World News

By Tim Lister and Eyad Kourdi, CNN A man discovered in a locked cell in a Syrian prison. Photo: CNN A man who was filmed by CNN being released by rebels from a Damascus jail was a former intelligence officer with the deposed Syrian regime, according to local residents, and not an ordinary citizen who had been imprisoned, as he had claimed. CNN initially found the man while pursuing leads on the missing US journalist Austin Tice. In a video report, chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward and her team, accompanied by a rebel guard, came across a cell in a Damascus jail that was padlocked from the outside. The guard blew off the lock with a gun, and the man was found alone inside the cell, under a blanket. When he emerged into the open air, the man appeared bewildered. Questione...

By Elissa Steedman for the ABC The magnitude-7.3 quake hit 30 kilometres west of Port Vila at a depth of 57 kilometres. Photo: EARTHQUAKES USGS. GOV A major earthquake has struck Vanuatu, causing major damage across its capital city. While seismic activity is relatively frequent in the region, Tuesday's earthquake is considered to be one of the strongest in recent years. Here's what you need to know. What happened? At 12.47pm AEDT, a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck near Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila. The quake hit 30 kilometres west of the city, at a depth of 57 kilometres, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Dan McGarry, a journalist in Port Vila, described the tremor as a "violent, high-frequency shake" that lasted for about 30 seconds. A tsunami warning was iss...

The embassy building is one of many in Vanuatu that has suffered heavy damage. Photo: Dan McGarry Vanuatu locals have described hearing screams from collapsing buildings as the strong earthquake struck off the coast of Port Villa. The 7.3 magnitude quake - which struck at a depth of 57 kilometres - has caused at least one death, according to reports. Twenty-year-old Emma Thompson was at a restaurant with a friend in the second storey of a building in Port Villa when the quake hit. "As soon as we started to take a few steps, the whole floor of the restaurant building dropped about 40 centimetres, and all the steel from the building was sticking out. I was on the floor with a statue all over my leg." "The building right next to us, it was a two three story building completely collapsed al...

By Nectar Gan and Gawon Bae, CNN Yoon Suk Yeol. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP Analysis - The vote by South Korea's Parliament to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday marked the culmination of a stunning political showdown sparked by his shock decision to impose martial law on the vibrant democratic country. Yoon, whose short-lived decree triggered weeks of protests and political turmoil, was suspended from office, after at least 12 members of his own ruling party voted in favor of his impeachment following his refusal to resign. But the fate of the embattled leader is far from sealed. Yoon now awaits a top court to deliberate the impeachment motion and decide whether he will be formally removed from the presidency or reinstated in office - a process that could take up to six months. Me...

A member of security inspecting a collapsed building in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila after a powerful earthquake hit the Pacific island. Photo: AFP A Ni-Vanuatu seasonal worker in New Zealand is scared for his young family who live on an island in Vanuatu. A large 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Tuesday, flattening buildings and causing landslides. The man, who would like to remain anonymous, says he has four children and a wife back home and they have been through a lot together, with twin cyclones hitting the archipelago last year. He says while he was home to protect his family then, right now he's in New Zealand: "It's more scary... because we haven't contacted them since this earthquake happened... so the women haven't got any network ...

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was the chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops. Photo: Russian Ministry of Defence / SUPPLIED Bomb kills senior Russian general in Moscow General was head of nuclear protection forces Another man was killed in the bomb Bomb was hidden in electric scooter A bomb hidden in an electric scooter killed a senior Russian general in charge of nuclear protection forces in Moscow on Tuesday, Russia's investigative committee said. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who is chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt, which starts road some 7 km (4 miles) southeast of the Kremlin. "Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biolo...

Photo: Facebook / Michael Thompson Vanuatu's Port Vila is in urgent need of help and heavy machinery as a rescue operation gets underway in the wake of a 7.3 earthquake, a resident says. Michael Thompson has told RNZ multiple buildings have come down, including some that have pancaked possibly still with people inside. "We are in need of help in Port Vila," he says. The New Zealand High Commission is among buildings that have been damaged. He says most of the communications to Vanuatu have gone, and he is able to post due to Starlink. A journalist living in Vanuatu, Dan McGarry, says police have confirmed to him the quake has claimed at least one life. Follow our liveblog for updates as they come to hand: Source link

By Jonathan Landay for Reuters US advocacy group says Syria mass grave contains 100,000 bodies Victims were people tortured and killed by the now-overthrown Assad government Site is one of five mass graves identified over the years Evidence comes from testimonies of workers who escaped Syria People stand next to a trench believed to be used as a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus on 16 December. Photo: AFP/Aris Messinis The head of a US-based Syrian advocacy organisation says that a mass grave outside of Damascus contain the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted President Bashar al-Assad. Mouaz Moustafa, speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview from Damascus, said the site at al Qutayfah, 25 miles (40 km) north of the Syrian capital, w...

A landslide in Port Vila after the quake. Photo: Development Mode / Facebook via ABC News An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck Vanuatu's capital Port Vila at a depth of 10km on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. Footage posted on social media showed buckled windows and collapsed concrete pillars on a building hosting foreign embassies in the capital. One showed damage to a building containing embassies for the US, UK, France and New Zealand. A sign on the front of the building matched that listed on the New Zealand High Commission to Vanuatu's website. French news agency AFP reported it had verified the video as legitimate. Another video showed a building on the city's main street had partially collapsed and crushed vehicles underneath, ABC News reported. An image posted to...

This handout image released by EYOS Expeditions on 19January 19, 2024, shows an aerial view of the A23a iceberg in the waters of The Southern Ocean off Antarctica on January 14. Photo: IAN STRACHAN / EYOS / AFP The world's largest iceberg is on the move again, drifting through the Southern Ocean after months stuck spinning on the same spot, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have said. Spanning an area of 3672 square kilometres when measured in August - slightly bigger than Rhode Island - the A23a iceberg has been carefully tracked by scientists ever since it calved from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in 1986. It remained grounded on the Antarctic's Weddell Sea floor for more than 30 years, probably until it shrank just enough to loosen its grip on the seafloor. Then, the ...