News World

Vietnam flash floods: 54 killed; 39 still missing as tropical storm triggers landslides Hanoi : Floods and landslides have killed at least 54 people in  Vietnam and left another 39 missing since a tropical depression hit  the country earlier this week, officials said  on Friday. The heavy rain in the central and northern regions has disrupted travel in some areas, limiting the rescue attempts for the missing. The storm that hit central Vietnam on Tuesday also injured 31 people and submerged more than 30,000 houses, damaged infrastructure, crops and livestock, the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority said in a statement. Disaster official Nguyen Thi Lien from northern Yen Bai province, where six people have died from the floods, said 580 soldiers and police and more than 2,000 residents have been mobilised to search for another 16 still missing in the province. "Transportation to and from southern District of Tram Tau was cut off by landsl...

California wildfires: Death toll hits 31, most in a week in state history The death toll in wildfires in northern California has hit 31. This, officials say, is the deadliest week of wildfires in state history Northern California's wildfires have now killed 31 people, making this the deadliest week of wildfires in state history. BREAKING: As death toll hits 31 from California wildfires, fire official says it is deadliest week of wildfires in state history. - The Associated Press (@AP)  October 13, 2017 Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano, on Thursday night, said that two more people have been confirmed dead there. That raises the statewide death total from 29 to 31. The Oakland Hills fire of 1991 killed 29 people by itself. While no one fire currently burning has killed that many, collectively this is the deadliest series of simultaneous fires in the state since records have been kept.The blazes, most of them in wine country, broke out almost all at once ...

Preet Bharara joins Bob Corker in mocking Trump for threatening news networks Bharara was appointed by Barack Obama as US Attorney for Manhattan where he served for many years before being fired by Trump this March. Preet Bharara, former US Attorney and a known  critic of US President Donald Trump , mocked him for trying to threaten news networks. Bharara was appointed by Barack Obama as US Attorney for Manhattan where he served for many years before being  fired by Trump this March , a fact that Bharara has mentioned in his Twitter bio. While replying to a tweet where Trump indicated he might challenge broadcast license of media houses, Bharara quipped, "Adult day care shift alert, please report for duty", in an apparent reference to Republican Senator Bob Corker, a supporter-turned-critic of Trump, who has called the US president a political novice whose outbursts have become so routine that the White House has become an adult day care centre. Bob Corker head...

Irked by report, Donald Trump asks: When is it appropriate to challenge news networks' licenses? Trump was unhappy with a report that said he told the US' "highest-ranking national security leaders" that he wanted "what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase" in America's nuclear arsenal. US President Donald Trump  asked when it would be "appropriate" to challenge the licenses of American media outlets like the network NBC, which he accused of carrying a fake story about him. Quoting three sources,  the NBC report in question  said Trump told the US' "highest-ranking national security leaders" that he wanted "what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase" in America's nuclear arsenal. It also said Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was heard calling his boss a "moron" after the meeting. On Wednesday, Trump complained in a tweet that the report was "pure fiction, meant to demean...

US flies bombers over Korea as Trump discusses options SEOUL/WASHINGTON: The US military flew two strategic bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force late on Tuesday, as President Donald Trump met top defence officials to discuss how to respond to any threat from North Korea. Tensions have soared between the United States and North Korea following a series of weapons tests by  Pyongyang and a string of increasingly bellicose exchanges between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test in recent weeks as it fast advances towards its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland. The two US Air Force B-1B bombers were joined by two  F-15K fighters  from the South Korean military after leaving their base in Guam, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement on Wednesday. After entering South Korean airspace, the two bombers ca...

IMF says world economy to grow at 3.6% in 2017, 3.7% in 2018 over better recovery The International Monetary Fund said the global growth forecast for 2017 and 2018 is -- 3.6 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively. The IMF today said the global economic recovery is continuing at a faster pace as it upgraded its growth projection to 3.6 per cent for this year, citing an upswing in countries like China, Japan, Russia, and some emerging economies in Europe. Releasing its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), the International Monetary Fund said the global growth forecast for 2017 and 2018 -- 3.6 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively -- is 0.1 percentage point higher in both years than in the April and July forecasts. Notable pickups in investment, trade, and industrial production, coupled with strengthening business and consumer confidence, are supporting the recovery. With growth outcomes in the first half of 2017 generally stronger than expected, upward revisions t...

North Korea hacks military documents stealing US-South Korea war plan Hackers in  North Korea  reportedly have stolen a large cache of military documents from South Korea. The stored data which was hacked by North Korean hackers include the latest Washington-Seoul wartime operational plan as well, a ruling party lawmaker said on Thursday. Citing information from unnamed defence officials, Democratic Party Representative Lee Cheol-hee said the hackers broke into the Defence Integrated Data Centre in September last year to steal the secret files, such as Operational Plans 5015 and 3100, Yonhap news agency reported. OPLAN 5015 OPLAN 5015 is the latest Seoul-Washington scheme to handle an all-out war with Pyongyang. It contains detailed procedures to "decapitate" the North Korean leadership. OPLAN 3100 OPLAN 3100 is Seoul's plan to respond to the North's localized provocations. HUGE DATA TAKEN Lee Cheol-hee said that 23...

Texas Tech University officer killed in shooting; lockdown lifted, shooter apprehended Police apprehended a 19-year-old student accused of fatally shooting a Texas Tech University police officer at the campus police station on Monday night. Police apprehended a 19-year-old student accused of fatally shooting a Texas Tech University police officer at the campus police station on Monday night. University officials issued an alert, saying the suspect was taken into custody and that the campus lockdown order had been lifted. In an earlier statement, the university identified the suspect as Hollis Daniels. University spokesman Chris Cook said that campus police made a student welfare check on Monday evening and, upon entering the room, found evidence of drugs and drug paraphernalia. Officers then brought the suspect to the police station for standard debriefing. While at the station, Cook said the suspect pulled out a gun and shot an officer in the head, kill...

Donald Trump's behaviour could put America on the path to World War III, says top US lawmaker US Senator Bob Corker also said Trump was behaving as though he was still on the Apprentice, the reality show he hosted for several years. Corker's remarks came in an interview with a leading American newspaper.   Republican US Senator Bob Corker told a leading American daily on Sunday that  the threats President Donald Trump has made  to other nations could put the US "on the path to World War III." Corker, an influential voice on US foreign policy, made this grim forecast in  an interview with the New York Times  (NYT). The newspaper called it "an extraordinary rebuke of a president of his own party." Donald Trump had earlier posted a series of tweets in which he claimed Corker had "begged" him to endorse his re-election bid in the US state of Tennessee (which he represents as a Senator), and that he left the race when the President re...

Nuclear weapons best way to defend North Korea from US threats: Kim Jong-Un North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un while speaking to the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea said that the nuclear weapons of the country are a result of it's people's struggle. Kim Jong-Un has lauded his country's nuclear weapons programme as the best way to defend its sovereignty and counter threats from the US. Speaking to the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang on Saturday, Kim Jong-un said "nuclear weapons of North Korea are a precious fruition borne by its people's bloody struggle for defending the destiny and sovereignty of the country from the protracted nuclear threats of the US imperialists", Efe reported citing state news agency KCNA. Kim who is also the chairman of the WPK, said Pyongyang's nuclear programme, which has led to multiple missile tests this year as well as the detonation of a hydrogen bomb,...

Thousands take to streets across Australia with chants of Adani Go Home The Stop Adani movement organised nation-wide protests at 45 places in Australia. Huge protests were held across Australia yesterday against Indian mining giant Adani Enterprises over its proposed Carmichael coal mine. The Adani's coal mine is supposed to be the largest coal mine project in Australia. The protests - 45 in number - were organised by the "Stop Adani" movement. These protests were held in many cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Port Douglas.   The project has been delayed for years over environmental and financing issues. Several environment groups have opposed the Adani's project saying the mine in Queensland state will contribute to global warming and damage the Great Barrier Reef. WHY NATIONWIDE PROTEST AGAINST ADANI? Yesterday's protests were held as part of a ...

Nobel Peace Prize to anti-nuclear NGO group in call to eliminate world's nukes We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time, the committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize said as it conferred the award to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapon. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was today awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Peace Prize calls "upon nuclear-armed states to initiate negotiations to gradual elimination of the world's 15,000 nuclear weapons," the Nobel committee that awarded the prize said. "The organization is receiving the award for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons," the Nobel Peace Prize committee said. "ICAN has in the past year given the effor...

Las Vegas shooting: FBI, cops seek help in uncovering gunman Stephen Paddock's motive After five days of scouring the life of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock and chasing 1,000 leads, investigators confessed Friday they still don't know what drove him to mass murder, and they announced plans to put up billboards appealing for the public's help. Investigators have examined Paddock's politics, his finances, any possible radicalization and his social behavior - typical investigative avenues that have helped uncover the motive in past shootings. "We still do not have a clear motive or reason why," Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said. "We have looked at literally everything." The FBI announced that billboards would go up around the city asking anyone with information to phone 800-CALL-FBI. "If you know something, say something," said Aaron Rouse, agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office. ...