News in Brief-(2024-03-16)

FE Team | Published: March 15, 2024 21:54:40

Yemen's Houthis reported to have
a hypersonic missile
DUBAI, UAE, Mar 15: Yemen's Houthis claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia's state media reported Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. — Arab News
Mother and three children die
in Italy home fire
ROME, Mar 15: A woman and her three young children died in a fire that ravaged their apartment in the northern Italian city of Bologna overnight, officials said on Friday. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that he was "deeply saddened" by the deaths of the woman and her children, reported to be two-year-old twins, a girl and a boy, and a daughter aged six. Firefighters were called around 1:00am to the fourth-floor flat, after a neighbour living above them raised the alarm, media reports said. Their mother, Stefania Alexandra Nistor, 32, of Romanian origin, died on her way to hospital. — AFP
Vice-President Kamala Harris tours abortion clinic in historic first
WASHINGTON, Mar 15: Kamala Harris has visited a Minnesota abortion clinic, the first time a US vice-president, or president, has ever visited such a facility, according to the White House. She toured the Planned Parenthood site with its chief medical officer. Speaking at the clinic, Ms Harris said she was there because the US was facing a "very serious health crisis". Her fellow Democrats are seeking to make abortion one of the defining issues of November's US elections. "Right now, in our country, we are facing a very serious health crisis," Ms Harris said on Thursday at the facility in St Paul. — BBC
Japan suspends Fukushima water release after quake as precaution
TOKYO, Mar 15: The release of wastewater from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant was suspended on Friday following an earthquake, its operator said while stressing that the move was precautionary. A 5.8-magnitude jolt struck off the coast of the northeastern Fukushima region, home to the plant wrecked by a tsunami in 2011, at 00:14 am Friday (1514 GMT Thursday), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. "We have confirmed remotely that there were no abnormalities on ALPS treated water dilution/discharge facility, etc.," — AFP
SpaceX launches powerful Starship for third time into space
WASHINGTON, Mar 15: Elon Musk's SpaceX has successfully carried out the longest test flight of its massive Starship rocket, but it disintegrated on its return to Earth. The module was destroyed while approaching its landing point in the Indian Ocean. The test flight was the third for Musk and SpaceX, and its Starship rocket travelled halfway around the Earth before it re-entered the atmosphere. — Al Jazeera