WILMINGTON, United States (AFP) — Emergency crews in North Carolina scrambled Friday to rescue hundreds of people stranded in their homes by flood waters unleashed by Hurricane Florence. The drama was unfolding in the riverfront town of New Bern, which was hit by a huge storm surge as the sprawling Category 1 hurricane came close to making landfall. Video footage showed parking lots in New Bern turned into shallow lakes of dirty gray water as […]
International
S. Korea launches its first missile-capable submarine
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea launched its first-ever missile-capable attack submarine on Friday, despite a recent diplomatic thaw with the nuclear-armed North. The $700 million, 3,000-tonne Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine is capable of firing both cruise and ballistic missiles and the first of three planned diesel-electric boats to go into service in the next five years. It represented a “leap forward in the country’s” defense industry, President Moon Jae-in told a launch ceremony […]
Bezos calls Trump’s attacks on media ‘dangerous’
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post newspaper, warned Thursday that President Donald Trump’s attacks on media are dangerous for the country. Bezos, during a question-answer session at a dinner hosted by the Economic Club of Washington, said Trump’s attacks risk eroding protections and social norms important for democracy. “It’s dangerous to demonize the media,” Bezos said. “It’s dangerous to call the media lowlifes. It’s dangerous […]
Erdogan to meet Putin on Monday for Syria talks: Turkish officials
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday, officials said, amid rising international concern over a looming Syrian government assault on a rebel-held province bordering Turkey. “President Erdogan will meet with Mr Putin on Monday,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a televised press conference on Friday. The meeting will take place in the Russian resort city of Sochi, a senior Turkish official told AFP. […]
Venezuela’s Maduro seeks deals with ‘big sister’ China
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hailed China as a “big sister” as he prepared to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Friday, hoping to broker economic deals for his crisis-hit country. Maduro declared after landing in Beijing overnight that he came with “great expectations” to further deepen strategic ties with Venezuela’s key creditor. The leftist leader said his visit would give a “big push” to energy investments, trade and the “successful financial […]
Man drives car into crowd in southern France, wounding two
NIMES, France (AFP) — A man drove into a crowd of patrons gathered outside a bar in the southern city of Nimes early Friday, slightly wounding two before hitting a security barrier and being arrested, witnesses and local officials said. The 32-year-old suspect, believed to be a local, sped towards a crowd of about 50 outside the bar at around 1:00 am (2300 GMT Thursday), witnesses at the scene told AFP. However, his white Peugeot […]
In US beach resort, residents seek shelter from the storm
MYRTLE BEACH, United States (AFP)- With Hurricane Florence downgraded on Thursday from a Category Four to a Category Two storm, and then once again, around fifty people left the evacuation shelter in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. That was a bad idea, said Avair Vereen, a local nurse who had sought safety in the shelter with her seven children. “They say if you stay (home), it’s at your own risk,” she said, noting that emergency services […]
Hurricane Florence weakens to Category 1 storm: US forecaster
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US forecasters late Thursday downgraded Hurricane Florence to a Category 1 storm, as its outer edge lashed the Carolinas with strong winds and heavy rain. In its 0300 GMT advisory, the National Hurricane Center said the maximum sustained winds of Florence were 90 miles per hour (150 kilometers per hour), dropping it to the weakest of five categories on the Saffir-Simpson scale. But the storm still carried “very dangerous winds,” the […]
Two Koreas open joint liaison office in North: pool report
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North and South Korea opened a joint liaison office in the Northern city of Kaesong on Friday as they knit closer ties ahead of President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Pyongyang next week. “A new chapter in history is open here today,” South Korean unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a ceremony, according to a pool report. “This liaison office is another symbol of peace jointly created by the South and the […]
Mass shooting in California tied to domestic dispute: police
BAKERSFIELD, United States (AFP) — A man who killed five people, including his wife, in California before taking his own life had been in the midst of a contentious divorce, authorities said Thursday. “It appears that the suspect targeted each of his victims,” Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told a news conference in Bakersfield, where Wednesday’s deadly rampage took place. He said the shooter, identified as Javier Casarez, 54, was in divorce proceedings and his […]
Washington approves plane, missile sale to S.Korea
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Thursday approved a new arms sale to South Korea worth $2.6 billion, with denuclearization talks stalled between Washington and the North. Six Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft worth $2.1 billion form the bulk of the sale, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. A second contract covers 64 Patriot missiles and support worth $501 million, the agency said. Congress has 15 days to oppose the […]
Fires, explosions erupt in multiple US towns near Boston
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Mass evacuations from US towns north of Boston were underway Thursday after dozens of fires and suspected gas explosions erupted, police said, leaving at least 10 residents injured, one critically. Massachusetts State Police said they had responded to 70 reports of fires, explosions and the smell of gas in a widespread zone encompassing the east coast towns of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. “Gas lines are currently being […]





