International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
All the homes on one of Tonga’s small outer islands have been destroyed by a massive volcanic eruption and tsunami, with three people so far confirmed dead, the government said on Tuesday in its first update since the disaster struck. With communications badly hampered by the severing of an undersea cable, information on the scale of the devastation after Saturday’s eruption
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities said Tuesday that they will cull some 2,000 small animals, including hamsters after several of the rodents tested positive for the virus at a pet store where an infected employee was working. The city will also stop the sale of hamsters and the import of small mammals, according
GENEVA (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping called Monday for greater world cooperation against COVID-19 and pledged to send an additional 1 billion doses of vaccine to other countries, while urging other powers to discard a “Cold-War mentality” at a time of rising geopolitical tensions — a not-so-veiled swipe at the United States. The Chinese leader
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Australia and New Zealand sent surveillance flights on Monday to assess damage in Tonga, isolated from the rest of the world after the eruption of a volcano that triggered a tsunami and blanketed the Pacific island with ash. Australia’s Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said initial reports suggested no
BEIJING (Reuters) – Mainland China’s birth rate dropped to a record low in 2021, data showed on Monday, extending a downward trend that led Beijing last year to begin allowing couples to have up to three children. China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit to try to avoid
SEOUL (AP) — North Korea on Monday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea in its fourth weapons launch this month, South Korea’s military said, with the apparent goal of demonstrating its military might amid paused diplomacy with the United States and pandemic border closures. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North
All tsunami warnings issued in Japan, following Saturday’s massive volcanic eruption in Tonga, have been lifted. The final alert which had been in effect for Iwate Prefecture was downgraded to an advisory at 11:20 a.m. local time. The Japan Meteorological Agency lifted all remaining tsunami advisories at 2 P.M. on Sunday local time. Authorities are
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Saturday said it test launched ballistic missiles from a train in what was seen as an apparent retaliation against fresh sanctions imposed by the Biden administration. The report by the North state media came a day after South Korea’s military said it detected the North firing two
Tsunami alerts are in effect over wide areas along the Pacific coast of Japan, after a massive volcanic eruption in Tonga on Saturday. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning on Sunday for the Amami Islands and the Tokara Islands in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima. It later issued a warning for the northeastern
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga on Saturday, sending large waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground. There were no immediate reports of injuries or the extent of the damage as communications with the small nation remained problematic. Video
BOSTON/CHICAGO, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Hundreds of students in Boston and Chicago walked out of classes on Friday in protests demanding a switch to remote learning as a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant disrupted efforts at returning to in-person education around the United States. In Chicago, the nation’s third-largest school district,
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Friday fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles in its third weapons launch this month, officials in South Korea said, in an apparent reprisal for fresh sanctions imposed by the Biden administration for its continuing test launches. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the
