Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The de-facto leader of the sprawling Samsung group Lee Jae-yong went on trial Tuesday on charges of illegally using the anaesthetic propofol, the latest legal travail to beset the multi-billionaire. Lee — the vice-chairman of the world’s biggest smartphone maker Samsung Electronics and according to Forbes the world’s 297th richest person — is accused of having repeatedly taken it at a plastic surgery clinic in Seoul in 2017 and 2018. […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s ruling conservatives unveiled their campaign platform Tuesday, saying they would aim to boost defense spending, possibly even doubling it, to counter threats from China and North Korea. The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, is campaigning to maintain its majority in parliament in October 31 elections. It announced pledges on Tuesday including tackling the pandemic and working to boost the middle class. The party, while […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s unemployment rate eased as the economy reopened, but vacancies hit another record peak before the end of the government’s furlough jobs support scheme, data showed Tuesday. The unemployment rate — or proportion of the workforce that is unemployed — dropped to 4.5 percent in the three months to August, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. That compared with 4.6 percent in the three months to the […]
by Sam Reeves / with Lucie Godeau in Jakarta KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — The collapse of a $1-billion deal to curb Indonesian deforestation has highlighted the pitfalls of a UN-backed global initiative, which critics say has been ineffective and trampled on indigenous communities’ rights. Protecting trees is key to meeting ambitious climate goals, with tropical rainforest loss accounting for about eight percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions, according to monitoring platform Global Forest Watch. […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Texas’ Republican governor Gregg Abbott on Monday announced he was banning Covid-19 vaccine mandates for any entities in his state, including private companies. “I issued an Executive Order prohibiting vaccine mandates by ANY entity in Texas,” the governor wrote on Twitter. “The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective & our best defense against the virus, but should always remain voluntary & never forced,” he said. The tweet included an attachment of […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — At least 15 people have died during unseasonably heavy rain and flooding in north China’s Shanxi province earlier this month, local officials said Tuesday, after the normally dry region received three months’ rain in one week. The flooding hit the coal-rich landlocked region during a nationwide energy crunch, and after record floods killed more than 300 people in central Henan province in July. At least 60 coal mines in the province […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Thousands of health care workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities in US states Oregon and California given a green light Monday for union officials to call strikes should contract talks fail. Sticking points in negotiations appeared to be staffing levels and wages for nurses and others who have been on the front line of the pandemic. “Health care workers are facing record levels of burnout after 20 months of the […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The leader of nuclear-armed North Korea, Kim Jong Un, has blamed the United States for tensions on the peninsula, state media reported Tuesday. The US is the “root cause” of instability, he said in an opening speech at a defence exhibition, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Pyongyang is under multiple international sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, which have made rapid progress under […]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Swiss pharma giant Roche on Monday applied to market its anti-Covid-19 cocktail in the European Union, the bloc’s medicines watchdog said, the final step before it can be released to the continent. The application to the European Medicines Agency comes just over two weeks after the World Health Organisation also recommended the treatment, which Roche co-developed with US biotech firm Regeneron. The “EMA is starting evaluating an application for marketing […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — A small plane crashed into a residential area of a California city on Monday, killing at least two people as a blaze devoured two houses and several vehicles. Aerial footage showed firefighters hosing down the charred remains of the residences in Santee, a suburb of San Diego. A burned out delivery truck was also seen on a nearby street corner. Fox 5 San Diego reported the plane was […]
CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — Egyptian authorities arrested three people accused of dumping thousands of unused Covid-19 vaccine jabs found last week in a water drain in a southern city, the public prosecution said. “An investigative committee… found a shortage of 18,400 vaccine doses in the Minya health directorate storage inventory worth 5,023,200 pounds ($319,000),” the prosecution said late Sunday in a statement posted on its social media accounts. The statement said 13,412 doses had been […]
(Eagle News) – A magnitude 6.9 quake hit the Alaska Peninsula region on Monday, Oct. 11, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The quake was 69.1 kilometers deep and occurred 114 kilometers east of Chignik in Alaska at 9:10 a.m. UTC or 5:10 p.m. Philippine time. There were no immediate reports of damage. The quake in Alaska occurred hours after a magnitude 6.2 quake in the Hawaii region. (Eagle News Service)
