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Sydney Opera House Celebrates 50th Birthday with Light Show, Free Tours

(FILE) The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with lights at the start of the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney on May 27, 2022. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)
(FILE) The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with lights at the start of the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney on May 27, 2022. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)
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Sydney Opera House Celebrates 50th Birthday with Light Show, Free Tours

(FILE) The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with lights at the start of the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney on May 27, 2022. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)
(FILE) The sails of the Opera House are illuminated with lights at the start of the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney on May 27, 2022. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)

Sydney Opera House celebrated its 50th birthday on Friday, with a laser show planned to illuminate the iconic building.
Officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973, the Opera House is widely regarded as one of the greatest architectural designs of the 20th century, with 10.9 million people visiting every year.
The building will be illuminated on Friday evening by a light show created by Australian audio-visual artist Robin Fox, before welcoming an expected 37,000 people on Saturday for free tours, its first open day in eight years.
"A symbol around the world and a national treasure turns 50," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Happy Birthday to an Australian icon."
As part of the 1956 Opera House international design competition, 233 designs were submitted by architects from around the world with Jorn Utzon from Denmark chosen as the winner.
Construction began in 1959 with the project meant to take four years to complete, but after Utzon resigned due to a change in government, design differences and a blow out in costs, the structure took 14 years to complete.
The Sydney Opera House was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2007.

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US Bans Red Food Dye over Possible Cancer Risk

Fruit by the Foot, a product that uses Red Dye No 3, can be seen on a shelf at a supermarket in this illustration photograph on December 27, 2024 - AFP
Fruit by the Foot, a product that uses Red Dye No 3, can be seen on a shelf at a supermarket in this illustration photograph on December 27, 2024 - AFP
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US Bans Red Food Dye over Possible Cancer Risk

Fruit by the Foot, a product that uses Red Dye No 3, can be seen on a shelf at a supermarket in this illustration photograph on December 27, 2024 - AFP
Fruit by the Foot, a product that uses Red Dye No 3, can be seen on a shelf at a supermarket in this illustration photograph on December 27, 2024 - AFP

Outgoing US President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced a ban on Red Dye No 3, a controversial food and drug coloring long known to cause cancer in animals.

Decades after scientific evidence first raised alarm, Red 3, as it is also called, is currently used in nearly 3,000 food products in the United States, according to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

"FDA is revoking the authorized uses in food and ingested drugs of FD&C Red No 3 in the color additive regulations," said a document from the Department of Health and Human Services, published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, AFP reported.

The decision follows a petition filed in November 2022 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and other advocacy groups, which cited the "Delaney Clause" -- a provision mandating the prohibition of any color additive shown to cause cancer in humans or animals.

Notably, the FDA determined as early as 1990 that Red 3 should be banned in cosmetics because of its link to thyroid cancer in lab rats.

However, the additive continued to be used in foods, largely due to resistance from the food industry. Manufacturers of maraschino cherries, for example, relied on Red 3 to maintain the iconic red hue of their products.

It's also present in thousands of candies, snacks and fruit products.

The United States is one of the last major economies to take action on the dye. The European Union prohibited its use in 1994, with similar bans implemented in Japan, China, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

CSPI hailed the decision as overdue and expressed hope it would lead to further action against other potentially harmful chemicals in food.

"They don't add any nutritional value, they don't preserve the food -- they're just there to make food look pretty," Thomas Galligan, a scientist with CSPI, told AFP.

"There's growing discussion across the political spectrum about food additives and chemicals, which reflects ongoing failures by the FDA."