Category: News

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images(KABUL, Afghanistan) — An explosion at a wedding hall in the city of Kabul has killed 63 people and wounded 182, according Nasrat Rahimi, spokesperson for the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior Affairs. The blast happened at the Dubai City Wedding Hall in western Kabul as it was packed with revelers enjoying a wedding, many of whom were women and children. The cause of the explosion remains unknown, but it took place in a part of Kabul where many people of the Shiite Hazara community call home. The Islamic…

MicroStockHub/iStock(NEW YORK) — North Korea fired two short-range projectiles into the Sea of Japan early Friday morning according to South Korea’s military, marking North Korea’s sixth round of short-range missile testing in less than a month. The launch began just hours after North Korea rejected further dialogue with Seoul, citing its frustration with joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises in the region. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles were launched into the Sea of Japan at around 8:01 and 8:16 a.m. local time, and both flew about 143…

fpdress/iStock(WASHINGTON) — The Greenland Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to reports that President Donald Trump had talked about the possibility of buying the territory. “Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism,” the ministry’s account tweeted Thursday morning. “We’re open for business, not for sale.”   #Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for…

LewisTsePuiLung/iStock(HONG KONG) — Thousands of people stood elbow to elbow chanting “Power to the People!” on a humid night in central Hong Kong on Friday, as anti-government protests that began here in early June and led to a shutdown of the city’s busy international airport this week showed no signs of slowing down. In the first of several protests planned for this weekend, demonstrators chanted “Stand with Hong Hong,” a message they said was directed at the United States and the United Kingdom, the city’s former colonial power which passed…

Koonyongyut/iStock(NEW YORK) — The Nepalese government proposed new requirements for climbers and guides to get permits to climb Mount Everest, following a deadly season on the world’s highest mountain. The proposed rules include requiring a climber to have reached the summit of at least one peak above 21,325 feet (6,500 meters), and requiring a guide company to have at least three years experience organizing high-altitude climbs and charging a minimum to clients to avoid low-budget operations getting to the mountain. “I think they’re all good proposed changes and hopefully will…

rommma/iStock(NEW YORK) — Scorching temperatures this year broke records, including July becoming the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, scientists said Thursday. The average global temperature in July was 1.71 degrees above the 20th century average of 60.4 degrees, the hottest temperature that month since scientists began keeping track 140 years ago, according to meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The previous hottest month on record was July 2016. The period from January through July was also the second-hottest year to date on record, tying with 2017.…