Category: WORLD NEWS

 A volcano on Spain’s Atlantic Ocean island of La Palma has erupted after a week-long buildup of seismic activity, prompting authorities to step up plans for evacuating thousands as lava flows destroyed isolated houses and threatened to reach the coast. The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute reported the initial eruption near the southern end of the island, which saw its last eruption in 1971. Huge red plumes topped with black-and-white smoke shot out along the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, which scientists had been closely watching following the accumulation of molten lava…

Australia said Saturday it was noting with regret France’s recall of its ambassador over the surprise cancellation of a submarine contract in favour of a US deal. France recalled its ambassadors to Australia and the United States on Friday in an unprecedented show of anger over a deal among the United States, Australia and Britain to provide Australia with a fleet of at least eight nuclear-power submarines. The deal scraps a 90 billion Australian dollar (USD 66 billion) contract with French majority state-owned Naval Group, signed in 2016, to build…

The Pentagon retreated from its defence of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing Friday that a review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed. The strike was a tragic mistake,” Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told a Pentagon news conference. For days after the August 29 strike, Pentagon officials asserted that it had been conducted correctly, despite 10 civilians being killed, including seven children. News organisations later raised doubts about…

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday met with his counterparts from Iran, Armenia and Uzbekistan and exchanged views on the recent developments in Afghanistan, confronting regional challenges and the ways to boost bilateral ties. Jaishankar, who is in the Tajik capital to attend a key meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on the situation in Afghanistan after its takeover by the Taliban last month, in a tweet said he was glad to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on the sidelines of the SCO meet in Dushanbe.…

President Joe Biden will promote his administration’s use of the Defence Production Act to aid in wildfire preparedness during a western swing in which he’ll survey wildfire damage in Idaho and California. The administration activated the wartime provision in early August to boost the supply of fire hoses for the U.S. Forest Service, by helping to ease supply chain issues affecting the agency’s primary firehose supplier. It marks the second use of the wartime law, after the president used it to boost vaccine supplies, and the administration had not previously…

Japan’s outspoken vaccinations minister, Taro Kono, announced Friday that he is running to become head of the governing party, who usually is chosen prime minister, and pledged to be reform-minded and gets things done. Kono, 58, a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., who is fluent in English, has many fans among younger people, with whom he communicates via social media. Such things are still a rarity in Japanese politics. I will embrace your views and worries, share information with you, convey a solid message and work with you…

Reiterating that his “commitment to the Afghan people has never wavered and will guide me for the rest of my life”, Ashraf Ghani apologised that he “could not make it end differently”. Former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani today apologised to his countrymen – nearly three weeks after fleeing the country as the Taliban seized power with the fall of Kabul on August 15. Reiterating that his “commitment to the Afghan people has never wavered and will guide me for the rest of my life”, Mr Ghani apologised that he “could…