EU’s Borrell visits South Korea amid alarm over North Korean troops in Russia
Borrell arrived in South Korea after a trip to Japan and visited the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas
Borrell is visiting South Korea to take security and defense cooperation between the the EU and Seoul to “the next level”
Updated 41 sec ago
SEOUL: The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell holds talks on Monday with his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul, amid growing concerns in Seoul over the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia for its war with Ukraine.
Borrell arrived in South Korea after a trip to Japan and visited the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, the diplomat said in a post on social media platform X on Sunday.
“My visit today of the Demilitarized Zone — DMZ — between the Republic of Korea and the DPRK is yet another reminder of the need to invest more in peace,” Borrell said in the post, referring to the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Borrell is visiting South Korea to take security and defense cooperation between the the EU and Seoul to “the next level,” he said in another post, without elaborating.
The first such Strategic Dialogue meeting between the EU and South Korea comes as Washington and Seoul have been sounding the alarm about the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia for its war with Ukraine.
Borrell met with South Korea’s defense minister Kim Yong-hyun in Seoul on Monday and expressed concern over the development, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Cho said last week that all possible scenarios were under consideration, when asked about whether Seoul could send weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea’s aiding Russia.
South Korea has provided non-lethal aid to Ukraine, including mine clearance equipment, but so far has resisted Kyiv’s requests for weapons.
Seoul also sees it as likely that the North will be compensated by Moscow with military and civilian technology, as it races to launch a spy satellite and upgrade its missile capabilities.
North Korea last week flexed its military muscle with the test of a huge new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile dubbed Hwasong-19.
Washington expects North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said her country intended to back Russia until it achieved victory in the Ukraine war at talks in Moscow on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Eleven injured in militant attack in India-administered Kashmir
Militants throw grenade at Indian security forces in crowded Srinagar flea market
Kashmir has seen spate of attacks since recent elections in territory
Updated 44 sec ago
Reuters
NEW DELHI: At least 11 people were injured when militants threw a grenade at Indian security forces on Sunday in a crowded flea market in Srinagar, capital of India-administered Kashmir, a police official said.
Militants missed their target and instead injured at least 11 people, the official told Reuters. The official wished to remain unnamed as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The identity of the militant group responsible for the attack is unknown.
The injured were rushed to hospital for treatment where they were in a stable condition, the official said, adding that the explosion had caused panic in the market and sent shoppers scrambling for cover.
The attack comes a day after a top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group, was killed along with two other militants by Indian troops in Kashmir.
Kashmir has seen a spate of attacks since a government formed by an opposition alliance took over the territory, where separatist militants have fought security forces for decades, resulting in thousands of deaths.
Since the new government took over earlier last month, 15 people have died in different militant attacks.
Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, and the 2019 revocation of its special status, which saw it being split into two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, led to the countries downgrading diplomatic ties.
Myanmar junta chief to make first China visit since seizing power
Updated 9 min 18 sec ago
Reuters
BEIJING: Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will travel to China this week to attend regional summits, state media reported on Monday, the embattled top general’s first visit to the influential neighbor since he seized power in a 2021 coup.
The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since the coup, including along the Myanmar-China border, with an armed resistance movement combining with established ethnic minority armies militias to wrest control of large territories from the military government.
Min Aung Hlaing will attend summits of the Greater Mekong Subregion and the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) and join a meeting with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam from Nov. 6-7 in Kunming, MRTV reported.
“He will have meetings and discussions with authorities from China and will work on enhancing the bilateral relationship, economic and development in several sectors,” it said, referring to the junta chief.
Facing anti-junta fighters who have made rapid gains since launching a surprise offensive last October, the Myanmar military’s degradation has alarmed China, which has sealed parts of the border and shut off key imports to territory under rebel control, Reuters has reported.
Pakistan shuts primary schools for a week in Lahore due to dangerous air quality
Some wooden houses caught fire, and the ground was pockmarked with holes caused by flying molten rocks
Updated 30 min 34 sec ago
AP
East Flores: A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted overnight killing at least six people as it spewed fireballs and ash on surrounding villages, officials said Monday, as they raised its alert status to the highest level.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-meter (5,587-feet) twin volcano located on the popular tourist island of Flores, first erupted shortly before midnight, forcing authorities to evacuate several villages.
“Six fatalities have been confirmed,” Abdul Muhari, spokesman of the country’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB), told Kompas TV.
Footage received by AFP showed villages near the volcano covered by thick ash, with some areas on fire.
An AFP journalist near the volcano said five villages evacuated, affecting thousands of residents.
Some wooden houses caught fire, and the ground was pockmarked with holes caused by flying molten rocks.
The crater erupted just before midnight and then again at 1:27 am (1727 GMT Sunday) and 2:48 am, the country’s volcanology agency said.
It raised the alert level to the highest and told locals and tourists not to carry out activities within a seven-kilometer (4.3-mile) radius of the crater.
“There has been a significant increase in volcanic activity on Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki,” it said in a press release Monday.
It released images that showed the roofs of houses collapsed after they were hit by volcanic rocks, and locals sheltering in communal buildings.
The volcanology agency warned there was a potential for rain-induced lava floods and told locals to wear masks to avoid the effects of volcanic ash.
There were a series of eruptions at the volcano last week, the biggest on Thursday, sending a column of ash 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the sky.
The mountain had several major eruptions in January, prompting authorities at the time to raise the alert status to the highest level and evacuate at least 2,000 residents.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent eruptions due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an area of intense volcanic and seismic activity.
In December last year, an eruption at one of the country’s most active volcanoes, Mount Marapi in West Sumatra, killed at least 24 climbers, most of them university students.
And in May, more than 60 people died after heavy rains washed volcanic material from Marapi into residential areas, sweeping away homes.
That month Mount Ruang in North Sulawesi province erupted more than half a dozen times, forcing thousands of residents of nearby islands to evacuate.
What to know about the unprecedented floods that killed more than 200 in Spain
Scientists said the immediate cause of the flooding is called a cut-off lower-pressure storm system that migrated from an unusually wavy and stalled jet stream
The extreme weather event came after Spain battled with prolonged droughts in 2022 and 2023. Experts say that drought and flood cycles are increasing with climate change
Updated 04 November 2024
AP
Scientists said the immediate cause of the flooding is called a cut-off lower-pressure storm system that migrated from an unusually wavy and stalled jet stream
The extreme weather event came after Spain battled with prolonged droughts in 2022 and 2023. Experts say that drought and flood cycles are increasing with climate change
VALENCIA, Spain: In a matter of minutes, flash floods caused by heavy downpours in eastern Spain swept away almost everything in their path. With no time to react, people were trapped in vehicles, homes and businesses. Many died and thousands of livelihoods were shattered.
Five days later, authorities have recovered 217 bodies — with 213 of them in the eastern Valencia region. They continued to search on Sunday for an unknown number of missing people with the help of some 5,000 fresh soldiers who arrived over the weekend.
An enraged crowd in hard-hit Paiporta hurled mud and other objects at Spain’s royals, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and regional officials when the leaders made their first visit to the epicenter of the flood damage on Sunday.
Locals and volunteers remove muddy water on Nov. 1, 2024, after a flooding devastated the town of Paiporta, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain. (AFP)
Thousands of volunteers were helping to clear away the thick layers of mud and debris that still covered houses, streets and roads, all while facing drinking water cuts and shortages of some basic goods. Inside some of the vehicles that the water washed away or trapped in underground garages, there were still bodies waiting to be identified.
Here are a few things to know about Spain’s deadliest storm in living memory: What happened?
The storms concentrated over the Magro and Turia river basins and, in the Poyo riverbed, produced walls of water that overflowed riverbanks, catching people unaware as they went on with their daily lives on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday.
In the blink of an eye, the muddy water covered roads and railways, and entered houses and businesses in towns and villages on the southern outskirts of Valencia city. Drivers had to take shelter on car roofs, while residents took refuge on higher ground.
Spain’s national weather service said that in the hard-hit locality of Chiva, it rained more in eight hours than it had in the preceding 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary.” Other areas on the southern outskirts of Valencia city didn’t get rain before they were wiped out by the wall of water that overflowed the drainage canals.
When authorities sent alerts to mobile phones warning of the seriousness of the flooding and asking people to stay at home, many were already on the road, working or covered in water in low-lying areas or underground garages, which became death traps. Why did these massive flash floods happen?
Scientists trying to explain what happened see two likely connections to human-caused climate change. One is that warmer air holds and then dumps more rain. The other is possible changes in the jet stream — the river of air above land that moves weather systems across the globe — that spawn extreme weather.
Climate scientists and meteorologists said the immediate cause of the flooding is called a cut-off lower-pressure storm system that migrated from an unusually wavy and stalled jet stream. That system simply parked over the region and poured rain. This happens often enough that in Spain they call them DANAs, the Spanish acronym for the system, meteorologists said.
And then there is the unusually high temperature of the Mediterranean Sea. It had its warmest surface temperature on record in mid-August, at 28.47 degrees Celsius (83.25 degrees Fahrenheit), said Carola Koenig of the Center for Flood Risk and Resilience at Brunel University of London.
The extreme weather event came after Spain battled with prolonged droughts in 2022 and 2023. Experts say that drought and flood cycles are increasing with climate change.
Has this happened before?
Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this episode was the most powerful flash flood event in recent memory.
Older people in Paiporta, at the epicenter of the tragedy, say Tuesday’s floods were three times as bad as those in 1957, which caused at least 81 deaths. That episode led to the diversion of the Turia watercourse, which meant that a large part of the town was spared of these floods.
Valencia suffered two other major DANAs in the 1980s, one in 1982 with around 30 deaths, and another one five years later that broke rainfall records.
The flash floods also surpassed the flood that swept away a campsite along the Gallego river in Biescas, in the northeast, killing 87 people, in August 1996. What has the state response been?
Management of the crisis, classified as level two on a scale of three by the Valencian government, is in the hands of the regional authorities, who can ask the central government for help in mobilizing resources.
At the request of Valencia’s regional president, Carlos Mazón, Sánchez announced Saturday the deployment of 5,000 more soldiers who will join rescue efforts, clear debris and provide water and food. The new soldiers will join the 2,500 others involved in the emergency work.
The government has also pledged to send 5,000 more Civil Guard gendarmes and National Police officers to the region, nearly doubling the 4.500 already there.
When many of those affected said they felt abandoned by the authorities, a wave of volunteers arrived to help. Carrying brooms, shovels, water and basic foods, hundreds of people walked several kilometers to deliver supplies and help clean up the worst-affected areas.
Sánchez’s government is expected to approve a disaster declaration on Tuesday that will allow quick access to financial aid. Mazón has announced additional economic assistance.
The Valencia regional government was criticized for not sending out flood warnings to cellphones until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, when the flooding had already started in some places and well after the national weather agency issued a red alert indicating heavy rains.
Death toll from Indonesia volcano eruption rises to 10: disaster agency
Fiery lava and rocks hit the nearest settlements around four km from the crater, burning and damaging residents’ houses
Indonesia sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates
Updated 28 min 51 sec ago
Reuters
JAKARTA: The death toll from a volcano erupting several times overnight in eastern Indonesia has risen to 10, the country’s disaster mitigation agency said Monday.
“The death toll from the Lewotobi Laki-Laki’s eruption is now 10 people,” agency spokesman Abdul Muhari told a press conference.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki in eastern Indonesia erupted on Sunday, spewing explosive plumes of lava and forcing authorities to evacuate several nearby villages, officials said on Monday.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, located on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province, erupted on Sunday at 23.57 local time (15:57 GMT), belching a fiery-red column of lava, volcanic ash and incandescent rocks, Hadi Wijaya, a spokesperson for The Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG), said on Monday.
“After the eruption, there was power outage and then it was raining and big lightning which caused panic among residents,” he told Reuters, adding that the authority had raised the status of the volcano to level IV or the highest.
The agency has recommended a seven-kilometer (4.35 miles)radius must be cleared.
Fiery lava and rocks hit the nearest settlements around four km from the crater, burning and damaging residents’ houses, Hadi said.
Google map showing the location of Indonesia's erupting Laki-Laki Volcano on the eastern island of Flores.
As of Monday morning at least nine people had died, said Heronimus Lamawuran, a local official at East Flores area, adding the eruption had affected seven villages.
“We have started evacuating residents since this morning to other villages located around 20 km (13 miles) from the crater,” he said.
The nearest villages were covered by thick volcanic ash on Monday morning, Heronimus added.
The authorities are still gathering data on the number of evacuees and damaged buildings.
Indonesia sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates.
This eruption follows a series of eruptions of different volcanoes in Indonesia. In May, a volcano on the remote island of Halmahera, Mount Ibu, caused evacuation of people from seven villages.
North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano has also erupted in May and prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people.
Flash floods and cold lava flow from Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province, covered several nearby districts following torrential rain on May 11, killing more than 60 people.
