Politics

  Seoul/ AFP North Korea may have produced an additinal six or more nuclear weapons over the past 18 months, possibly bringing its total arsenal to more than 21 bombs, a US think tank said. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) based the estimates on the amounts of weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium the North is believed ...

  Pretoria / AFP A sobbing Oscar Pistorius walked hesitantly on his stumps around court Wednesday in a dramatic demonstration of his disability ahead of his sentencing for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Wearing shorts, the double-amputee removed his prosthetic limbs at the request of his lawyer Barry Roux as he made a final plea for Pistorius, who faces 15 ...

  Tokyo / AFP A Chinese spy ship entered Japan’s territorial waters on Wednesday, Tokyo officials said, less than a week after another of the rival’s naval vessels sailed near islands at the centre of a sovereignty dispute. Concerns over China’s rising military presence in Asian waters have sparked concerns in Japan, which administers islands in the East China Sea ...

  Geneva / AFP The number of unaccompanied children making the notoriously dangerous Mediterranean crossing aboard unseaworthy boats has more than doubled this year, the UN children’s agency said in a new report on Tuesday. Entitled “Danger every step of the way”, the UNICEF report said nine out of every 10 children arriving in Italy were unaccompanied minors, noting that more ...

  Thessaloniki / AFP Greek police on Tuesday cleared two more improvised migrant camps near its border with Macedonia, moving occupants to state-run facilities, officials said. Police in Greece’s second largest city Thessaloniki said the operation was ongoing in the makeshift camps, which had formed around a highway motel and a nearby petrol station. Many of the migrants are from ...

  ISTANBUL / AP The European Union’s envoy to Turkey has resigned less than a year into the job, according to his office. The EU delegation in Ankara confirmed that Hansjoerg Haber was leaving his post, without giving any reason. Turkey was Haber’s first assignment as a German diplomat, between 1993 and 1996. He returned as European Union ambassador to ...

  YANGON / AP An official says a military helicopter has crashed in the jungle in northern Myanmar, killing three officers on board. The aircraft went down Tuesday in the jungle near Daik U town in Bago division, some 150 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Yangon. Khin Lay Si, an official in the Daik U administration office, says the rescue ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a long-dormant Arab peace initiative with the Palestinians that he has spoken of reviving must be changed before Israel can support it. Netanyahu made the comments to members of his Likud party, Israeli media reported, after facing pressure from right-wing members of his cabinet over his recent comments on the Arab ...

  Dhaka / AFP Bangladeshi clerics said they have issued a fatwa against the killings of minorities and secular campaigners in the mainly Muslim country, where police have arrested over 10,000 people in a crackdown on militancy. Nearly 50 people have been killed over the last three years in a wave of gruesome attacks targeting Hindus, Christians, Sufi Muslims and ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine authorities on Tuesday confirmed that extremist guerrillas had beheaded a second Canadian hostage, as they defended their inability to save him despite months of pursuit. ” We strongly condemn the brutal and senseless murder of MrRobert Hall, a Canadian national, after being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu for the past nine ...