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Contractors put plywood over windows of a building in Tampa on 8 October 2024 ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall. Photo: AFP US President Joe Biden urged those who have been ordered to leave before Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida to "evacuate now", saying it was a matter of life and death. "This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century, and God-willing it won't be, but it's looking like that right now," Biden said. Biden added that he has approved pre-landfall emergency declarations in Florida and is calling on airlines to accommodate evacuations and not engage in price-gouging. Hurricane Milton was expected to enlarge on Wednesday as it grinded past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula en route to Florida's Gulf Coast, where more than 1 million people were ...

Diddy (R) and his mother, Janice Combs attend the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on September 12, 2023 in Newark, New Jersey. Photo: Jason Kempin The mother of Sean 'Diddy' Combs says her son is not a "monster" and has likened the rapper's public downfall to a "public lynching". The music producer is currently in a Brooklyn jail awaiting trial on counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution after he was arrested on Septmber 16. He has pleaded not guilty. His defence lawyers tried to have him released on a US$50 million bond, but prosecutors told the judge that Combs was "extremely dangerous to the community" and he was denied bail. His next court date is set for Thursday (local time). Last week, lawyer Tony Buzbee told...

By Gerard Martinez, with Lucie Aubourg in Orlando and Michael Mathes in Washington for AFP Volunteers in Miami fill sandbags as residents prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton in Florida on 7 October. Photo: GIORGIO VIERA / AFP Hurricane Milton has exploded in strength to become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm bound for Florida, threatening the US state with a second ferocious hurricane in as many weeks. The back-to-back hurricanes have whipped up a US election storm, with Vice President Kamala Harris slamming her White House rival Donald Trump and Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis for "political gamesmanship" and for spreading misinformation about the federal response. Milton, which is forecast to batter Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as it churns eastward, tr...

By Steven Scheer and Maya Gebeily for Reuters A Haifa resident inspects the damage following an overnight rocket attack from Lebanon on 7 October. Photo: MATI MILSTEIN / NURPHOTO Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel's third-largest city of Haifa and Hamas has vowed to rise again as Israel looks poised to expand its offensive into Lebanon, a year after the devastating Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war. Israelis held ceremonies and protests on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the 7 October attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas as the Gaza conflict has spread across the Middle East and fanned fears of an all-out regional war. Hamas, which has seen the Palestinian territory of Gaza laid waste by Israel's war, vowed to rise "like a phoenix" from the ashes despi...