Other News

Powerful Hurricane Idalia pummels Florida, churns on to Georgia

By Gerard MARTINEZ Idalia roared across Florida Wednesday as a dangerous and powerful hurricane, bringing potentially catastrophic storm surge to coastal communities and knocking out power to thousands as the storm swept through the southeastern United States. As it barreled into neighboring Georgia, Idalia weakened to a tropical storm that nevertheless was drenching the region with up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain and bringing life-threatening inundations from rising water moving inland, officials said. […]

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Indonesia arrests 88 Chinese nationals over love scams

BATAM, Indonesia, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Dozens of Chinese nationals were arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of running an online love scam syndicate that ensnared hundreds of victims in China, police said Wednesday. Acting on a tip-off from their Chinese counterparts, Indonesian police arrested 83 men and five women at an industrial park in Batam city in Riau Islands province on Tuesday. Police said the syndicate blackmailed hundreds of victims in China, many of […]

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UN warns thousands trafficked into online crime in SE Asia

GENEVA, Aug 29, 2023 (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of people are being coerced in Southeast Asia by criminal gangs into carrying out online scams, often under the threat of torture, the United Nations said Tuesday. Many have been trafficked into working in online criminality and face serious violations such as torture or sexual violence, the UN said in a report. “People who are coerced into working in these scamming operations endure inhumane treatment while […]

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EU drug watchdog approves updated Pfizer Covid jab

THE HAGUE, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – The EU’s drug watchdog on Wednesday approved an updated version of Pfizer and BioNTech’s anti-Covid jab to counter an infectious subvariant of the virus as winter approaches. The World Health Organisation in May said it no longer considered Covid-19 a global health emergency, but the virus is still circulating — and new variants are being tracked. The European Medicines Agency said it “has recommended authorising an adapted Comirnaty […]

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Malaysia rejects new Chinese map over South China Sea claims

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Kuala Lumpur rejected Wednesday a new Chinese map that claims waters off Malaysia’s coast in the South China Sea, in the latest war of words between the Asian allies over Beijing’s assertiveness in the waterway. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea — through which trillions of dollars in trade pass annually — despite an international court ruling that Beijing’s entitlement has no legal basis. […]

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US GDP growth in second quarter revised down to 2.1%

WASHINGTON, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Economic growth in the United States was weaker than first estimated for the April to June period, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, noting downward revisions in business investment. GDP growth in the world’s biggest economy came in at 2.1 percent for the second quarter, down from the initial estimate of 2.4 percent released in July. The updated growth figure is still slightly above the pace in the first three […]

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‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Idalia makes landfall on Florida coast

ST. PETERSBURG, United States, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Hurricane Idalia slammed into northwest Florida as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm early Wednesday, as officials warned of catastrophic impacts including storm surges of up to 16 feet (about five meters). Authorities in the southern US state described Idalia and its potentially deadly high surging waters as a once-in-a-lifetime event for Florida’s northwest coast, ordering mass evacuations and issuing flood alerts. The US National Hurricane […]

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Airlines count cost of UK traffic control failure

LONDON, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – The worst disruption to UK air traffic control in almost a decade following a technical fault risks costing carriers around £100 million, the head of global airline body IATA estimated Wednesday. Passengers continued to be affected by cancelled flights owing to Monday’s incident, but far more planes were able to fly. “I would imagine that at an industry-level, we’ll be getting close to £100 million ($127 million) of additional […]

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Bird flu kills scores of sea lions in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Scores of sea lions have died from bird flu in Argentina, officials said Tuesday, as an unprecedented global outbreak continues to infect mammals, raising fears it could spread more easily among humans. Animal health authorities have recently reported dead sea lions in several locations along Argentina’s extensive Atlantic coast, from just south of the capital Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz near the southern tip of the continent. Another […]

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Japan PM eats ‘safe and delicious’ Fukushima fish

  TOKYO, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Japan’s prime minister ate what he called “safe and delicious” fish from Fukushima on Wednesday, days after wastewater was released from the area’s crippled nuclear plant into the Pacific. A video clip showing Fumio Kishida eating Fukushima fish, published on social media by his office, comes after China banned all seafood imports from its neighbour following the discharge that began on August 24. “This is very good,” Kishida […]

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Military coup in Gabon, president under house arrest

LIBREVILLE, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Rebel officers in the oil-rich central African state of Gabon announced on Wednesday they had seized power following disputed elections in which President Ali Bongo Ondimba, in power since 2009, had been declared victor. Bongo, 64, whose family has ruled Gabon for over 55 years, was placed under house arrest and one of his sons arrested for treason, the coup leaders said. A worried-looking Bongo, in a video from […]

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