World News

UPDATED: 6:54am - Irma weakened slightly Friday but remained a dangerous and deadly hurricane taking direct aim at Florida, threatening to march along the peninsula’s spine and deliver a blow the state hasn’t seen in more than a decade.

UPDATED: 6:43am - One of the most powerful earthquakes ever to strike Mexico has hit off its southern Pacific coast. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake hit off Chiapas state near the Guatemalan border with a magnitude of 8.1.

UPDATED: 7:14am - Indonesia's Ambassador to Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand ,Tantowi Yahya, says protesters supporting West Papua independence should have sought a government permit of approval to stage the action.

UPDATED: 6:05am - The US National Hurricane Center said Irma is the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean and one of the five most forceful storms to hit the Atlantic basin in 82 years.

UPDATED: 5:39am - Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he wasn’t sure whether Indian Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat was speaking for himself or for the Indian government.

UPDATED: 5:26am - The Supreme Court had disqualified Sharif for not declaring a source of income, and had ordered the National Accountability Bureau to instigate a criminal investigation into him, his family and Ishaq Dar.

UPDATED: 7:21am - A political scientist says a power vacuum within the Pacific Islands Forum has allowed Samoa's prime minister to emerge as the region's dominant leader.

UPDATED: 6:40am - US authorities are urging residents to prepare for a "record-breaking" hurricane headed toward Florida as the storm known as Irma brings destruction to the Caribbean.

UPDATED: 6:32am - Hurricane Irma has destroyed buildings and caused major flooding on several French island territories in the Caribbean.

UPDATED: 6:10am - Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his entourage of India’s top diplomats took off from a sunny Xiamen on Tuesday afternoon a fairly satisfied lot after the BRICS summit.