International

Bomb scare briefly closes runway at Japan’s Narita airport

  TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s Narita airport briefly closed one of its two runways Thursday after what is suspected to be an unexploded shell was found buried nearby, officials said. Local police cleared the suspicious object and there were no flight cancellations, as one runway operated as normal during the three-hour closure, officials added. “Contractors involved in drilling work at night found something like an explosive” in the soil, said a spokesman for Narita, […]

20 dead as hill collapses on Darfur village in Sudan: rebels

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) — At least 20 people have been killed in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region after a hill collapsed onto their village following heavy rain, a rebel group said Wednesday. Several people are still feared to be buried after rocks crashed down onto their houses in the mountainous Jebel Marra region of Darfur on September 7, the group said. The remote area is under the control of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army-Abdul Wahid (SLA-AW) […]

Malaysia’s Anwar closer to comeback in by-election

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim moved a step closer to completing his comeback from prison to the country’s top leadership Wednesday after a party-mate quit parliament, allowing him to contest a by-election. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who led Anwar’s party to a shock victory in May against Najib Razak, has vowed to hand over power to Anwar within two years. Anwar, 71, received a royal pardon and was freed from jail shortly after the victory, […]

Residents told to ‘get out now’ as Florence takes aim at Carolinas

by Sébastien DUVAL / with Leila Macor in Columbia, South Carolina Agence France Presse WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, United States (AFP) — Highways clogged with people fleeing North and South Carolina early Wednesday as monstrous Category 4 Hurricane Florence rumbled toward the eastern US as the biggest storm there in decades. While many coastal residents heeded mandatory evacuation orders, others boarded up homes and businesses and chose to brave the storm, which is forecast to trigger severe […]

Putin suggests Russia, Japan agree peace deal ‘without any preconditions’ by year’s end

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday suggested Russia and Japan sign a peace deal “without any preconditions” by the end of the year to try to solve a long-running territorial dispute. “Let’s conclude a peace agreement by year’s end without any preconditions,” he told an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok attended by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other leaders. © Agence France-Presse

Japan’s Abe confirms China visit this year

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AFP) — Shinzo Abe confirmed Wednesday his plans to visit China this year in what would be the first trip to the country by a Japanese prime minister since 2011, the latest sign of warmer ties between the two rivals. “I intend to visit China this year, the year in which we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China,” Abe said in […]

Death toll in Tuesday suicide attack soars to 68: Afghan officials

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) — The death toll from a suicide attack on Afghan protesters has soared to 68, officials said Wednesday, as violence flares across the country ahead of elections and a key Islamic holy day. Another 165 were wounded in the blast — one of the deadliest attacks this year — on Tuesday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, provincial governor spokesman Ataullah Khogyani said. There has been no claim of responsibility for the […]

Key Woodward sources criticize Trump depiction in book ‘Fear’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Two apparent key sources for Bob Woodward’s devastating new book on Donald Trump criticized the author’s depiction of the president Tuesday, suggesting he distorted their accounts. Gary Cohn and Rob Porter both issued statements taking some issue with Woodward’s description of Trump’s White House in “Fear,” which was released Tuesday, as a “Crazytown” where aides plot to thwart Trump’s orders and keep him contained. Cohn, the former White House chief […]

Japan disasters highlight vulnerable infrastructure

by Anne BEADE Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Flooded runways, thousands of passengers stranded and a tanker smashing into an access bridge: last week’s typhoon in Japan highlighted the vulnerability of Kansai Airport which serves a region with an economy bigger than Belgium’s. Because of concerns about engine noise, Kansai — located in the bay of Osaka — is the world’s first airport entirely situated on a huge man-made island, putting it at […]

Hampton Roads, Carolinas prepare for worst as Florence plows towards East Coast.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (Eagle News) – Hurricane Florence, the first major hurricane for 2018 in the Atlantic Ocean, is now a category four storm. Over the weekend, the governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia declared a state of emergency so that resources needed for preparation could be released. Storm prompts evacuations and school closures In Virginia on Monday, Governor Ralph Northam, declared Zone A under a mandatory evacuation, effective Tuesday, September 11 at 8 […]

US beach town braces for powerful Hurricane Florence

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump boasted Tuesday of the US response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where almost 3,000 people were killed last year, as another major storm barreled toward the eastern United States. Speaking to reporters as Hurricane Florence closed in on the US East Coast, Trump said last year’s operation was “an incredible unsung success.” Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico in September 2017, wreaking widespread devastation and causing $90 […]

Brazil’s Lula quits presidential race, Haddad to run instead

  by Rosa Sulleiro Agence France Presse CURITIBA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s jailed ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tapped his runningmate Fernando Haddad on Tuesday to replace him on the ballot in next month’s presidential election, bowing out of the race after he was barred from seeking a new term. The switch was approved at a meeting of the Workers Party in the southern city of Curitiba — where Lula has been held since […]