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BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Lebanon recorded 255 coronavirus cases Thursday — its highest single-day infection tally — after a monstrous blast upended a planned lockdown and sent thousands streaming into overflowing hospitals, already struggling to cope. The health ministry figures were reported by the state-run National News Agency, which also announced two new deaths. They bring the total number of COVID-19 infections in Lebanon to 4,604, including 70 deaths since the outbreak first began in […]
(Eagle News) — A Filipina overseas worker who survived the horrific blasts in Beirut, Lebanon early this week described the incident that had killed at least 149 people and injured around 5,000 more. Raquel Bautista, an OFW in Lebanon, was interviewed by EBC’s Eagle News Service Bureau in Lebanon, where she was hospitalized after being injured in the blasts. Bautista described how glass shards injured her arms and legs, but thankfully she did not suffer […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Lebanese security forces late Thursday fired tear gas to disperse dozens of anti-government demonstrators angered by a cataclysmic blast widely seen as the most shocking expression yet of their government’s incompetence. The scuffles in central Beirut took place in a ravaged street leading to parliament, the wreckage from Tuesday’s explosion still littering the entire area. Protesters had sparked a blaze, vandalized stores and lobbed stones at security forces, according to the […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Seventeen people, including eight children, have been killed in flash floods and by lightning in Yemen’s northern Marib region, health authorities said Tuesday. The fierce storms have added to the woes of the war-torn country, which the UN has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Five years of conflict has left swathes of the country in ruins. “Sixteen people drowned and another person was killed after being […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Sixteen staff members at Beirut’s port, the site of a massive explosion, have been detained over the deadly blast that devastated large parts of the city, a military prosecutor said Thursday. Lebanese authorities had announced an investigation into Tuesday’s explosion, which they said was triggered by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at Beirut’s port. Lebanon’s foreign minister said on French radio Thursday that an […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected flood damage in North Hwanghae province and ordered food and supplies to help affected residents, state news agency KCNA said Friday. There have been days of heavy rain across parts of North Korea, which is vulnerable to flooding as many mountains and hills have long been stripped of vegetation, allowing water to flow downhill unchecked. The area, south of Pyongyang, is a major […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Days of heavy rain could cause flooding or landslides across North Korea, officials warned, as the South said Thursday 16 people had died in the downpours lashing the peninsula. North Korea is particularly vulnerable to sustained heavy rain as many mountains and hills have long been stripped of vegetation, allowing water to flow downhill unchecked. But the South has also suffered, with authorities saying at least 16 people had […]
by Jean-Marc Mojon BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron visited shell-shocked Beirut Thursday, pledging support and urging change after a massive explosion devastated the Lebanese capital in a disaster that has has sparked grief and fury. “Lebanon is not alone,” he tweeted on arrival before pledging Paris would coordinate international relief efforts after the colossal blast killed at least 137 people, wounded thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage. But Macron also […]
BEIJING, China (AFP — A Chinese court sentenced a Canadian national to death on Thursday in a ruling that could further inflame, tensions between China and Canada. The Guangzhou Intermediate Court said in a statement it had handed Xu Weihong the sentence for manufacturing drugs, and all his personal property would be confiscated. The ruling comes after China sentenced two other Canadians to death on drug trafficking charges last year, as a diplomatic row escalated […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — The huge blast at Beirut port has killed at least 137 people, left dozens missing and at least 5,000 wounded, a Lebanese health ministry spokesperson said Thursday. Tuesday’s explosion obliterated part of the port and caused damage over a wide radius in the heart of the city, prompting fears the final death toll could yet rise significantly. © Agence France-Presse
by Philip FONG HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) — Japan on Thursday marked 75 years since the world’s first atomic bomb attack, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing a scaling back of ceremonies to remember the victims. Survivors, relatives and a handful of foreign dignitaries attended this year’s main event in Hiroshima to pray for those killed or wounded in the bombing and call for world peace. But the general public was kept away, with the ceremony instead […]
by Rouba el Husseini and Tony Gamal-Gabriel BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Anger mounted in Lebanon on Wednesday as rescuers searched for survivors of a cataclysmic explosion at Beirut port that wreaked destruction across the city, killing at least 113 people, wounding thousands and plunging crisis-striken Lebanon further into the abyss. The blast on Tuesday, apparently triggered by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer left unsecured in a warehouse of Beirut port, was […]
