Vladivostok, Aug 7 (IANS) The aviation alert code for Klyuchevskoy Volcano in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East has been raised from orange to red following intensified eruptive activity, local authorities said on Thursday.In a statement published on its Telegram channel, the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences said a summit explosive-effusive eruption is currently…

Seoul, Aug 7 (IANS) South Korea’s justice ministry on Thursday was set to review a list of people to be granted special pardons on the occasion of Liberation Day next week, with all eyes on whether former minor party leader Cho Kuk will be included.Cho, who had led the minor Rebuilding Korea Party, is currently serving a two-year prison term after the Supreme Court finalised his sentence in December on charges of academic fraud involving his children and unlawful interference with a government i…

New York, Aug 7 (IANS) US President Donald Trump said that Washington and Moscow have made a “lot of progress” in working towards ending the Ukraine War and speculated the punitive tariff he imposed on India for buying Russian oil may have something to do with it. “We put a 50 per cent tariff on India,” he said on Wednesday (local time), “I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but we’ve had very productive talks today” (with Russia).He announced a 25 per cent tariff on India in his gen…

Paris, Aug 7 (IANS) France is grappling with its largest wildfire in years, which erupted in the southern Mediterranean region near Spain, killing one person and injuring several others as it continues to spread rapidly. Authorities confirmed the blaze began Tuesday in the village of Ribaute, located in the Aude department, and has since consumed over 16,000 hectares of vegetation — an area larger than the city of Paris, according to local media reports.The inferno, described by officials as “a…

Seoul, Aug 6 (IANS) A special counsel team plans to question former South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun next week over his alleged role in the botched martial law episode, judicial sources said Wednesday.Special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk’s team will visit a detention facility in eastern Seoul, where Kim is being held in custody, at around 2 p.m. Monday to question him as a witness as part of an investigation into jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration late last year…

New Delhi, Aug 6 (IANS) External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar met a delegation of young political leaders from Nepal in New Delhi on Wednesday as the two sides discussed close cooperation and deep people-to-people ties between both nations. In a post on X, Jaishankar wrote, “Pleased to interact with a delegation of young political leaders from Nepal, on a visit to India. Discussed our close cooperation and deep people to people linkages.”On Tuesday, Nepal’s Embassy in India welcomed the l…

Washington/New York, Aug 6 (IANS) Hours after his 24-hour deadline passed, US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday a punitive 25 per cent tariff on India for buying Russian oil, which would raise the total tariffs on India to 50 per cent. He is singling out India for the additional tariff, even though China, Turkey, and other countries also buy Russian oil.India said it was extremely “extremely unfortunate” that the US was imposing “additional tariffs on India for actions that several o…

Phnom Penh, Aug 6 (IANS) A six-year-old girl from southern Cambodia’s Takeo province has been confirmed for H5N1 human avian influenza, bringing the number of cases to 15 so far this year, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Wednesday.”A laboratory result from the National Institute of Public Health showed on August 5 that the girl was positive for H5N1 virus,” the statement said.”The patient has the symptoms of fever, cough, fatigue, and breathing difficulty, and she is currently bein…

Wellington, Aug 6 (IANS) New Zealand has pledged support to Samoa amid a severe dengue outbreak that has so far claimed the lives of five Samoan children.Acknowledging the close ties between the two nations, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Wednesday that the New Zealand government will dispatch a small team to Apia, the Samoan capital, to provide clinical assistance and work with Samoan authorities on further medical support requirements.Additionally, New Zealand will provide…

Beijing, Aug 6 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit to be held in Tianjin City from August 31-September 1, reports cited on Wednesday. This will be PM Modi’s first visit to China since the Galwan clash in 2020, which severely strained bilateral ties. PM Modi had earlier travelled to China in 2019. He also held a meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Russia’s Kazan…