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ATAMI, Japan (AFP) — Rescuers were holding out hope of finding at least 64 people buried under the mud and wreckage of a Japanese holiday town that was hit by a devastating landslide, with teams set to resume the desperate search for survivors Tuesday. Soldiers and emergency workers used hand-held poles and mechanical diggers to sift through the muddy debris, two days after a torrent of earth slammed down a mountainside and through part of […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia on Monday called for the nation’s oxygen supplies to be sent to hospitals overflowing with coronavirus patients as fresh cases and deaths hit new records. Oxygen producers had been told to allocate their stocks to the medical sector as the country is battered by an unprecedented wave of infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, said senior minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. “We have enough oxygen supply, but demand is […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — An explosion near Thai capital Bangkok’s international airport Monday left a plastics factory in flames, killing at least one firefighter and wounding 29 people, officials said. Heavy plumes of black smoke could be seen rising up to the sky from the city’s downtown 35 kilometres (21 miles) away, as helicopters continued to dump fire suppression foam from the air on the site. The blast occurred around 3 am at Taiwan-based Ming […]
by Charlie CHARALAMBOUS NICOSIA, Syria (AFP) — Firefighters in Cyprus said Monday they had brought under full control the island’s worst blaze on record, which ripped through mountain forests and farmland, killing four people and destroying scores of homes. Water-bombing planes from Greece and Israel and British aircraft from bases on the Mediterranean island helped douse the huge fire, which blackened 55 square kilometres (21 square miles) of the Troodos Mountains. The Cyprus Forestry Department […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese city near the border with Myanmar has imposed a lockdown and started mass testing after three coronavirus cases were reported on Monday, with officials rushing to curb another outbreak. It is the second time in four months that Ruili, home to more than 210,000 people, has been locked down after the discovery of cases imported from Myanmar. Ruili is a major crossing point from Muse in neighbouring Myanmar, […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — President Hassan Rouhani expressed fears Saturday that Iran will be hit by a new wave of Covid-19 due to an outbreak of the Delta variant in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country. “It is feared that we are on the way to a fifth wave throughout the country,” Rouhani told a meeting of Iran’s anti-virus taskforce, warning the public to be careful as “the Delta variant” had entered the country from the […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia has suspended flights to three countries, including the neighbouring United Arab Emirates, to protect against a coronavirus variant, the interior ministry said Saturday. The move comes seven weeks after the oil-rich kingdom permitted fully immunized citizens to travel abroad, after a ban on foreign trips that lasted more than a year. The UAE, and especially Dubai, is a key leisure destination for Saudis. Flights to and from the […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Twenty-five anti-junta fighters and civilians were killed during clashes with the military in central Myanmar, villagers said Sunday, as locals increasingly take up arms against the regime in the coup-wracked country. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a February coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, with 890 people killed in a junta crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group. In some areas civilians have formed “defence forces” […]
by with Shingo ITO in Tokyo / Quentin TYBERGHIEN ATAMI, Japan (AFP) — Rescuers in a Japanese holiday town hit by a deadly landslide were forced to suspend their search for survivors several times on Sunday as more rain lashed the devastated area. Two women were confirmed dead after torrents of mud crashed through part of the hot-spring resort of Atami in central Japan on Saturday morning, following days of heavy downpours. Nineteen people have […]
by Anna SMOLCHENKO MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Sunday counted more than 25,000 new daily infections after a week of record death tolls as the highly contagious Delta variant propels a global resurgence of the pandemic. The coronavirus has killed nearly four million people worldwide, forcing numerous nations to reimpose restrictions well over a year after the outbreak of the pandemic. Moscow has so far ruled out a new lockdown, but Sunday’s 25,142 infections […]
by Natsuko FUKUE Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Two bodies were found after a huge landslide at a resort town in central Japan swept away homes on Saturday following days of heavy rain, with around 20 people still missing, officials said. Television footage showed a torrent of mud obliterating buildings as it crashed down a hillside in Atami, southwest of Tokyo, sending people fleeing as it buried part of a road. “I […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia reported its fifth record for daily Covid-19 deaths in a row on Saturday, as countries around the world rush to contain the rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. The variant has propelled a resurgence of the virus which has already killed nearly four million people, forcing numerous nations to reimpose restrictions well over a year after the pandemic first swept the world. Indonesia imposed a partial lockdown […]
