South Korean police plan to question a 56-year-old man on suspicion of starting at least one of the wildfires that recently devastated the country’s southern regions, killing 30 people and burning more than 119,000 acres of land. The North Gyeongsang provincial police department said the unidentified man may have used fire while clearing overgrown grass at a family grave on a hill in the southeastern town of Uiseong, one of the areas hardest hit by the wildfires. Police investigators examined the grave site on Monday morning and plan to question the man soon. The police department did not immediately say whether others...

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said it is “outraged” at the deaths of eight medics killed on duty in Rafah in southern Gaza. Their bodies were retrieved on Sunday after access was denied for a week. One medic is still missing. According to IFRC, the nine-person ambulance team came under heavy fire in al-Hashashin on 23 March. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said their staff’s bodies were discovered along with those of six members of Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence agency and one UN employee. They did not say who opened fire on...

Freezing rain brought down trees and power lines in Michigan and Wisconsin, cutting electricity for thousands of people Sunday in the upper Great Lakes region, while forecasters said severe weather was on its way to Tennessee. Winds topping 70 mph (112 kph) were possible for the middle of Tennessee, with a chance of tornadoes as well as hail as large as 2 inches (5 centimeters) Sunday night, the National Weather Service said. “Have your safe place cleaned out just in case,” forecasters said on social platform X. More than 400,000 power outages were reported in Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin. Churches that had...

The Israeli military on Monday issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its air and ground war against the Hamas militant group earlier this month. Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, last May, leaving large parts of it in ruins. Israeli forces seized a strategic buffer zone along the border and did not withdraw from it as called for in the ceasefire agreement. Israel said it needed to maintain a presence there to prevent weapons smuggling. ___AP

Primark boss Paul Marchant has resigned following an allegation by a woman about “his behaviour towards her in a social environment”. Associated British Foods (ABF), which owns Primark, said following an investigation by external lawyers, Mr Marchant “acknowledged his error of judgement and accepts that his actions fell below the standards expected” by the business. Mr Marchant co-operated with the investigation and apologised to the individual, said ABF. George Weston, chief executive of ABF, said: “I am immensely disappointed. Colleagues and others must be treated with respect and dignity. Our culture has to be, and is, bigger than any one...

The death toll from the earthquake that hit Myanmar has risen to more than 1,700 as more bodies have been pulled from the rubble, the country’s military-led government said Monday. Government spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told state-run MRTV that another 3,400 have been injured and more than 300 were missing. The military had previously reported 1,644 dead but did not provide specific figures in its update. The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit at midday Friday, causing widespread damage, including in the capital Naypitaw and the second largest city, Mandalay. It was the time of Friday prayers for the country’s Muslim minority during the...

 Maxim Naumov came to a stop in the middle of the ice, looked up at the sky and patted his heart. Then he mouthed a few words, in Russian, to his parents: “This is for you guys. You guys are with me. I love you both.” Former world pairs champions Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova died in January when their plane collided with a military helicopter on approach to Washington, D.C., and fell into the icy Potomac River. A total of 67 people were killed, including more than two dozen who were returning from a development camp following the U.S. figure skating championships...

The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday nominated former Navy commander Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit as its new domestic security chief. This is coming after the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar over a crisis of confidence, the P.M disclosed that he lost faith in his former Security Chief over Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and disagreements over ceasefire negotiations. Netanyahu moved to fire Bar earlier in the month sparked an uproar in Israel. The dismissal came at a time Bar and the agency were investigating links between the Gulf state of Qatar and close advisers to...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Japan on Sunday an “indispensable partner” in deterring growing Chinese assertiveness in the region and announced upgrading the U.S. military command in Japan to a new “war-fighting headquarters.” Hegseth, who is on his first Asia trip with Japan as his second stop, also stressed the need for both countries to do more to accelerate the strengthening of their military capability as the region faces China’s assertive military actions and a possible Taiwan emergency. “Japan is our indispensable partner in deterring Communist Chinese military aggression,” Hegseth said at the beginning of his talks with Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in Tokyo. “The U.S....