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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Parts of Taiwan were brought to a standstill Wednesday as the strongest typhoon of the year skirted past the island’s southern tip, knocking out power for more than 180,000 households. Although super typhoon Meranti did not make landfall, the storm brought record strong winds and torrential rains to eastern and southern Taiwan. At 0215 GMT, Meranti was 30 kilometers southwest of southernmost Hengchun township, packing gusts of up to 263 kilometers […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea on Wednesday accused the United States of pushing the Korean Peninsula to “the point of explosion” after it dispatched two huge bombers in a show of force against Pyongyang. The supersonic B-1B Lancers flew over South Korea Tuesday as Washington vowed its “unshakeable commitment” to defend its allies in the region following North Korea’s fifth and largest-ever nuclear test conducted last week. Washington called the demonstration “just one […]
by Joe Dyke with Mike Smith in Jerusalem RAMAT GAN, Israel (AFP) — Former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, the last of Israel’s founding fathers, suffered a “major” stroke and was breathing with the aid of a respirator in intensive care early Wednesday. Nationwide concern mounted over the condition of 93-year-old Peres, widely respected as an elder statesman both in Israel and abroad. Peres suffered “a major stroke today with a component […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) –Taiwan braced for approaching super typhoon Meranti on Tuesday, evacuating nearly 1,800 tourists from offshore islands and closing some schools and offices. Meranti is expected to skirt past the island’s southern tip, bringing torrential rain and powerful winds from late Tuesday, the Central Weather Bureau said. “Typhoon Meranti is maintaining its strength and speed, and its impact will be the strongest on Wednesday and early Thursday,” said forecaster Hung Jen-sheng. The super typhoon […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is experiencing a “major and complex disaster” the Red Cross has warned, after floods killed scores of people and left tens of thousands in need of urgent help. Rescue workers are struggling to reach stricken communities in the country’s far north, where thousands have been left homeless, and the risk of disease is looming. “From what we saw, it is clear that this is a very major and […]
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea (AFP) — Two huge US strategic bombers flew over South Korea on Tuesday in a show of force against North Korea following Pyongyang’s fifth and largest-ever nuclear test. The supersonic B-1B Lancers reached airspace over the US Osan Air Base at Pyeongtaek, 64 kilometres (40 miles) south of Seoul, at around 10:00 am (0100 GMT). Each aircraft, which had flown from the US Pacific Command’s Andersen Airforce base at Guam, was escorted by US […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China and Russia were to start war games in the South China Sea on Monday, Beijing’s defense ministry said, in a show of force after an international tribunal invalidated the Asian giant’s extensive claims in the area. The eight-day joint drills will include exercises on “seizing and controlling” islands and shoals, Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang said in a statement. They will involve surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters, marine […]
by Karam al-Masri and Maher al-Mounes ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — A US- and Russia-brokered ceasefire dubbed by Washington as maybe the “last chance to save Syria” took effect at sundown on Monday, amid scepticism over how long it would hold. An initial 48-hour truce came into force at 7:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) across Syria except in areas held by jihadists such as the Islamic State group. AFP correspondents in Syria’s devastated second city […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – Severe flooding in a North Korean border region has killed at least 133 people with hundreds more missing, according to the UN, which said the scale of the disaster was “beyond anything experienced” by local officials. Some 107,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the area along the Tumen River, the world body said in a statement received Monday which cited Pyongyang government figures. The North’s official media has described the […]
Seoul, South Korea—North Korea has completed preparations for another nuclear test in a previously unused tunnel at its Punggye-ri site, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Monday. The North on Friday conducted its fifth and most powerful atomic test, just eight months after its previous one. “We have detected signs that North Korea has finished preparations to conduct a nuclear test at any time in the third tunnel at its Punggye-ri test site,” Yonhap […]
by Rana Moussaoui with Dave Clark in Geneva BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — A barrage of airstrikes on rebel-held areas in Syria have killed scores of people, just hours after the government in Damascus approved a US-Russian plan to halt fighting in the country’s suppurating civil war. It was not immediately clear who carried out the raids, which hit the key northern cities of Idlib and Aleppo. But they came as a new ceasefire, agreed […]
(Reuters) — Speaking to media after talks on the crisis in Syria in the early hours of Saturday (September 10) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also spoke of their worries over North Korea and its latest nuclear missile test, which took place on Friday (September 9). John Kerry said he expected President Barack Obama to address the issue and said there would be discussions at the United […]
