By Hui Min NEO BERLIN, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – Police have detained two girls and two boys — all teenagers — in western Germany on suspicion they were planning an Islamist attack, prosecutors said on Friday, with churches or synagogues as possible targets. Three were arrested in North Rhine-Westphalia state, who are “strongly suspected of planning an Islamist-motivated terror attack and of having committed to carrying it out”, Duesseldorf prosecutors said in a statement. […]
Other News
Scientists at Spain meeting sound alarm over ocean warming
By Rosa SULLEIRO BARCELONA, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – Scientists at a United Nations conference in Spain called Friday for more research into the sharp rise in ocean temperatures which they warn could have devastating consequences. “The changes are happening so fast that we are not able to keep pace with the impact,” the executive secretary of UNESCO’s intergovernmental oceanographic commission, Vidar Helgesen, told AFP on the sidelines of the three-day “Ocean Decade” conference in […]
Elderly living alone to make up a fifth of Japanese households by 2025: study
TOKYO, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – One in five Japanese households by 2050 will be elderly people living alone, a new study said Friday, as Japan scrambles to find how to effectively care for its greying population. By 2050, 10.8 million elderly people will be living alone, making up 20.6 percent of all households, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research said in a projection that it issues every five years. It marks […]
Vietnam province declares state of emergency over drought
HANOI, April 6, 2024 (AFP) – Thousands of people in Vietnam are suffering a “severe” shortage of fresh water because of drought and salinisation, prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency on Saturday. A weeks-long heatwave has brought drought and saline intrusion to an area of Tien Giang province, 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of business hub Ho Chi Minh City. The province’s Tan Phu Dong area — with 12 kilometers of coastline along […]
Defense minister says Israel ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with US on Iran
JERUSALEM, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that Israel and the United States were “shoulder to shoulder” in facing the threat from Iran, after talks with US Central Command chief Michael Kurilla. “Our enemies think that they can pull apart Israel and the United States, but the opposite is true — they are bringing us together and strengthening our ties”, Gallant said, after the two discussed Iran’s threats of retaliation […]
Iranian threat to Israel ‘real’: White House
WASHINGTON, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – Iran’s threats of reprisals against Israel after a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals remain “real,” the White House said on Friday. “We still deem the potential threat by Iran here to be real, to be viable,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told journalists. Kirby would not confirm reports that US officials considered an Iranian attack “imminent” or comment on whether the United States […]
Philippines trains pet dogs for search and rescue
By Pam CASTRO MANILA, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – With her owner holding her leash, Philippine pooch Hazel sniffs through rubble in a simulated search for survivors of a major earthquake in the capital Manila. Hazel is taking part in a programme training pet dogs and their owners in search and rescue so they can be deployed in the aftermath of a disaster. Every Sunday, around 46 mongrels and purebreds of all sizes are put […]
Asia-Pacific gets new weapon in fight against drug-resistant TB
By Pam CASTRO MANILA, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – A faster and vastly more effective treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis is being rolled out in the Asia-Pacific region, raising hopes of a “new era” in tackling one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. The region had most of the world’s estimated 10.6 million new TB cases in 2022, and more than half of the 1.3 million deaths, World Health Organization (WHO) figures show. While TB can […]
Israel on alert after Iranian threat as Gaza war grinds on
By Belal AlSabbagh with Jay Deshmukh in Jerusalem GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – Israel was on alert Thursday after its arch-foe Iran threatened reprisals over a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals, and as the war against Hamas ground on in Gaza. Days after Israel strengthened its air defences and paused leave for combat units, the United States also warned of the risk of an attack by […]
NASA unveils probe bound for Jupiter’s possibly life-sustaining moon
By Huw GRIFFITH PASADENA, United States, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – US space scientists on Thursday unveiled the interplanetary probe NASA plans to send to one of Jupiter’s icy moons as part of humanity’s hunt for extra-terrestrial life. The Clipper spacecraft is due to blast off in October bound for Europa, one of dozens of moons orbiting the Solar System’s biggest planet, and the nearest spot in our celestial neighborhood that could offer a perch […]
4.1-magnitude earthquake strikes off Davao Occidental early Friday
(Eagle News)–A 4.1-magnitude earthquake struck off Davao Occidental early Friday, April 12. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake hit at 1:34 a.m. The depth of focus was 103 kilometers. No damage to property nor aftershocks were reported.
Davao del Norte governor says preventive suspension ‘unjust’
(Eagle News)–The Office of the President has meted out a 60-day preventive suspension on Davao del Norte Gov. Edwin Jubahib, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said. According to Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, the preventive suspension order was signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin following an administrative complaint filed against the governor by “various parties” for the “alleged misuse of authority, potential oppression, and the utilization of government funds to advance the interests […]
