SEOUL, May 27, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea has fired an “unidentified projectile”, South Korea’s military said late Monday, hours after Pyongyang informed Japan that it was preparing to launch another spy satellite. “North Korea has fired an unidentified projectile southwards,” over the Yellow Sea, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, after Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo wrapped up their first trilateral summit since 2019. Japan also confirmed the launch with the government’s alert system […]
International
South Korea, China, Japan vow to ramp up cooperation in rare summit
SEOUL, May 27, 2024 (AFP) – Leaders from South Korea, China and Japan reaffirmed their goal of a denuclearised Korean peninsula Monday, during a rare summit at which they also agreed to deepen trade ties. The summit brought together South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul for the countries’ first trilateral talks in nearly five years, partly due to the pandemic but also to […]
Indonesia’s Mount Ibu erupts again, spews hot ash and sand
JAKARTA, May 27, 2024 (AFP) – A volcano in eastern Indonesia spewed a six-kilometre cloud of ash into the sky on Monday in the latest of nearly 100 eruptions since early this year. The fresh eruption at Mount Ibu on Halmahera island in North Maluku province occurred at 03:30 am local time (1830 GMT Sunday), and sent sand falling onto surrounding areas, according to authorities. The volcano, which has erupted at least 95 times since […]
URGENT: Gunmen kidnap around 150 people in central Nigeria: officials
KANO, Nigeria, May 27, 2024 (AFP) – Gunmen in central Nigeria have kidnapped around 150 people in the country’s latest mass abduction, officials told AFP on Monday. Attackers on motorbikes stormed Kuchi village in Niger state on Friday, where they killed eight people and “abducted about 150 villagers,” local government chairman Aminu Najume said. A UN source gave the same figure for the number kidnapped, while a Nigerian state rescue agency said more than 100 […]
Schoolteacher stabbed by pupil in western France
RENNES, France, May 27, 2024 (AFP) – An 18-year-old pupil was detained in western France on Monday after stabbing his schoolteacher in the face and fleeing, authorities said. The teacher from the town of Chemille-en-Anjou in western France “suffered a facial injury that is not life-threatening”, said a joint statement from the authorities including the prefect and public prosecutor. After the attack at the Lycee de l’Hyrome on Monday morning, the suspect quickly left through […]
Tornadoes rip through central US, leaving at least 15 dead
HOUSTON, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – At least 15 people were killed across the central United States as tornadoes and other extreme storms hit several states including Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, officials said Sunday. Rescue efforts were ongoing and hundreds of thousands of customers were without power after the storms struck the Southern Plains region beginning late Saturday. In Texas, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington told a press conference that seven people were dead after […]
Magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes near Tonga: USGS
WELLINGTON, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake rattled the Pacific nation of Tonga on Monday, the United States Geological Survey said, but there was no threat of a tsunami. The quake struck at 9:47 am local time from a depth of about 112 kilometres (69 miles), according to the USGS, and was centred in a patch of ocean about 198 kilometres (123 miles) north of Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa. There were no immediate […]
Turbulence over Turkey injures 12 on Qatar Airways flight
LONDON, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – Twelve people were injured during turbulence on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Ireland that landed safely on Sunday, Dublin airport authorities said. The incident comes a week after a passenger died and dozens were injured when a Singapore Airlines flight from London hit severe turbulence and was diverted to Bangkok. Six passengers and six crew members suffered injuries in the latest incident, when Qatar Airways flight QR017 […]
Hamas armed wing says fired ‘large rocket barrage’ at Tel Aviv
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas said Sunday it had fired a “large rocket barrage” at Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv, with the military reporting it had intercepted several. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a post on Telegram that they had targeted Tel Aviv “with a large rocket barrage in response to the Zionist (Israeli) massacres against civilians”. Israel’s army said at […]
Three injured in knife attack in France’s Lyon, probe launched: officials
LYON, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – At least three people were injured in a knife attack on the metro in the eastern French city of Lyon on Sunday, police said, adding that an attacker was arrested. Separately, Lyon public prosecutor Thierry Dran told AFP that the attack left four people injured, adding their lives were not in danger. A police source told AFP that two of the victims were wounded in the abdomen and a […]
Thousands flee as Philippine storm hits main island
MANILA, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – A severe storm battered the Philippines’ most populous island on Sunday, dumping heavy rain and causing flooding that forced more than 8,000 people to flee their homes. After making landfall on the central island of Samar late Friday, the first storm to hit the Philippines this year strengthened as it swept northwest to the main island of Luzon where it hovered near the capital Manila. Severe tropical storm Ewiniar, […]
EarthCARE satellite to probe how clouds affect climate
By Juliette Collen PARIS, May 26, 2024 (AFP) – Will clouds help cool or warm our world in the years ahead? The EarthCARE satellite will soon blast off on a mission to find out, aiming to investigate what role clouds could play in the fight against climate change. The collaboration between the European Space Agency and Japan’s JAXA space agency is scheduled to launch Tuesday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg base. […]





