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London, United Kingdom (AFP) by Phil HAZLEWOOD Searing summer temperatures in the UK have not just parched the earth and dried up rivers, lakes and reservoirs but are also seeing trees shed their leaves early. Instead of green, many gardens, parks and woods are now a sea of orange, yellow, red and brown, with thick carpets of leaves on the ground. The early leaf fall — dubbed a “false autumn” — is a sign […]
Hong Kong, China (AFP) A powerful typhoon was approaching southern China on Wednesday evening, prompting Hong Kong to issue its third highest storm warning as neighbouring Macau and other nearby coastal cities prepared for the prospect of a direct hit. Typhoon Ma-on — which shares a name with a mountain in Hong Kong and translates as “saddle” — was packing wind speeds of up to 110 kilometres (62 miles) per hour on Wednesday evening and […]
Bangkok, Thailand (AFP) Thailand will raise the price of Thai instant noodles, the trade department said Wednesday, marking the first price increase on the must-have daily staple in 14 years. The kingdom’s economy has not bounced back after fully re-opening to tourists earlier this year, and has been battered by 14-year-high inflation and the economic knock-on effects of the Russian-Ukraine war. Prices of instant noodles are capped by Bangkok at six baht ($0.16) per packet […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) – Tigray rebels accused Ethiopian government forces and allied militias of launching a “large-scale offensive” against southern Tigray on Wednesday. There was no immediate response from the Ethiopian government and the claims by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) could not be independently verified as the region is under a communications blackout. “They launched the offensive early this morning around 5:00 am local time (0200 GMT). We are defending our positions,” TPLF […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) – Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday suspended Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha from office while it considers a legal challenge that could see him thrown out months before an expected general election. The court agreed unanimously to hear a case brought by opposition parties who argue Prayut has reached the end of his eight-year term limit as prime minister. Judges also agreed by five votes to four to suspend Prayut from office until […]
KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday vowed in an Independence Day address that his country would fight Russia’s invasion “until the end” and would not be making “any concession or compromise”. “We don’t care what army you have, we only care about our land. We will fight for it until the end,” Zelensky said in a video address on Wednesday, which also marks six months since the invasion began. “We have […]
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AFP) – Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister Albert Ouedraogo Tuesday visited the country’s first own pharmaceuticals manufacturing facility, which will make low-cost generic versions of popular drugs such as paracetamol. Built with private funding on a 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) site in Komsilga, on the outskirts of the capital, the Propharm plant will ensure the “permanent availability of the medicines most in demand”, officials said. It will begin by producing in the next few months […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, the Artemis program is poised to take up the baton of lunar exploration with a test launch on Monday of NASA’s most powerful rocket ever. The goal is to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972 — and eventually to Mars. The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is scheduled to blast off […]
AL-AGHAWAT, Iraq (AFP) – Younes Ajil turns on the tap in his home but nothing comes out: dozens of villages are without running water in drought-hit Iraq, surviving on sporadic tanker-truck deliveries and salty wells. For everything from drinking to bathing and washing dishes and clothes, Ajil and his eight children wait at their home in Al-Aghawat for trucked-in water from the Diwaniyah provincial authorities once or twice a week. In burning summer temperatures that […]
by Haitham EL-TABEI Agence France-Presse AL-NAMAS, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — As Saudi Arabia swelters in sizzling desert temperatures, some are escaping to the “City of Fog” — a mountainous oasis of cool where warm clothing is needed even in summer. Sitting with friends on a picnic blanket, under light rain and a thick, swirling mist in Al-Namas, Abdullah Al-Enizi wears a body-warmer over his traditional white robes to guard against the chill. The retreat, […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – Germany on Wednesday will inaugurate a railway line powered entirely by hydrogen, a “world first” and a major step forward for green train transport despite nagging supply challenges. A fleet of 14 trains provided by French industrial giant Alstom to the German state Lower Saxony will replace the diesel locomotives on the 100 kilometres (60 miles) of track connecting the cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervoerde and Buxtehude near Hamburg. “Whatever the […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Russia and Ukraine traded accusations Tuesday over who was endangering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as the United Nations urged both sides to insulate the Ukrainian facility from the ongoing war. Russia called the meeting at the UN Security Council to discuss the dangers that close shelling and a military presence posed to the power plant in southern Ukraine, amid fears that a damaged reactor could leak radiation across the […]
