The News Journal

A US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Friday for the first time in about four years, where it will join other military vessels in a show of force intended to send a message to North Korea. USS Ronald Reagan and ships from its accompanying strike group docked at a naval base in the southern port city of Busan ahead of joint drills with South Korean forces. Its arrival marks the most significant deployment yet under a new push to have more US "strategic assets" operate in the area to deter North Korea. Strike group commander Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly told reporters aboard the ship that the visit was designed to build allied relations and boost interoperability between the navies. "We are leaving messaging to diplomats," he said, when asked about any signal to North Korea, but said that joint drills would ensure the allies were able to respond to all threats. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/asia/2022/09/23/us-aircraft-carrier-arrives-i...

The official platinum jubilee portrait of Queen Elizabeth II has been unveiled to mark the start of the British celebrations of her 70-year reign. The monarch, 96, looks contented sitting on a cushioned window seat in her Windsor Castle home, with the historic residence’s famous Round Tower visible in the distance. With her hands resting on her lap and her hair curled in its familiar style, the queen is dressed in a dusky, dove-blue Angela Kelly coat made of wool Charmelaine. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world

Iran’s seizure of two Greek-flagged oil tankers in Gulf waters is “a serious violation of international law”, France’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, calling for the immediate release of the ships and their crews. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the Greek tankers on Friday, days after Athens confirmed it would deliver to Washington Iranian oil it had seized from a Russian tanker. “We call on Iran to immediately release the crews and vessels,” a French foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement. Read More : https://www.khaleejtimes.com/world/france-denounces-irans-seizure-of-two-greek-tankers

A total lunar eclipse graced the night sky on Sunday and Monday, providing longer than usual thrills for stargazers across North and South America. The Moon was seen bathed in the reflected red and orange colours of Earth’s sunsets and sunrises for about 90 minutes. It was the first blood Moon in a year and with it falling on May's full moon, earned itself the "Super Flower Blood Moon" moniker among astronomers. Observers in the eastern half of North America and all of Central and South America had prime seats for the show. Partial stages of the eclipse were visible in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Buffalo residents held vigils on Sunday after the deadly shooting at a supermarket by a gunman in a “racist” rampage resulted in 10 dead. The suspected gunman, identified as Payton Gendron, was arraigned late Saturday on a single count of first-degree murder and held without bail, the Erie County district attorney's office said. He pleaded not guilty. “The evidence that we have uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime,” Buffalo police commissioner, Joseph Gramaglia, said. Mr Gramaglia told reporters the 18-year-old suspect did “reconnaissance” on the predominantly black area surrounding Tops Friendly Market and drove there from his home town of Conklin, more than 200 miles away. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres sharply condemned the shooting deaths of 10 people at a grocery store in New York State, his spokesman said on Sunday. “The Secretary General was appalled by the killing of 10 people in a vile act of racist violent extremism in Buffal...

Mali on Sunday announced that it will quit the multinational military force in West Africa's sub-Sahara region, after it was blocked from assuming the presidency of the group. The country's military government blamed a lack of progress in the fight against the Islamists and the failure to hold recent meetings in Mali. “The government of Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel Force," including the joint force fighting the extremists, Bamako announced. “The opposition of some G5 Sahel member states to Mali's presidency is linked to manoeuvres by a state outside the region aiming desperately to isolate Mali,” it added, without naming the country. The G5 Sahel force, which includes troops from Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, was set up in 2017 to counter Islamist extremists who have swept across the region in recent years, killing thousands of people and forcing millions to flee their homes. Read More : https://www.thenationa...

A Malaysian man convicted of drug trafficking has been executed in Singapore despite his mother's claims he had an intellectual disability. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for more than 10 years for trafficking 44 grams of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world's toughest drugs laws. His lawyers had filed multiple appeals against his execution, saying he was intellectually disabled. His brother Navin Kumar, 22, told Reuters the execution had been carried out. He said the body would be sent back to Malaysia for a funeral in the town of Ipoh. A Singapore court on Tuesday turned down a legal challenge put forward by Nagaenthran's mother, clearing the way for the execution by hanging. At the end of the hearing, Nagaenthran and his family reached through a gap in a glass screen to grasp each others' hands tightly as they wept. His cries of "ma" could be heard around the courtroom, Reuters said. About 300 people held a candlelight vig...

 At least 11 devotees – including two children – were killed and more than a dozen injured, after being electrocuted during a procession at a temple in India's southern Tamil Nadu state. Police said the incident occurred early on Wednesday when a temple palanquin, or temple car, came in contact with a high-voltage line at Appar Swami temple in Kalimedu in Thanjavur district. Hundreds of devotees were part of the religious procession at the time of the accident. More than a dozen people were riding the chariot when it came into contact with an overhead high-voltage power line. Three people are in serious condition with severe burn injuries, police said. Television footage showed the aftermath of the accident, with the palanquin completely scorched from the incident. “Eleven people have been killed and 16 people are injured … the palanquin came into contact with high tension wire at 3am last night. The people have burn injuries,” Dinesh Ponraj Oliver, district collector, told The Nat...

 India’s Kerala High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a Christian father over his daughter’s marriage to a Muslim. Joisna Mary Joseph, 26, a nurse who works in Saudi Arabia, married Shejin M, a Communist Party of India worker from Alappuzha, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, without her parents' approval, on April 12. The marriage created a storm in the coastal state after the bride's relatives accused Mr Shejin of abducting Ms Joseph. But she denied this, saying: “I married the person I loved, so I wanted to go with him.” Her father had approached police with a complaint of abduction. After failing to get help from officers, he filed a habeas corpus petition in the court, alleging his daughter had been taken away against her will and illegally detained. Habeas corpus is a recourse in law that orders a person who has detained another person to produce them before the court. The high court summoned Ms Joseph on Tuesday and dismissed the petition after she said she h...

 Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 341 people in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, including the city of Durban, with more rainstorms expected in the coming days. Officials expect the death toll to rise as scores of people, including whole families, are still missing. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday visited victims of the devastating east coast floods. “You are battling one of the biggest incidents we have seen and we thought this only happens in other countries, like Mozambique or Zimbabwe,” Mr Ramaphosa told victims. The damage to Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area is estimated at $52 million, eThekwini Mayor Mxolosi Kaunda said on Thursday. Officials temporarily closed all schools in the province, after at least 18 pupils and one teacher from different schools died in the floods, Education Minister Angie Motshekga said. The persistent rains have wreaked havoc in the province, destroying homes, collapsing buildings ...

 Somalia's newly elected politicians were sworn in after a long-delayed voting process marred by a power struggle between the country's president and the prime minister. The formation of Somalia's 11th parliament is the next step on the road towards selecting a new president for the nation, a process that is more than a year behind schedule. Of the 275 parliamentarians, 250 took their oaths of office on Thursday alongside 40 out of 54 senators at the African Union military base in the capital, Mogadishu. Dozens more are yet to be selected and sworn in. The legislators will then elect speakers and deputies for both parliamentary chambers before they sit to choose a new president. The rivalry between President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo, and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble has continually delayed the elections and stoked fears of further instability in Somalia, which is also battling a decade-long insurgency and the threat of famine. Elections had...

 Pope Francis apologised on Friday for abuse committed at church-run residential schools in Canada, telling Indigenous delegations at the Vatican it caused him "pain and shame". "I ask for God's forgiveness for the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church," he said, following meetings this week with survivors from the First Nations, Metis and Inuit aboriginal groups. After hearing "stories of suffering, deprivation, discriminatory treatment and various forms of abuse," Francis said he joined the Canadian bishops "in asking you for forgiveness". Indigenous leaders want the pope to make the apology on Canadian soil. Pope Francis apologised for abuse committed at church-run schools in Canada, telling Indigenous delegations at the Vatican it caused him 'pain and shame'.  The pontiff said he hoped to travel to Canada for the country's St Anne's Feast Day on July 26. "This year, I would like to be with you on ...