Cotabato, Philippines | AFP | Landslides and flooding killed at least 31 people as heavy rain from an approaching storm lashed the southern Philippines, a disaster official said Friday. The storm unleashed flash floods carrying uprooted trees, rocks and mud overnight in nine mostly rural towns around Cotabato, a city of 300,000 people on Mindanao island. Many residents were caught by surprise as floodwaters rose rapidly before dawn, Naguib Sinarimbo, the spokesman and civil defence […]
International
North Korea fires two ballistic missiles: South’s military
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, the South’s military said, the latest in a blitz of launches that Washington and Seoul have warned could culminate in Kim Jong Un conducting another nuclear test. The launch comes as South Korea and the US conclude 12 days of amphibious naval joint military drills, and just ahead of the Monday start of major combined air drills that will involve […]
UPDATE: Thirteen killed as storm lashes southern Philippines
Cotabato, Philippines | AFP | Landslides and flooding killed 13 people as heavy rain from an approaching storm lashed the southern Philippines, with some residents stranded on rooftops, a disaster official said Friday. Torrents of rainwater unleashed flash floods laden with uprooted trees, rocks and mud overnight in mainly rural communities around waterlogged Cotabato, a city of 300,000 people. Seven people were missing, Naguib Sinarimbo, the spokesman and civil defence chief for the regional government, […]
Israel, Lebanon strike ‘historic’ maritime border deal
Naqura, Lebanon | AFP | by Mahmoud Zayyat Israel and Lebanon struck a US-brokered maritime border agreement Thursday that opens up lucrative offshore gas fields for the neighbours that remain technically at war. US President Joe Biden hailed the “historic” deal, that comes as Western powers clamour to open up new energy production and reduce vulnerability to supply cuts from Russia. The agreement was signed separately by Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun in Beirut and by […]
Former PM Netanyahu eyes return to power as Israel votes yet again
Jerusalem, Israel | AFP | by Rosie SCAMMELL Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is eyeing a return to power when the country holds its fifth election in four years Tuesday, his chances potentially boosted by the rise of the extreme-right. The longest-serving leader in Israeli history, the 73-year-old right-winger and security hawk is for the first time in years campaigning from the opposition. He is up against the centrist caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who last […]
Rare canine rabies case discovered near Paris
Paris, France | AFP | A rare case of rabies has been detected in a dog in the Paris region which had bitten several people, the French agriculture ministry announced Thursday. “The Pasteur Institute confirmed a case of rabies in a Husky-cross dog held in a shelter in Evry-Courcouronnes in Essonne,” south of the French capital, the statement said. Before being isolated, the infected dog had “bitten several people who were quickly taken care of […]
President Putin: World’s ‘most dangerous’ decade since the end of World War II
Moscow, Russia | AFP | President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the war in Ukraine was part of Russia’s wider struggle against Western domination, and warned that the world is probably entering the “most dangerous” decade since the end of World War II. The Russian leader showed no sign of backpedalling on the eight-month-old invasion of Ukraine, and indeed painted the current situation as part of the decline of Western dominance in global affairs. […]
World ‘holding breath’ over possible NKorea nuclear test: IAEA chief
United Nations, United States | AFP | The world is holding its breath over the possibility that North Korea might undertake a nuclear bomb test, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday. “Everybody is holding its breath about this, because another nuclear test would be yet another confirmation of a program which is moving full steam ahead, in a way that is incredibly, incredibly concerning,” IAEA head Rafael Grossi said […]
Russia amends law to boost forces fighting in Ukraine
Moscow, Russia | AFP | The Russian parliament on Thursday passed a law allowing ex-convicts to be mobilised into the army and other measures to prop up Moscow’s troops in Ukraine. Last month President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of reservists in the country to boost his Ukraine military campaign. People who were released from prison but hold a criminal record for serious crimes can now be mobilised into the Russian […]
EU drug watchdog expects new Covid-19 wave ‘in coming week’
The European Medicines Agency says it expects a new wave of Covid-19 infections “within a week”, adding the virus is evolving faster than the ability to supply adaptive vaccines. It said that introducing pan-Covid vaccines was important for the future but admitted these vaccines were still in “early phases” of development. EMA VIA EBS / © Agence France-Presse
ASEAN ministers ‘even more determined’ to solve Myanmar crisis
Jakarta, Indonesia | AFP | by Marchio GORBIANO Southeast Asian foreign ministers said they were “even more determined” to solve the political crisis in Myanmar during talks in Indonesia on Thursday ahead of the ASEAN leaders’ summit in November. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military coup in February last year, but despite its expressions of concern, efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have yet to bear any fruit. But “ASEAN […]
Rights group says hundreds massacred in Mali by Islamic State jihadists
Niamey, Niger | AFP | Armed groups affiliated with the Islamic State group have massacred hundreds of people in northeast Mali this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday, adding the state was not doing enough to protect civilians. Tens of thousands of villagers from the Menaka and Gao regions have fled their homes after losing their livestock and belongings in attacks since March, the rights group said in a report. The abuses have […]





