Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
By Paula RAMON Agence France-Presse FELICITY, United States (AFP) — Every morning, Jacques-Andre Istel has breakfast in bed at the center of the world. Istel is founder, mayor and postmaster general of Felicity, a stretch of California’s Sonora Desert where for nearly four decades he has been building a museum of, y’know… the whole of human history. “This doesn’t exist anywhere else on this planet,” the 94-year-old told AFP. What started in 1986 with two […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Japan’s prime minister vowed Friday to tackle an insidious enemy that causes enormous economic damage and misery for the country’s citizens each year: pollen. Japan’s spring season might be best known for the blooming of its famed cherry blossoms and the good cheer of flower-watching picnics, but for many it is mostly synonymous with sneezes. Each spring, the country’s vast tracts of cedar trees in particular release potent clouds of […]
A celebrity gossip YouTuber-turned-lawmaker became the first MP expelled by Japan’s parliament in over 70 years Wednesday, having not shown up to work once. Yoshikazu Higashitani, known by his online moniker GaaSyy, had been ordered to apologise for his months-long absence earlier in March. But the lawmaker, one of two elected members of the fringe party Seijika Joshi 48, or “Politician Girls 48”, did not attend that parliamentary session either. Higashitani, 51, had not set […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — As Asia’s “Quad” powers search for ways to define the group, Japan’s foreign minister has offered a model — The Beatles. Yoshimasa Hayashi, an avid music fan, drew the parallel to the Fab Four on Friday, as he met his Quad counterparts from the United States, Australia and India in New Delhi. “This is kind of a band like The Beatles. The members are fixed and they always play together […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A “very lethargic” alligator was captured in a New York park, city officials said Monday, likely released by its owner far away from the species’ warmer habitat in the southeast United States. The reptile was spotted Sunday morning in Prospect Park, a favorite place for Brooklyn residents to picnic and stroll with their pets, especially when winter temperatures are in the 50s Fahrenheit (10-15 Celsius) like over the holiday […]
Washington, United States | AFP | It was more “oops” than “Top Gun” when a US fighter pilot roared up to fire a nearly half-million-dollar Sidewinder missile at a mysterious unarmed object in the sky over Lake Huron — and missed. US officials admit the would-be ace needed a second shot with one of the air-to-air missiles, which cost at least $400,000 a pop, when engaging the unidentified aerial object from an F-16 fighter Sunday […]
Melbourne, Australia (AFP) Frances Tiafoe won his first-round match at the Australian Open on Monday but it was the American’s outrageously colourful kit which set tongues wagging. The world number 17 wore a matching vest and shorts that had squiggly haphazard lines of blue, purple, red, yellow and white. Tiafoe’s brazen outfit in his four-set win over Germany’s Daniel Altmaier was the talk of social media. “This outfit deserves to get to the second week minimum,” […]
Wellington, New Zealand (AFP) — Saving an endangered bird and commuting via helicopter in New Zealand may sound like a dream gig, but so far a job to protect a rare flightless bird is not taking off among applicants. The Department of Conservation in the tiny town of Haast — perched on the western edge of Mount Aspiring National Park — has received just three applications so far for the role, said operations manager Wayne […]
Los Angeles, United States | AFP | US President Joe Biden shelled out nearly four times the asking price when he stopped for tacos and quesadillas during a visit to Los Angeles on Thursday. The 79-year-old grinned widely as he picked up an order, telling the server the extra money should be used to pay for the next customer. Biden, who entered the restaurant alongside California Representative Karen Bass and LA County supervisor Hilda Solis, […]
Los Angeles, United States (AFP) A man who hid snakes and lizards in his trousers as he tried to sneak them into the United States as part of a $750,000 reptile smuggling enterprise faces decades in prison, officials said Wednesday. Jose Manuel Perez masterminded the six-year scheme from his home in southern California, which involved bringing 1,700 animals into the United States from Mexico and Hong Kong. In a plea deal with the Department of […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — California cops rushed to a zoo after a 911 call — only to find it had been placed by a mischievous monkey. Dispatchers sent officers to investigate a possible emergency after receiving a call Saturday night that had disconnected. Sheriff’s deputies in San Luis Obispo County traced the call to the offices of Zoo to You, a conservation park 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, but couldn’t […]
Washington, United States | AFP Is it tumbleweed? A piece of fishing line? Spaghetti? A tangled object discovered by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has intrigued space watchers, leaving some musing tongue-in-cheek about the quality of Italian dining on the Red Planet. But the most plausible explanation is more prosaic: it’s likely remnants of a component used to lower the robotic explorer to the Martian surface in February 2021. “We have been discussing where it’s from, […]
