Afghanistan quake kills at least four, wounds 69 An earthquake centered in Afghanistan's east killed at least four people and injured almost 70, after wet weather weakened the country's traditional mud-brick homes, officials said on Wednesday. More
Tornado sirens giving way to new warning technology On April 10, 2011, tornadoes ripped across Wisconsin, tearing roofs off houses, toppling trees and snapping power lines. In many places, the high winds were greeted with silence as some Cold War-era warning sirens failed because of lost power and other issues — just when they were needed the most. More
Death toll in China quake hits 113 A strong earthquake struck China’s mountainous Sichuan province Saturday morning, leaving at least 113 people dead and more than 3,000 injured. Chinese authorities assessed the magnitude of the quake at 7.0, while the U.S. Geological Survey reported 6.6. More
Venezuela's Maduro to be sworn in Nicolas Maduro is due to be sworn in as the first Venezuelan president to take office after 14 years of Hugo Chavez. More
Strong earthquake in Taiwan injures 27 and causes scattered damage A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan early Tuesday, leaving 27 people with minor injuries and some reported damage. 01/20/2025 - 11:11 pm | View Link
Shaken not stirred: Top End ground shake strength ‘higher than previously understood’ Darwin is on shakier ground than ever before as new information reveals the previous understanding of seismic sciences in the Top End was only the tip of the iceberg. 01/12/2025 - 5:41 am | View Link
3.6 magnitude earthquake shakes San Francisco Bay Area, followed by aftershocks The San Francisco Bay Area was rattled by a minor earthquake Friday morning that struck just off the coast, followed by at least two aftershocks. The 3.7 magnitude quake struck at 7:02 a.m. off the ... 01/10/2025 - 7:09 am | View Link
Magnitude 3.7 quake shakes San Francisco, USGS says An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.7 shook San Francisco on Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake struck about three miles northwest of the San Francisco Zoo at 7:02 ... 01/10/2025 - 4:53 am | View Link
Deadly earthquake shakes Tibet region of western China near Mount Everest A deadly earthquake struck near the city of Shigatse in Tibet region and was felt in neighboring Nepal and India. The epicenter was in a remote high-altitude region about 50 miles northeast of Mount ... 01/6/2025 - 8:32 pm | View Link
JERUSALEM — Israel’s top general resigned on Tuesday, citing the security and intelligence failures related to Hamas’ surprise attack that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel meanwhile launched a large military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday that the Palestinian Health Ministry said had killed at least six people and wounded 35.
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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending all U. S. foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with his policy goals.
It was not immediately clear how much assistance would initially be affected by the Monday order as funding for many programs has already been appropriated by Congress and is obligated to be spent, if not already spent.
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The order, among many Trump signed on his first day back in office, said the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values” and “serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
Read More: Breaking Down All of Trump’s Day 1 Presidential Actions
Consequently, Trump declared that “no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing last week that “every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions:
“Does it make America safer?
LONDON — The sequel to Prince Harry vs. the British tabloids begins Tuesday in a high-stakes trial pitting him against Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers that could cost him millions even if he wins.
Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, and one other claimant remain alone among hundreds who have settled lawsuits against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, over allegations their phones were hacked and investigators unlawfully snooped on their lives.
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It will be the first case of its kind to go to trial against the publisher since a widespread phone hacking scandal forced Murdoch to close News of the World in 2011.
Pale, gaunt, and with a freshly shaved head, Chinese actor Wang Xing sat flanked by Thai police in the border town of Mae Sot on Jan. 7 to discuss his terrifying ordeal. The 31-year-old had flown to Bangkok for what he thought was a meeting with Thai movie executives. Instead, he was trafficked across the border to wartorn Myanmar’s lawless Myawaddy region, where he was forcibly put to work conducting online scams.
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“The environment was very dangerous,” Wang said on a video filmed on his flight home published by Chinese media.
ISLAMABAD — A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials said Tuesday.
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The deal came as Joe Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U. S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, handed power over to returning President Donald Trump.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Among other false and misleading claims in U. S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration addresses on Tuesday, his declaration that Americans “split the atom” prompted vexed social media posts by New Zealanders, who said the achievement belonged to a pioneering scientist revered in his homeland.
Ernest Rutherford, a Nobel Prize winner known as the father of nuclear physics, is regarded by many as the first to knowingly split the atom by artificially inducing a nuclear reaction in 1917 while he worked at a university in Manchester in the United Kingdom.
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The achievement is also credited to English scientist John Douglas Cockroft and Ireland’s Ernest Walton, researchers in 1932 at a British laboratory developed by Rutherford.