International

China’s President Xi urges all-out relief work after 7.0-magnitude quake hits Sichuan

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for all-out efforts to rapidly organize relief work and rescue injured people after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China’s Sichuan Province. Twelve people were killed and over 175 were injured after the earthquake jolted Jiuzhaigou County in Sichuan at 21:19 Tuesday (Beijing Time), according to the provincial government. Authorities should check the impact of the earthquake, evacuate and settle visitors and local people, and reduce death and injuries as […]

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N. Korea threatens missile strike near US territory Guam, after Trump warning

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea said Wednesday that it is considering strikes near US strategic military installations in Guam with its intermediate range ballistic missiles, state news agency KCNA reported. The threat came hours after US President Donald Trump threatened Pyongyang with “fire and fury” over its missile program and days after the UN Security Council levied new sanctions on North Korea over its growing nuclear arsenal. Pyongyang said it’s “now carefully […]

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6.6-magnitude quake hits Xinjiang

JINGHE COUNTY, China (CCTV) —  A 6.6-magnitude earthquake jolted Jinghe County on Wednesday following Tuesday’s strong earthquake in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). No casualties have been reported so far in the quake that took place at 07:27 in the Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, northwest of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The epicenter was recorded at a point 44.27 degrees north latitude and 82.89 degrees east longitude, with […]

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Trump warns North Korea of ‘fire and fury’

by Thomas Watkins Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump issued an apocalyptic warning to North Korea on Tuesday, saying it faces “fire and fury” over its missile program, after United States media reported Pyongyang has successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead. North Korea raised the stakes just hours later, saying it was considering missile strikes near US strategic military installations on the Pacific island of Guam. Once finalized, the plan could […]

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South Korea says North Korea’s recent threat is not helpful

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — The South Korean government said on Wednesday (August 9) that North Korea’s latest military threat to the United States is not good for the relationship of the two Koreas. Earlier in the day, North Korea said it is considering plans for a missile strike on the US Pacific territory of Guam, just hours after President Donald Trump told the North that any threat to the US would be met with […]

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Up to 100 feared dead, several injured in China quake: gov’t 

Agence France Presse — A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled southwest China late Tuesday, killing at least five people, with up to 100 feared dead, according to a government estimate. Five people died and more than 60 were injured in the quake, the official Xinhua news agency said, including 30 who were in critical condition. But China’s National Commission for Disaster Reduction estimated that as many as 100 people may have perished, based on 2010 census data […]

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Japan says North Korea poses ‘new level of threat’

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — North Korea’s missile development poses a “new level of threat,” Japan’s defense ministry said Tuesday in an annual report that also reiterated concerns over China’s increasing military posture. Japan, which lies across the sea from North Korea, has been wary for decades over its missile development as well as Pyongyang’s history of abducting Japanese citizens to train its spies. North Korea has increasingly been firing missiles into the waters between the […]

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Massive Florida sinkhole claims 7th home: official

FLORIDA, United States (Reuters) — The number of homes to be condemned as a result of a massive sinkhole in a residential neighborhood of Land O’ Lakes, Florida, has risen to seven, officials told reporters on Monday (August 7). The sinkhole originally opened up on July 14 and grew dangerously hundreds of feet within a matter of hours, Florida officials initially said, before it stopped increasing in size the following day. Two homes were initially […]

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Tillerson, Mattis to meet with Japanese counterparts

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis will meet their Japanese counterparts to discuss regional threats, officials said Monday, amid soaring tensions over North Korea’s missile program. The August 17 meeting in Washington comes as alarm grows over North Korea’s rapidly developing missile capabilities, and weeks after Pyongyang tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that splashed into the seas off Japan’s Hokkaido island. Japanese Foreign minister […]

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Al-Qaeda ousted from oil-rich Yemen province: army

ADEN, Yemen  (AFP) — Al-Qaeda fighters have retreated from an oil-rich southern province of war-ravaged Yemen in the face of an assault by an elite United States-backed government force, a military official said Monday. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seen by the US as the global network’s most dangerous franchise, has exploited Yemen’s war to expand its presence in the country’s south. But special forces, trained by the United Arab Emirates and backed by […]

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North Korea defiant after new sanctions, rejects talks

by Dave Clark  and Ayee Macaraig Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) —  North Korea vowed Monday that tough new United Nations sanctions would not stop it from developing its nuclear arsenal, as it rejected talks and angrily warned the United States of retaliation. The message of defiance was the first major response to the US-drafted sanctions, which the UN Security Council unanimously approved over the weekend and which could cost North Korea $1 […]

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Hong Kong cleans up greasy beaches after palm oil spill

HONG KONG, China (AFP) — A clean-up operation was under way in Hong Kong Monday after a massive palm oil spillage from a ship collision in mainland Chinese waters clogged some of its most popular beaches. The coast was coated with rancid-smelling sticky white clumps of the oil as it washed in Sunday, with 11 beaches still closed to swimmers Monday in the height of a summer heatwave. There are still lumps of the solidified oil […]

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