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YVERDON-LES-BAINS, Switzerland, Feb 9, 2024 (AFP) – A hostage situation on a train in the west of Switzerland on Thursday night ended with the suspect killed in a police raid and the hostages safely freed, authorities said. The hostage-taker was armed with an axe and a knife, and was speaking Farsi and English, Vaud canton police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said at a press briefing. “At this stage of the investigation, the motives of the perpetrator […]
By Daria ANDRIIEVSKA KYIV, Ukraine, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – Large numbers of Russian forces are storming the frontline Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, its Ukrainian mayor said Thursday, escalating a months-long effort to capture the industrial hub. Moscow launched a costly bid in October to seize the town, which has been caught up in fighting since 2014, when it briefly fell to Moscow-backed separatists. “Unfortunately, the enemy is pressing from all directions. There is not […]
LOS ANGELES, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – Five US service members missing after their helicopter crashed this week in southern California have been confirmed dead, the US Marine Corps said Thursday. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crashed Tuesday while flying from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, the military said. “It is with a heavy heart and profound sadness that I share the loss of five outstanding Marines from […]
REYKJAVIK, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – Glowing lava spewed Thursday from a new volcanic fissure on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula, the third eruption to hit the area since December, with authorities declaring a state of emergency as lava burst a key water pipe. Video images of the crack in the Earth’s surface, stretching an estimated three kilometres (two miles), showed the fissure illuminating a plume of smoke rising into the sky that was visible 40 kilometres […]
TEL AVIV, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday discussed ways to secure the release of Gaza hostages with moderates in the Israeli war cabinet a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas demands. Blinken met in Tel Aviv with Benny Gantz and Gabi Eisenkot, two former military chiefs who joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet after the October 7 attack in Israel by Hamas fighters. The talks will focus […]
MANILA, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – Rescuers used their bare hands and shovels to dig through mud on Thursday in a desperate search for survivors of a landslide in the Philippines as the number of missing nearly doubled to 90, an official said. Two days after the rain-induced landslide hit the mountainous gold-mining village of Masara on southern Mindanao island, searchers were in a race against time and weather. At least seven people were killed […]
REYKJAVIK, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – A volcanic eruption started on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Thursday, the third to hit the area since December, authorities said. Live video images showed glowing lava oozing out of a fissure illuminating a plume of smoke rising up under the night sky. “At 5:30 this morning intense small earthquake activity began northeast of Sylingarfell. About 30 minutes later, an eruption began in the same area,” […]
WASHINGTON, Feb 7, 2024 (AFP) – A missing military helicopter was found Wednesday in California but the search for the five service members who were aboard it is still ongoing, the US Marine Corps said. The five Marines were flying on a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in southern California when “the aircraft was reported overdue” on Tuesday, the service said in a […]
By Juliette Collen PARIS, Feb 7, 2024 (AFP) – Saturn’s small moon Mimas seems an unlikely suspect in the hunt for life in Earth’s backyard — it is probably best known for looking like the “Death Star” in the Star Wars films. But scientists said on Wednesday that underneath the unassuming moon’s icy shell is a vast hidden ocean that has many of the ingredients necessary to host primitive alien life. Mimas is the latest […]
TOKYO, Feb 8, 2024 (AFP) – An estimated 5,500 litres of radioactive water leaked from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant but no sign of contamination has been detected outside the facility, its operator said Thursday. A spokeswoman from Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) told AFP that the leak was detected at part of the plant that processes contaminated water. “We estimate that roughly 5.5 tonnes (5,500 litres) of water leaked” on Wednesday morning, but “there […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 6, 2024 (AFP) – Sao Paulo opened an emergency operations center Tuesday to deal with a surge in dengue fever cases that has hit Brazil and South America just as millions of tourists arrive for carnival celebrations. Cases of the mosquito-borne disease have also risen sharply in Argentina, where a record 10,000 cases were reported in the first three weeks of the year. Paraguay has meanwhile declared a health emergency over […]
WASHINGTON, Feb 7, 2024 (AFP) – A Chinese-born US researcher has been arrested on charges of stealing trade secrets, including technology used to detect nuclear missile launches, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, was arrested on Tuesday, the department said in a statement. Gong, who became a US citizen in 2011, is accused of transferring more than 3,600 files from the research and development company where he briefly worked […]
