World

The United States said Monday it was investigating a "debris-generating event in outer space" after astronauts on the International Space Station were forced to prepare for a possible evacuation.

It came amid unconfirmed reports that Russia had carried out an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) test -- rare show-of-force demonstrations criticized by the space community because of the risk they create for crews in low Earth orbit.

Britain raised its terrorism threat level on Monday after a deadly explosion outside a hospital in Liverpool in an attack involving a homemade bomb that was reportedly foiled by a quick-thinking taxi driver.

Interior minister Priti Patel said intelligence officials had increased the threat from "substantial" to "severe" -- the second-highest level meaning an attack is highly likely.

An American journalist dramatically released from a Myanmar prison and deported Monday on the eve of a sedition and terrorism trial is humble, positive and inspired by George Orwell's writings against authoritarianism, his colleague told AFP.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government in February and launched a bloody crackdown that has killed more than 1,200 people, according to a local monitoring group, and also ensnared the media.

With more than 30 million YouTube views, the song "Fragile" has done something previously unthinkable -- become a commercial success while sending up China's authoritarian leaders.

In the Mandopop industry, poking Beijing can end careers. But Malaysian rapper Namewee and Australian singer Kimberley Chen have bucked that trend.

The Maori tribe that owns rights to the "Ka Mate" haka told anti-vaccine protesters Monday to stop performing the famous ritual at demonstrations.

The Ngati Toa -- a tribe or iwi in Maori -- is recognized under New Zealand law as the cultural guardian of the Ka Mate haka, which has featured prominently at recent protests against coronavirus-related restrictions.

How freakish and biblical our climate emergency could become was illustrated this week in the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan, which was struck in November by rolling lightning storms, downpours, snow, and a plague of scorpions. High winds blew the deadly Egyptian black, fat-tailed scorpions from the surrounding desert into the city and into people's homes. The scorpions killed three persons with their venom and left hundreds sickened, as Egyptian rescue crews tried to distribute the antidote.

Egypt is going to be one of the countries worst hit by the freakish changes in climate we are causing.

Premature deaths caused by fine particle air pollution have fallen 10 percent annually across Europe, but the invisible killer still accounts for 307,000 premature deaths a year, the European Environment Agency said Monday.

If the latest air quality guidelines from the World Health Organization were followed by EU members, the latest number of fatalities recorded in 2019 could be cut in half, according to an EEA report.

The Iraqi government said it was organizing a repatriation flight this Thursday for its citizens stuck on the Poland-Belarus border on a "voluntary" basis.

"Iraq will carry out a first flight for those who wish to return voluntarily on the 18th" of November from Belarus, Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf told Iraqi television overnight Sunday to Monday.

US President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping will speak Monday at a virtual summit aimed at defusing some of the tensions that have built up over Taiwan and other flashpoint issues, but with both sides signaling little appetite for compromise.

The two leaders have already spoken on the phone twice since Biden's inauguration in January but, with Xi refusing to travel abroad because of the pandemic, an online video meeting remains the best available avenue for direct talks.