Vietnamese brace for Typhoon Vamco
HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnamese authorities Saturday ordered some 460,000 people in the country's central region to be ready for evacuation ahead of Typhoon Vamco, after the storm killed at least 42 people and left 20 others missing in the Philippines, state television reported.
The typhoon, which is forecast to hit Vietnam today, could pack winds of up to 93 mph as it approaches the country's already flood-battered central coast, according to the national weather agency.
Video aired by national television broadcaster VTV showed high waves slamming into Ly Son island, located about 15 miles from shore, on Saturday afternoon. About 1,000 people on the island who live by the sea were moved to shelters farther inland.
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Local authorities in other central provinces have been reinforcing sea dikes, and evacuating elderly people and children to safe buildings to avoid casualties from the typhoon, VTV said.
The country has also shut down five airports and suspended train operations throughout the region, the broadcaster reported.
Protests against Netanyahu continue
JERUSALEM -- Several thousand protesters gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday night in what has become a weekly demonstration calling for the Israeli leader to resign.
The protesters have been demonstrating for some five months, saying Netanyahu is unfit to lead while he is on trial for corruption charges and because of his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Many protesters held Israeli flags or black or pink flags, which the grassroots movements behind the demonstrations have adopted as symbols. With the weather cooling down ahead of the rainy winter season, turnout Saturday appeared to be lower than in recent weeks.
Smaller demonstrations also were reported in Tel Aviv, outside Netanyahu's vacation home in the upscale coastal town of Caesarea and locations across the country.
Netanyahu dismisses the protesters as "anarchists" and "leftists."
Israel moved quickly to stop the coronavirus last spring, sealing its borders and imposing a lockdown that appeared to bring the virus under control. But the reopening of the economy was mismanaged, and the virus quickly returned, forcing a second lockdown in September.
The country is now slowly reopening sectors of the economy as it proceeds cautiously with an exit plan.
U.S. IDs 5 soldiers killed in Egypt crash
WASHINGTON -- The Department of the Army on Saturday identified the five American soldiers killed in a helicopter crash last week while on a peacekeeping mission in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
The soldiers were part of an international force that monitors the 4-decade-old Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement. The Multinational Force and Observers said the soldiers were on a routine mission when the Black Hawk helicopter crashed Thursday near Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular Egyptian resort on the Red Sea.
A French peacekeeper and Czech officer also were killed, and a sixth American on the helicopter was injured.
The Army said the cause of the crash is still under investigation. On the day of the crash, the Multinational Force and Observers said at that point there were no signs of an attack and it appeared to have been an accident.
The Army identified the dead as Capt. Seth Vernon Vandekamp, 31, from Katy, Texas; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dallas Gearld Garza, 34, from Fayetteville, N.C.; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Marwan Sameh Ghabour, 27, from Marlborough, Mass.; Staff Sgt. Kyle Robert McKee, 35, from Painesville, Ohio; and Sgt. Jeremy Cain Sherman, 23, from Watseka, Ill.
Missing U.S. journalist focus of talks
BEIRUT -- A top Lebanese security official said Saturday that he visited Syria for two days to speak with officials there about American journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing in the war-torn country since 2012.
Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim did not give further details in an interview with the local Al-Jadeed television channel, but his comments came two weeks after his return from Washington where he is believed to have discussed Tice's case with U.S. officials.
"After my visit to Washington, I went to Syria for two days and discussions over this matter are continuing and will continue," Ibrahim said, referring to Tice's disappearance.
Tice of Houston, Texas, disappeared at a checkpoint in the contested western Damascus suburb of Daraya on Aug. 14, 2012. A video released a month later showed him blindfolded and held by armed men. He has not been heard from since.
Tice is a former U.S. Marine who has reported for The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS and other outlets, and disappeared shortly after his 31st birthday.
Ibrahim in recent years has helped to facilitate the release of a U.S. citizen held in Syria, and a Lebanese-American who was held in Iran.