an escape tunnel -- the last of three that character Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) used after Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.

In addition to acting, Welch was a singer and dancer. She surprised many critics -- and won positive reviews -- when she starred in the 1981 musical Woman Of The Year on Broadway, replacing a vacationing Lauren Bacall. She returned to the Great White Way in 1997 in Victor/Victoria.

She knew that some people didn't take her seriously because of her glamorous image.

"I'm not Penny Marshall or Barbra Streisand," she told the AP in 1993.

"They'll say, 'Raquel Welch wants to direct? Give me a break."'

Welch was born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago and raised in La Jolla, California. She was a divorced mother when she met former actor turned press agent, Patrick Curtis.

"The irony of it all is that even though people thought of me as a sex symbol, in reality I was a single mother of two small children!" she wrote in her autobiography, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.

Curtis became her manager and second husband and helped shape her into a glamor-girl with hundreds of magazine covers and a string of movies, plus exercise videos and books like The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program.

Though she would appear in exploitative films, she also surprised many in the industry with fine performances, including in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers, which earned her a Golden Globe, and opposite James Coco in Wild Party.

She was also nominated for a Globe in 1988 for the TV movie Right To Die. She played herself and mocked divas in an episode of Seinfeld, memorably attacking Elaine and rattling Kramer.

Married and divorced four times, she is survived by two children, Damon Welch and Tahnee Welch, who also became an actress, including landing a featured role in 1985's Cocoon.

© RAW 2023

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One of 12 boys dramatically rescued after two weeks trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018 has died in Britain where he was attending a soccer academy.

Duangpetch Promthep, better known as "Dom", was captain of the "Wild Boars" team whose seemingly impossible extraction by international divers and Thai navy SEALs captured huge global attention.

The circumstances of 17-year-old Duangpetch's death were not immediately clear. The news on Wednesday was shared on social media by a Buddhist monk who taught the boys in Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province.

"Duangpetch Promthep has now gone to another world," Supatpong Methigo posted on Facebook. "I hope he will be reborn and become my student again in the next life."

Reuters could not independently confirm the death, which Supatpong said he learned of from Duangpetch's grandmother, who said he had suffered an unspecified accident in Britain.

Former Thai national team captain and coach, Kiatisuk Senamuang, whose foundation helped Duangpetch secure a scholarship at the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicestershire, described him as a polite, kind gentleman who dreamt of playing for his country.

"I wanted to see his dream realised ... but rest well now Dom," he posted on Instagram.

In June 2018, the boys, aged 11-16 and their 25-year-old assistant coach set off to explore the Tham Luang cave complex for just an hour, but ended up trapped by flood waters.

They were found nine days later in a flooded chamber 4 kilometres from the entrance of the caves. Their complicated extraction started six days later in an unprecedented operation during which a retired Thai diver died.

Once rescued, the boys were invited to attend a Manchester United match and their story was the subject of books, documentaries and films, and most recently, the Netflix series Thai Cave Rescue.

© RAW 2023

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A bus driver has been charged over the death of a 14-year-old boy who died after being struck outside his school in Sydney's southwest.

Police say the 54-year-old woman has been charged after the bus she was driving hit and critically injured the teen at Cobbitty outside Macarthur Anglican School just before 3pm on Wednesday.

The boy was rushed to Liverpool Hospital in a critical condition and died a short time later.

The bus driver was taken to Liverpool Hospital for mandatory testing and she was arrested on Wednesday night.

She was taken to Liverpool Police Station and charged with dangerous driving occasioning death, dangerous driving and negligent driving occasioning death.

She was refused bail to appear at Liverpool Local Court on Thursday.

Her driver's licence was also suspended.

© AAP 2023

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Workers remain in short supply but the anticipated uptick in migration will likely help businesses fill some of their empty roles.

The extreme labour market tightness of last year is expected to continue into 2023, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics due to release its January jobs data on Thursday.

The unemployment rate hovered around 50-year lows for much of last year, landing at 3.5 per cent in December.

The jobs data will be watched keenly by the central bank because of the relationship between the tight labour market and higher wages, which can feed into inflation.

The Reserve Bank delivered its ninth interest rate hike last week in its battle against high inflation.

St George economist Jameson Coombs said it was clear from the official jobs data there was little additional slack left in the labour market, which was causing employment growth to de-accelerate and become more volatile.

The bank's economists expect the unemployment rate to hold firm at 3.5 per cent in January and employment to lift by 15,000.

Mr Coombs said it would be interesting to find out how quickly the labour supply was expanding.

"The reopening of international borders has seen a surge in arrivals who are expected to join the labour market and help meet some of the shortages currently experienced by businesses," he said.

Mr Coombs said the influx of labour supply would drive strong employment growth early in 2023.

"However, as growth in labour supply begins to outpace demand, we are expecting to see an increase in the unemployment rate towards more sustainable levels."

© AAP 2023