Amazon staff at German warehouses extended a strike yesterday in a long-running dispute over better pay and conditions, but the online retailer promised it would be able to deliver Christmas orders on time.

A union has launched a three-day strike at five Amazon distribution centres in Germany, the latest in a string of walkouts in a long-running wage dispute with the American online retailer.

THERE are times during the grey Irish winter — especially coming up to Christmas — when you yearn for another kind of city, another kind of shopping experience.