Magnitude 7.5 quake strikes southern Philippines, tsunami warning issued
A powerful magnitude 7.5 offshore earthquake hit the southern Philippines on Friday, prompting tsunami warnings and evacuations in coastal areas of Mi...
German and French Foreign Ministers visit Syria for historic talks with new rulers, signaling EU's readiness for a new political beginning after years of conflict.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is travelling to Syria for a one-day trip with her French counterpart on behalf of the EU, where she will meet Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Syria's new rulers, the German foreign ministry said on Friday.
"My trip today - together with my French counterpart and on behalf of the EU - is a clear signal to the Syrians: A new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria, is possible," Baerbock said, according to a ministry statement issued before she left for Damascus.
Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot are the first top diplomats from the European Union to visit Syria since rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing President Bashar al-Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family's decades-long rule.
"In Syria, we want to promote a peaceful and demanding transition in the service of the Syrians and for regional stability," Barrot said on social media platform X.
Since ousting Assad, Islamist rebels led by Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have sought to reassure Arab countries and the international community that they will govern on behalf of all Syrians and not export Islamist revolution.
Western governments have begun to gradually open channels with Sharaa and HTS, a Sunni Muslim group previously affiliated with Al Qaeda, and are starting to debate whether to remove the group's terrorist designation.
Baerbock said she was travelling to Syria with an "outstretched hand" as well as "clear expectations" of the new rulers, who she said would be judged by their actions.
"We know where the HTS comes from ideologically, what it has done in the past," said Baerbock.
"But we also hear and see the desire for moderation and for understanding with other important actors," she added, citing talks with U.S.-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The goal now is for Syria to once again become a respected member of the international community, she added.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
A powerful magnitude 7.5 offshore earthquake hit the southern Philippines on Friday, prompting tsunami warnings and evacuations in coastal areas of Mindanao.
The U.S. government has warned that air traffic controllers who repeatedly fail to report for duty during the shutdown could be fired, amid rising flight delays across the country.
U.S. President Donald Trump credits himself with ending "seven wars in seven months" since he returned to the White House in January. With just a few hours to the announcement of Nobel Peace Prize, could he win the prestigious international award?
The United States will deploy 200 troops as part of a joint task force aimed at stabilising Gaza, though no U.S. personnel will be stationed within the Strip, according to two senior U.S. officials on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb finalised an agreement on Thursday, for the U.S. Coast Guard to acquire up to 11 icebreaker ships, enhancing U.S. national security in the Arctic.
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