Other News

Five dead in China after tornado rips through Guangzhou

BEIJING, April 27, 2024 (AFP) – At least five people were killed and 33 injured after a tornado struck the Chinese city of Guangzhou on Saturday, state media reported. China’s official Xinhua news agency said that the tornado hit the Guangdong Province capital, in the country’s south, around 3 pm (0700 GMT). The extreme weather was the latest to hit the country’s industrial heartland. Guangdong, China’s most populous province, is home to 127 million people […]

Beijing protests after Japan lawmakers visit disputed islands

TOKYO, April 28, 2024 (AFP) – Beijing has lodged a protest with Tokyo after a group of Japanese lawmakers visited a disputed island chain, with the Chinese embassy on Sunday denouncing the trip as “provocative”. The five-member delegation led by former defence minister Tomomi Inada joined local government officials in conducting a maritime inspection on Saturday in the East China Sea around the Japan-administered Senkaku islands, known by Beijing as the Diaoyu. “Diaoyu Dao and […]

Bangladesh reopens schools despite heat alert

DHAKA, April 28, 2024 (AFP) – Millions of students returned to their reopened schools across Bangladesh Sunday despite a lingering heatwave that prompted a nationwide classroom shutdown order last weekend. Average maximum temperatures in the capital Dhaka over the past week have been 4-5 degrees Celsius (7.2-9 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 30-year average for the same period, with several more days of hot weather forecast. Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing […]

Schools closed, warnings issued as Asia swelters in extreme heatwave

  MANILA, April 28, 2024 (AFP) – South and Southeast Asia braced for more extreme heat on Sunday as authorities across the region issued health warnings and residents fled to parks and air-conditioned malls for relief. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted the region over the past week, sending the mercury as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and forcing thousands of schools to tell students to stay home. The Philippines […]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk in China for talks

By Peter CATTERALL BEIJING, April 28, 2024 (AFP) – Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was in China for talks on Sunday, making his second trip in less than a year to the world’s biggest market for electric vehicles. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Musk — one of the world’s richest people — held a meeting with a top trade official, publishing a photograph of the X owner at Beijing’s grand Diaoyutai state guesthouse. […]

Poland trumpets its Van Gogh, once peddled for a beer

By Anna Maria Jakubek WARSAW (AFP) – Poland opened an art show Friday to celebrate its only Van Gogh painting, a rare early landscape worth millions that was once hawked by a pedlar for the price of a beer. “Country Huts Among Trees” dates from 1883 when the impoverished Dutch artist was still learning to paint in the countryside around The Hague. The small oil painting — also known as “Farmhouses Among Trees” — is […]

Hamas releases video of two hostages calling for Gaza deal

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, April 27, 2024 (AFP) – Hamas’s armed wing released video Saturday of two men held hostage in Gaza who are seen alive and urging Israeli authorities to strike a deal for the release of all the remaining captives. Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified the two as Keith Siegel and Omri Miran who were abducted by militants during the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. “The […]

4.5-magnitude earthquake strikes off Surigao del Sur

(Eagle News)–A 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck off Surigao del Sur on Sunday, April 28. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake, an aftershock of the December 2, 2023 7.4-magnitude offshore earthquake, hit at 6:05 a.m. The epicenter was 62 kilometers northeast of Hinatuan. The depth of focus was nine kilometers. No damage to property nor aftershocks were reported.  

DMW: No Filipinos hurt in Taiwan earthquakes on Saturday

(Eagle News)–No Filipinos were hurt in the series of earthquakes that shook Taiwan on Saturday, April 27, the Department of Migrant Workers said. According to the DMW, nevertheless, the Migrant Workers Offices in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung are on alert and monitoring the situation. They, in coordination with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, are working with Filipino leaders, local authorities, and employers, the DMW said. “DMW head office […]

Police detain 100 as pro-Palestinian camp cleared at US university

BOSTON, April 27, 2024 (AFP) – Police detained about 100 people as they moved in to clear an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters in response to the use of anti-Semitic slurs, the school said. The action was taken after protesters resorting to “virulent anti-Semitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews,’ crossed the line,” the school said in a statement on social media platform X. The protests against Israel’s war with Hamas began at Columbia University earlier this […]

20 Cambodian soldiers killed in ammunition base explosion: PM

PHNOM PENH, April 27, 2024 (AFP) – Twenty Cambodian soldiers have been killed in an ammunition explosion at an army base in the country’s west, Prime Minister Hun Manet said Saturday. The blast, which also wounded several soldiers, occurred Saturday afternoon at the army base in Kampong Speu province, Hun Manet said in a statement on Facebook, without giving more details. “I am deeply shocked to receive the news of the ammunition explosion incident,” Hun […]