Month: February 2023

More than two weeks after a toxic train wreck unleashed plumes of black smoke, contaminated the soil and fuelled anxiety in East Palestine, Ohio, residents have reported a growing number of ailments – from rashes to nausea to trouble breathing. Now, the state will open a health clinic on Tuesday for residents who worry their symptoms might be linked to the February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train and the subsequent release of the toxic chemical vinyl chloride. And medical teams from the US Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health will be on the ground in Ohio this week, at the request of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. The teams will help assess what dangers might remain in the community of about 5000 people. READ MORE: Police i...

Around 7pm on Saturday night, US President Joe Biden was out in Washington on a Valentine's week date-night, lingering over rigatoni with fennel sausage ragu before returning with his wife to the White House. The next time he was seen in public was 36 hours later, striding out of St Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv into a bright winter day, air raid sirens wailing a reminder of both the risks and reason for visiting Ukraine as it nears a second year of war. Cloaked in secrecy and weighted with history, Biden's trip was the work of months of planning by only a small handful of his senior-most aides, who recognised long ago the symbolic importance of visiting the Ukrainian capital a year after Russia tried to capture it. READ MORE: Police identify body of mum who vanished while...

A new 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Monday killed three people and injured more than 200 in parts of Turkey laid waste two weeks ago by a massive quake that killed tens of thousands, authorities said. More buildings collapsed, trapping some people, while scores of injuries were recorded in neighbouring Syria too. Monday's earthquake was centred in the town of Defne, in Turkey's Hatay province, one the worst-hit regions in the magnitude 7.8 quake that struck on February 6. READ MORE: Police identify body of missing British mother Nicola Bulley It was felt in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and as far away as Egypt, and followed by a second, magnitude 5.8 temblor. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said three people were killed and 213 injured. Search and ...

"I thought you were dead," Philip Barber said to his brother Chris when the pair were reunited for the first time on Thursday after floodwaters tore through their community in Esk Valley on New Zealand's North Island. The siblings live next to each other, and Philip could do nothing but sit and watch in horror as his brother's house was engulfed by water and silt in the early hours of Tuesday morning as Cyclone Gabrielle hit. While Philip made it onto his roof, Chris and his family were panicking inside their home as the waters rose rapidly around them. READ MORE: Cyclone Gabrielle is New Zealand's worst weather disaster 'in a generation' Brothers Philip and Chris Barber break down as they hug on Thursday, 48 hours after Chris and his family almost died when floodwate...

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed there is "no way" his country would send troops into Ukraine unless it is attacked, amid fears Russia's close ally will help to facilitate a spring offensive by Moscow. "We are peaceful people. We know what war is and we don't want war," the authoritarian leader Lukashenko, who has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said at a small gathering of journalists from international media at Minsk's Palace of Independence "There is no way we are going to send our troops to Ukraine unless you are going to commit aggression against Belarus," Lukashenko said. "But don't forget Russia is our ally, legally, morally and politically," he added. READ MORE: Death rate of Russian soldiers 'highest since first week of Ukr...

As he languished in a Missouri prison for nearly three decades, Lamar Johnson never stopped fighting to prove his innocence, even when it meant doing much of the legal work himself. This week a St. Louis judge overturned Johnson’s murder conviction and ordered him freed. Johnson closed his eyes and shook his head, overcome with emotion. Shouts of joy rang out from the packed courtroom, and several people — relatives, civil rights activists and others — stood to cheer. Johnson’s lawyers hugged each other and him. “I can’t say I knew it would happen, but I would never give up fighting for what I knew to be the right thing, that freedom was wrongfully taken from me,” Johnson said. Lamar Johnson spent 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. (AP) READ MORE: Woman w...