Other News

Easterlies affecting S. Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao

(Eagle News)–The easterlies are affecting Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. According to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, as a result, Metro Manila will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms. The rest of the country will experience the same conditions. Flashfloods or landslides during severe thunderstorms are possible. According to the weather bureau, Palawan, Visayas and Mindanao will have moderate to strong winds and moderate to rough […]

France arrests three teens over links to Brussels jihadist suspects

PARIS, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – Police in France have detained three teenagers who were allegedly in contact with four people arrested in Belgium over the weekend on suspicions they were planning a jihadist attack, a source close to the case said Tuesday. The three minors, aged 15 to 17, are not thought to be implicated directly in what was considered a looming attack on a Brussels concert hall, but allegedly have espoused extremist Islamist […]

Chaos grips Haiti after airport attack, deadly unrest

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – The police academy in Haiti’s capital came under attack by an armed gang Tuesday as the tiny Caribbean nation fell into deeper international isolation in the wake of an assault on the airport and a deadly prison breakout. The latest violence followed the evacuation of thousands of residents from the capital Port-au-Prince, with the United Nations and Washington reiterating their concerns over the crisis as armed groups announced a […]

Astronauts arrive at International Space Station for swap

(AFP) — Three US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut arrived Tuesday at the International Space Station for a six-month mission on board the orbiting laboratory. During their stay, in which they are rotating in to replace departing crew, some 200 scientific experiments are scheduled to be carried out. The quartet blasted off from Florida late Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The capsule docked with the ISS and its hatch was opened at 3:50 […]

Meta suffers global Facebook, Instagram outage

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – Meta suffered a highly unusual outage of all its social media platforms on Tuesday with users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads locked out of their accounts. At about 12:00 US east coast time (1700 GMT), the sites seemed to be returning to normal, about two hours after the outage reports first emerged. “Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services,” Meta spokesman […]

Bitcoin strikes record high above $69,000

LONDON, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – Bitcoin hit a record high above $69,000 Tuesday, buoyed by the world’s biggest cryptocurrency becoming more accessible for trading amid tightening supplies. Bitcoin reached $69,191.94, beating a record $68,991 struck in November 2021. The volatile asset later retreated to $67,442. Bitcoin has enjoyed an unbridled rise since the approval of a new type of investment indexed to the cryptocurrency. Since their approval on January 10 by US securities regulators, […]

Yemen faces ‘environmental disaster’ as sunken ship threatens massive Red Sea spill`

By AFP correspondents with Amanda Mouawad in Dubai Agence France-Presse (AFP) — The sinking of a Belize-flagged bulker off Yemen after a Huthi missile attack poses grave environmental risks, as thousands of tonnes of fertiliser threaten to spill into the Red Sea, according to officials and experts. The Belize-flagged, Lebanese-operated Rubymar sank on Saturday with 21,000 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertiliser on board, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM). It had been taking […]

Vietnam property tycoon on trial in $12.5 billion fraud case

HO CHI MINH CITY, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – A top Vietnamese property tycoon went on trial Tuesday along with dozens of others, accused of embezzling $12.5 billion in the country’s biggest ever fraud case. Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, is said to have swindled the cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over the course of a decade, leaving unsuspecting investors out of pocket. Eighty-five others are also on trial […]

Pyongyang warns of consequences over US-S. Korea drills

SEOUL, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – North Korea on Tuesday said Seoul and Washington would pay a “dear price” over large-scale military exercises that started this week, urging the allies to cease “frantic war drills”. So far this year, Pyongyang has declared South Korea its “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement. Washington and Seoul started their annual spring military exercises Monday with […]

Ukraine says destroyed another Russian warship in Black Sea

By Victoria LUKOVENKO KYIV, Ukraine, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – Ukraine said on Tuesday its forces destroyed a Russian military patrol ship in the Black Sea near annexed Crimea, the latest naval attack on Moscow’s fleet in the key waterway. Kyiv also said it was behind a drone hit on an oil depot in a Russian border region, as Ukraine flexes its ability to strike Russia from the air and at sea with its troops […]

Above-normal temperatures for March-May due to El Nino: UN

By Robin MILLARD GENEVA, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – The warming El Nino weather phenomenon that peaked in December was one of the five strongest ever recorded, the United Nations said Tuesday, predicting that it would produce above-normal temperatures from now to May. Though El Nino is now gradually weakening, its impact will continue over the coming months by fuelling the heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) […]

IAEA chief to hold talks with Putin about Ukraine nuclear plant

VIENNA, March 5, 2024 (AFP) – UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will head to Russia Tuesday for a fresh round of talks with President Vladimir Putin to discuss “the future operational status” of Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Europe’s largest nuclear plant has been at the centre of fighting since it was captured by Russian forces in March 2022, with both Moscow and Kyiv frequently accusing each other of compromising its safety. Grossi last […]