Author: Steven Sahiounie

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake erupted off Japan’s eastern coast, with shaking felt all the way in Tokyo, around 200 kilometers away from the epicenter, according to journalists visiting the city to cover the Olympics. The quake struck off the coast of the Ibaraki Prefecture at around 5:30am on Wednesday morning, with the Japan Meteorological Agency putting it at a depth of 40km. The agency recorded several aftershocks, one coming in at 5.6 magnitude, though added there is no risk of a tsunami. “Welcome back to the Olympic city, where we are currently in an earthquake,” said Australian sports commentator Mark Beretta…

A ship that was believed to have been hijacked in the Gulf of Oman is now safe, the Royal Navy’s vessel-tracking agency has said, after Iran was accused of being behind the incident. “Boarders left the vessel. Vessel is safe. Incident complete,” the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Wednesday, without elaborating and identifying the vessel in question. The navigation agency, which was founded by the UK’s Royal Navy and is manned by reservists, reported on Tuesday that an unnamed ship was subject to potential “hijack” off the coast of the UAE in the Gulf of Oman, which is connected to…

The mayor of a town in southwestern Turkey has desperately called for a firefighting helicopter or plane with night vision to be sent to the area, as disastrous wildfires close in on his town and its thermal power plant. “The situation is very serious. The flames have come to the edge of the thermal power plant,” Muhammet Tokat, the mayor of Milas – located east of the major resort of Bodrum – said on Twitter on Tuesday. Tokat shared a video showing a massive blaze raging through the hills near the city and sending plumes of black smoke into the night…

The Taliban says it was behind an attack on the residence of Afghanistan’s acting defense minister late Tuesday, in which at least eight people were killed and many others wounded. The minister’s residence was struck while an important meeting was underway inside, the group said in a statement released by its spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid. The attack was just the beginning of retaliatory operations targeting key Afghan officials overseeing the fight again the Taliban across the country, the group warned. On Tuesday, the militants attacked the residence of the acting defense minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, located close to Kabul’s heavily fortified…

Officials in Macau, China, often called the ‘Las Vegas of Asia’, have ordered mass testing for Covid-19 and shut down most of the city’s entertainment venues after a cluster of infections was discovered. Authorities set up 41 testing stations across the city, which will operate non-stop for three days. The measure was introduced after four cases were reported on Tuesday in Macau, a former Portuguese colony and a popular casino hub with a population of 660,000. Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng was quoted by Chinese media as saying that the four patients are members of one family, which includes a…

Two trains have collided in Milavce village in the Czech Republic, near the town of Domazlice on the western border, killing two and injuring over 30. Rescue services are at the scene. Shortly after 8am (6am GMT,) the trains collided in Milavce, near Domazlice in the Czech Republic’s west, the country’s police force said on Twitter. “Unfortunately, at this moment we have confirmed that two people lost their lives at the scene of the railway accident,” the police said in a tweet. “We have the site of the intervention divided into two sections. We have transported some people from the train.…

Iranian Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi has criticized Western, Israeli, and Saudi news outlets that claim Iran is responsible for maritime attacks in the Persian Gulf region, deeming it a form of “psychological warfare.” On Wednesday, Shekarchi, a spokesperson for the Iranian Armed Forces, slammed media outlets for accusing Iran of being behind the “potential hijacking” of the Asphalt Princess in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday, as well as another recent attack on an Israeli-operated oil tanker. “Conflicting reports published by some Western, Zionist, and Saudi outlets regarding maritime insecurity, hijacking ships, and etc. in the regional waters are a sort of…

A Japanese beetle was discovered near the country’s border in the Swiss city of Basel, causing concern among German pest control officials. According to the Augustenberg Center for Agricultural Technology, these beetles can cause significant damage because there are no organisms in Germany that feed on them, reducing their numbers. As a result, citizens should be watchful and report the presence of such a beetle if one is discovered, in order to prevent it from escaping. The insect is classified as a “beetle with a big appetite” by the Julius Kohn Institute, a federal plant research center. The Japanese beetle…

Patients frequently struggle to read doctor’s prescriptions; poorly written reports are as close to coding as possible. They’ve become a source of amusement and laughs over the years, but Moroccan authorities have decided to put an end to this by the power of law. Moroccan legislators issued a decree related to medical ethics, which requires doctors in Morocco to improve their handwriting when writing prescriptions for patients in order for them to be readable. The Moroccan government recently ratified an amendment to the medical ethics suggested by the Minister of Health, which requires doctors to write prescriptions that are clear…

Lebanese authorities were accused Tuesday of being “criminally negligent under Lebanese law in their handling of the cargo, creating an unreasonable risk to life” by the Humans Rights Watch. An investigation revealed the failure of political and security officials to follow up on the ammonium nitrate shipment that led to the explosion of the Beirut port a year ago. The explosion left at least 214 people dead and more than 6,500 injured; it resulted from 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate impounded at the port for years. The organization recommended that sanctions must be imposed on officials responsible and that the…