Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
by Handrianus Emanuel / with Maria Vieira in Dili LEMBATA, Indonesia (AFP) — Tropical cyclone Seroja pounded Indonesia and East Timor Monday after torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that have killed at least 113 people and left dozens more missing. Packing heavy winds and rain, the storm heaped more misery on the Southeast Asian nations after Sunday’s disaster turned small communities into wastelands of mud, uprooted trees and forced thousands of people into shelters. […]
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AFP) — Iceland’s spectacular, two-week old volcanic eruption entered a new phase Monday as television pictures showed a fresh fissure had opened up and begun spitting out lava. The 200-metre (yards) long fissure is a kilometre from the first eruption, which sits in the Geldingadalur valley, said an Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) statement. It opened up around midday local time (1200 GMT), the IMO added. Live television footage on state broadcaster RUV showed […]
NARAYANGANJ, Bangladesh (AFP) — The death toll from a ferry disaster in Bangladesh jumped to 26 on Monday after rescuers pulled the vessel out of the water and found more bodies inside, officials said Monday. The sunken ferry was extracted from the heavily polluted Shitalakshya River in the central district of Narayanganj as hundreds of onlookers and relatives of the missing watched from the shore. “We have found 21 bodies today after the ship was […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain will on Monday set out plans to restart international travel, using a “traffic-light” system as the country cautiously emerges from lockdown. The announcement comes as the UK has set a tentative date of May 17 to relaunch international travel. Travel destinations will be ranked green, amber or red according to virus risk, Downing Street said in a statement late Saturday, with the government to provide more details on Monday. […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Officials in Washington appealed Sunday for balance between securing the US Capitol and public accessibility after the second deadly attack this year targeted the seat of American democracy. A policeman was killed and another wounded Friday after a man rammed through security and crashed into a barrier at the complex, forcing it into lockdown less than three months after a mob insurrection at Congress. Capitol Police shot the driver […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France’s government deficit will deepen and public debt rise after a lingering Covid crisis smashed hopes of a rapid economic rebound, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday. The annual deficit, which has spiralled as President Emmanuel Macron’s government tries to prop up the struggling economy with massive spending, is now expected to reach nine percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, he told reporters. This compares to […]
by Leila MACOR MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Emergency crews in central Florida were working Sunday to prevent an environmental catastrophe at a leaking reservoir that risked sending millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater toward nearby homes and into the Tampa Bay. More than 300 homes near the site of an abandoned phosphate mine and fertilizer-production facility in Manatee County were under mandatory evacuation orders, and Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday declared a state of […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — A railway maintenance worker whose truck rolled onto the tracks and sparked Taiwan’s worst train disaster in recent decades made a tearful apology on Sunday, saying he would cooperate with investigators. At least 50 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in Friday’s crash, which sent a packed eight-car train hurtling into the sides of a narrow tunnel near the eastern coastal city of Hualien. Investigators say the Taroko […]
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Bollywood star Akshay Kumar said Sunday he has tested positive for Covid-19, becoming the latest Indian celebrity to contract the virus as the vast nation battles a new wave of cases. India reported 93,249 new daily infections on Sunday, according to health ministry data, the highest increase since September, taking the total known cases to almost 12.5 million. “I wish to inform everyone that, earlier this morning, I have tested positive […]
by Adam PLOWRIGHT PARIS, France (AFP) — In the Covid-19 intensive care unit of the Antony Private Hospital south of Paris, no bed stays free for long and medics wonder when their workload will finally peak. As one recovered elderly patient is being wheeled out of the ward, smiling weakly, boss Jean-Pierre Deyme is on the phone arranging the next arrival and calling out instructions to staff. Louisa Pinto, a nurse of nearly 20 years’ […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II and lying nearly 6,500 meters below sea level off the Philippines has been reached in the world’s deepest shipwreck dive, an American exploration team said. A crewed submersible filmed, photographed and surveyed the wreckage of the USS Johnston off Samar Island during two eight-hour dives completed late last month, Texas-based undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic said. The 115-metre-long ship was sunk on […]
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AFP) — Jordan’s former crown prince said Saturday he is under house arrest, but denied being part of any conspiracy against his half-brother King Abdullah II as he sharply criticized government corruption. In a video sent to the BBC, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein said the army chief of staff had visited him earlier in the day to tell him: “I was not allowed to go out, to communicate with people or meet with […]
