While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 14
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi attend a meeting in Nusa Dua.
PHOTO: AFP
Top US, China diplomats weigh first meeting since balloon drama
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is considering a meeting with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference, in what would be their first face-to-face talks after the United States shot down flying objects, sources told Reuters.
Earlier this month, Blinken postponed a planned trip to Beijing due to what the United States said was the unacceptable violation of its sovereignty and airspace by a Chinese surveillance balloon later downed off the coast of South Carolina.
The balloon flight caused outrage in Washington, with politicians criticising the US military and US President Joe Biden for failing to shoot it down when it first entered US airspace.
Excavators start removing debris in Turkish region hit by earthquake
Excavators began removing debris from an urban area in Turkey’s southern Hatay province that was devastated by last week’s massive earthquake, drone footage showed on Monday, as the operation to find survivors started drawing to a close.
Several large hydraulic excavators, near the city of Antakya, scraped at piles of masonry or knocked down the tops of teetering concrete buildings, footage showed, with clouds of dust rising from the rubble as slabs of concrete fell.
Workers in high-visibility jackets dotted the desolate expanse of what was once a residential area, while a few clusters of onlookers watched from a safe distance.
Three people killed, nine wounded in Myanmar bomb blast
Three people were killed and nine wounded in a bomb blast at a railway station in southern Myanmar on Monday, the junta and local media said.
The blast hit a station at Nyaunglaybin township in Bago region around 150 kilometres north of commercial hub Yangon at around 12:20 pm local time (0550 GMT), the junta’s information team said in a statement.
It released pictures showing debris and roof tiles littering a platform.
New Zealand declares National State of Emergency due to Cyclone Gabrielle
The New Zealand government has declared a National State of Emergency for just the third time in history as Cyclone Gabrielle causes wide spread flooding, landslides and huge ocean swells across the North Island.
Kieran McAnulty, the minister for Emergency Management, said in a statement on Tuesday that widespread damage caused by this cyclone means a National declaration was needed to support those impacted.
“This is an unprecedented weather event that is having major impacts across much of the North Island,” said McAnulty.
Football: Uefa ‘responsible’ for Paris Champions League final chaos, says report
Uefa itself bears “primary responsibility” for failures which “almost led to disaster” at the 2022 Champions League final in Paris between Liverpool and Real Madrid, a report commissioned by the European football body said Monday.
The report also claimed the policing model was influenced by a view of Liverpool based on the deadly 1989 Hillsborough disaster on incorrect assumptions that Liverpool supporters were a threat to public order.
The report said that the panel “has concluded that Uefa, as event owner, bears primary responsibility for failures which almost led to disaster.”
