Images from U2 spy planes showed that the Chinese balloon that flew over the United States last week was unmistakably equipped for collecting intelligence and not weather data, a US official said Thursday.. Detailed images taken by high-altitude U2s showed the balloon's payload equipment "was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons," the senior State Department official said.
Legendary American pop composer, songwriter and pianist Burt Bacharach, whose prolific output provided a chart-topping playlist for the 1960s and 1970s with hits like "I Say a Little Prayer," has died in Los Angeles at the age of 94.. Bacharach -- who died on Wednesday of natural causes, his publicist Tina Brausman told AFP -- was known for romantic and melancholic ballads that blurred the line between jazz and pop, and regularly topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Hopes faded Thursday of finding more survivors after the earthquake that killed nearly 20,000 people in Turkey and Syria, as the first UN aid reached Syrian rebel-held zones.. But in a potentially life-saving development, an aid convoy reached rebel-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, the first since the quake, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing told AFP. - Freezing temperatures - The aid passage through the crossing is the only way UN assistance can reach civilians without going through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.
Legendary American pop composer Burt Bacharach, whose prolific output provided a chart-topping playlist for the 1960s and 70s with hits like "I Say a Little Prayer," has died in Los Angeles aged 94, US media said Thursday.. Bacharach, who died on Wednesday of natural causes, was known for romantic and melancholic ballads crossing the border between jazz and pop, and regularly topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
It was a moment encapsulating the unspeakable pain of the Turkish earthquake: a father holding his 15-year-old's hand, the only thing visible after her body was crushed by concrete.. A photographer for 40 years, including 15 with AFP, Altan knew that the photograph represented Turkey's pain.
Hailed as a European hero on his arrival in Brussels, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky urged EU leaders on Thursday to accelerate the promised delivery of modern long-range weapons. . After Wednesday's visits to London and Paris to lobby Britain, France and Germany for modern fighter jets and long-range missiles, Zelensky flew on to Brussels to address EU leaders and the European parliament.
The Church of England's governing body on Thursday endorsed plans to let priests offer blessings to same-sex couples, after hours of acrimonious debate highlighted deep Anglican divisions on the issue.. Unveiled last month after nearly six years of internal debate, the plans will not change rules banning Anglican priests from officiating at weddings of same-sex couples.
The troubled business empire of Indian tycoon Gautam Adani has links to foreign firms in a broad range of sectors including banking, energy and food.. - Financial partners - The Adani empire is made up of several listed firms, the main one being Adani Enterprises Limited.
Freezing temperatures deepened the misery Thursday for survivors of a massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria that killed more than 16,000 people, as rescuers raced to save countless people still trapped under rubble.. The White Helmets, leading efforts to rescue people buried under rubble in rebel-held areas of Syria, have appealed for international help in their "race against time".
Twitter was blocked for at least 12 hours on major Turkish mobile providers in an outage that ended early Thursday, following a flurry of online criticism of the government's response to this week's deadly earthquake.. Online monitor netblocks.org on Wednesday showed Twitter becoming throttled and then completely blocked across all major cell phone providers in the country.
