More than 1,000 dead after strong Morocco earthquake

Summary

1. More than 1,000 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck central Morocco, according to the country’s interior ministry
2. The quake – measuring magnitude 6.8 – sent people rushing into the streets in Marrakesh and other cities
3. Many of the deaths were said to be in hard-to-reach mountain areas
4. The quake struck just after 23:00 local time, at a relatively shallow depth of 71km (44 miles) south-west of Marrakesh, according to the US Geological Survey
5. Dramatic video footage shows damaged buildings and rubble-strewn streets

‘The toll is linked to the fact that we have infrastructure issues’

Dina Anwar, a reporter for World News Morocco, was in the country’s capital, Rabat, when the earthquake hit.

“We were lucky enough in Rabat to be evacuated immediately; unfortunately, it was not the same for other cities. We didn’t know what to do, we only knew that we shouldn’t be in our houses,” she recalls about last night.

She says people around her were panicking, but as a journalist, she was also trying to keep up with what was happening as well as trying to reach out to her loved ones in Agadir, her hometown.

North Korea marks 75 years of Kim dynasty rule

The Kim clan has ruled North Korea since the country was established in 1948. Some analysts say Kim Jong Un’s young daughter could be next in line, but others remain skeptical.

When Kim Jong Un steps out onto the balcony of the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang on Saturday to greet the crowd and mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of North Korea, much attention will be focused on the people around him.

China and Russia have both confirmed that representatives of their governments will attend the celebrations and the scheduled military parade.

But even more interesting for North Korea analysts would be the presence or the absence of Kim Ju Ae, the North Korean leader’s 11-year-old daughter.

Kim Ju Ae first appeared in public at a missile launch in November 2022. Since then, she has accompanied her father on many occasions.

Rescues underway in Greek towns cut off by floods

Firefighters backed by the army were rescuing hundreds of people Saturday in villages in central Greece blocked off by floods that have claimed at least 10 lives.

“More than 2,850 people have been rescued since the beginning of the bad weather,” fire department spokesman Yannis Artopios told broadcaster Mega on Saturday.

“There are still many people in the villages around Karditsa, Palamas and toward Trikala. They are not missing, they are trapped,” he said, adding that six people were officially missing.

Several houses remain under water in the village of Palamas and rescue workers were trying to reach marooned people, an AFP journalist said.

“It was truly hellish,” said 54-year-old Palamas resident Eleni Patouli.

“We were stick without help or information for hours. The (emergency services) 112 message to evacuate arrived just as we were facing up to the flooding and we had no means of escape,” she told AFP.

Pro-China Muizzu leads closely watched Maldives election: Partial results

Opposition candidate takes lead over incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in election closely watched by India and China.

Vote counting is under way in Maldives’s presidential election, with partial results showing the pro-China mayor of the island nation’s capital, Mohamed Muizzu, taking a lead over incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

The outcome of Saturday’s election could determine the battle for influence between India and China in the popular Indian Ocean honeymoon destination.

Fukushima water discharge unlikely to impact Tokyo-Seoul ties: expert

By Ko Hirano

The release into the Pacific Ocean of treated radioactive water from a crippled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan is unlikely to have a major impact on Tokyo-Seoul relations and become a key issue in next spring’s general election in South Korea, according to a South Korean scholar.

Polls in South Korea show the main opposition Democratic Party’s attacks on President Yoon Suk Yeol for giving a tacit nod to the water discharge have not won broad public support, partly due to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s conclusion that the Japanese action complies with global safety standards.

“The party is attacking Japan and the Yoon administration with the water discharge but apparently using it as a political issue, rather than a scientifically verified issue — a tactic China is employing,” Park Jung Jin, a professor of international relations at Tsuda University in Tokyo, said in a recent interview.

‘MeToo’ for mothers: Australian inquiry hears troubling accounts of birth trauma

Sitting before a parliamentary panel in a bare-walled function room of a hotel on the southeastern Australian coast, Naomi Bowden broke down several times as she recounted a series of distressing events after her daughter Stella’s stillbirth in 2009.