Other News

Extremely dangerous Hurricane Milton makes landfall on Florida’s west coast

By Leonora LaPeter Anton and Brad Brooks ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) – Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast on Wednesday, striking a little sooner and further south than forecast, offering the state a glimmer of hope it might be spared the worst of the anticipated catastrophe. The storm made landfall around 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT) as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour (195 kph) near […]

Category 5 monster hurricane Milton heads for Florida: millions ordered to flee

By Julio-Cesar Chavez and Evan Garcia TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) -Hurricane Milton barreled toward Florida’s battered Gulf Coast as an enormous Category 5 storm on Tuesday, triggering massive traffic jams and fuel shortages as officials ordered more than 1 million people to flee before it slams into the Tampa Bay area. Milton, which exploded on Monday into one of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record, was forecast to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, […]

Philippines launches naval drills with allies as regional tensions simmer

By Mikhail Flores SUBIC, Philippines (Reuters) – The armed forces of the Philippines, the United States and four other countries began joint naval exercises off the coast of the Philippines’ northern Luzon island facing Taiwan in a display of naval strength amid rising tensions with China. Called “Sama Sama,” which means togetherness, this year’s drills, which involve almost a thousand sailors and personnel from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United States and the Philippines, are […]

South Korea, Singapore aim to become strategic partners next year

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -South Korea and Singapore have agreed to embark on a strategic partnership next year, marking the 50th anniversary of their establishment of diplomatic relations, the city state’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Tuesday. The two nations signed an extradition treaty and will look to deepen co-operation in fields such as artificial intelligence, defence and climate change, as well as upgrade their free trade pact. “The upgrade is not just a change in […]

Philippines’ Marcos signs law to revitalise country’s defense industry

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr signed into law a bill on Tuesday that aims to develop the country’s defence industry to reduce its reliance on imported sources and create equipment tailored to its security challenges. “It’s a logical move forward for a country that finds itself at the fulcrum of geopolitical shifts and volatilities. At its core this act is about cultivating a robust and sustainable national defence industry,” Marcos said after […]

Mexican mayor decapitated days after taking office in Guerrero

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The mayor of the capital of Mexico’s violence-plagued state of Guerrero was killed on Sunday less than a week after he took office, the state’s governor confirmed. Alejandro Arcos was killed just six days after he took office as mayor of the city of Chilpancingo, a city of around 280,000 people in southwestern Mexico. “His loss mourns the entire Guerrero society and fills us with indignation,” Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado said […]

Philippines accuses China of assaulting Vietnamese fishermen in South China Sea

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines accused Chinese maritime officials on Friday of carrying out an “unjustified assault” on Vietnamese fishermen in the contested waters of the South China Sea, adding its voice to a fraught dispute over the confrontation. Vietnam said this week that Chinese law enforcement officers had beaten 10 fishermen and seized their gear while they were working last Sunday near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands, which Hanoi also claims and calls Hoang Sa. […]

Israel targets Hezbollah intel HQ in Lebanon, Iran says it will not back down

By Maya Gebeily and James Mackenzie BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel said it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Lebanon overnight and was assessing the damage on Friday after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group that Iran’s Supreme Leader dismissed as counterproductive. The air attack on Beirut, part of a wide assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes, was reported to have targeted the potential successor […]

By mule and helicopter, volunteers deliver aid to Helene victims

By Karl Plume and Nathan Frandino ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (Reuters) – An army of private volunteers including mule drivers and helicopter pilots are helping deliver supplies and rescue stranded victims after one of the deadliest storms in recent U.S. history ripped through the mountains of western North Carolina. One week after Helene slammed into the Florida Panhandle and devastated wide swaths of half a dozen states, untold thousands remained cut off around Asheville, North Carolina, […]

Haitian gang kills at least 70 people, including 3 infants, UN says

By Harold Isaac PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -Armed men belonging to the Gran Grif gang killed at least 70 people, including three infants, as they swept through a Haitian town shooting automatic rifles at residents, a spokesperson for the United Nations’ Human Rights Office said on Friday. “We are horrified by Thursday’s gang attacks in the town of Pont-Sonde in Haiti’s Artibonite department,” spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement. At least another 16 people were seriously […]

Webb telescope reveals surprising details of Pluto’s moon Charon

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope are giving scientists a fuller understanding about the composition and evolution of Pluto’s moon Charon, the largest moon orbiting any of our solar system’s dwarf planets. Webb for the first time detected carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide – both frozen as solids – on the surface of Charon, a spherical body about 750 miles (1,200 km) in diameter, researchers said on Tuesday. […]

Biden directed US military to help Israel shoot down Iranian missiles, White House says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden has directed the U.S. military to aid Israel’s defense against Iranian attacks and shoot down missiles targeting Israel, the White House National Security Council said on Tuesday. Biden and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris are monitoring the attack from the White House situation room and receiving regular updates, NSC spokesperson Sean Savett said in a post on X.   (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Costas Pitas; writing by Susan […]