Seoul clarifies minister's nuclear test warning
Alastair Beach sees gunfire exchanged as armed gang descends on funeral of five Christians killed in recent sectarian clashes
April 8, 2013 -- Updated 0325 GMT (1125 HKT)
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea is showing signs it could be preparing to carry out a new nuclear test, South Korea's Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said Monday, according to the semi-official South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Ryoo made the comment in response to a South Korean lawmaker who cited unspecified reports suggesting there had been an increase in activity near the site of the North's three previous underground nuclear tests, Yonhap reported.
The South Korean government had said Sunday that it believesNorth Korea may test a missile about April 10, citing as an indicator Pyongyang's push for workers to leave the Kaesong Industrial Complex by then.
Coptic Christians under siege as mob attacks Cairo cathedral
Alastair Beach sees gunfire exchanged as armed gang descends on funeral of five Christians killed in recent sectarian clashes
Hundreds of Christians were under siege inside Cairo’s Coptic cathedral last night as security forces and local residents, some armed with handguns, launched a prolonged and unprecedented attack on the seat of Egypt’s ancient Church.
At least one person was killed and at least 84 injured as Christians inside the walled St Mark’s cathedral compound came under a frenzied assault from their assailants in the main road outside.
The fighting erupted after a mass funeral for five Copts who were killed during violent clashes in a north Egyptian town on Saturday. A Muslim man also died in the clashes, which happened after an Islamic institute was daubed with offensive graffiti.
Ukraine frees Tymoshenko allies in bid for EU deal
Under pressure from EU on selective justice, president seeks to sign key deal with Brussels
Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovich has pardoned two allies of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, drawing cautious praise from the European Union and boosting Kiev’s chances of signing a key deal with Brussels this year.
Yuri Lutsenko, a former interior minister, and former environment minister Heorhiy Filipchuk were both convicted for abuse of office in cases which – like that of Ms Tymoshenko – the EU and United States called examples of selective justice being used to attack critics of Mr Yanukovich.
Mr Lutsenko, who had served more than half his four- year sentence, was freed following appeals to Mr Yanukovich by Pat Cox, the Irish former president of theEuropean Parliament, and former Polish president Alexander Kwasniewski.
Powerful aunt and uncle at head of Kim dynasty
April 8, 2013
Philip Sherwell
While Kim Jong-un's image-makers seek to portray the boyish leader as a tough guy with his finger on the nuclear trigger, it is thought to be his aunt and uncle who are pulling the strings in North Korea.
Kim Kyong-hui and her husband, Jang Sung-taek, both 66, are the Pyongyang power couple chosen by Kim Jong-il before he died in 2011 to help consolidate the authority of his son. Analysts believe it is no coincidence the duo were seen last weekend sitting on either side of their nephew at a central committee session of the Workers Party, where Mr Kim issued his latest defiant message to the world, pledging to maintain nuclear weapons as ''the nation's life treasure''.
Afghan soldiers enter a Taliban nest — without U.S. troops by their side
In TANGI VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN — When the first Afghan soldiers arrived at the mouth of the Tangi Valley last week, they saw a Taliban flag waving over a towering bluff. They had entered a sliver of their own country that did not belong to them, beginning one of the most daunting missions in the short history of the Afghan army.
They climbed to the rocky peak and plucked the enemy’s flag from the ground. That’s when the first makeshift bomb exploded, a booby trap that blew the men off their feet and threw a plume of dust and smoke and fire into the air.
8 April 2013 Last updated at 03:19 GMT
Unravelling the mystery of Pablo Neruda's death
The remains of Chile's Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda will be exhumed on Monday in a bid to determine the cause of his death after his assistant alleged he was murdered by Gen Augusto Pinochet's military regime, the BBC's Gideon Long reports from Isla Negra.
Pablo Neruda's bones are interred in the garden of Isla Negra, his beloved beach house on Chile's Pacific coast. He is buried next to his wife and muse, Matilde Urrutia.
The poet died aged 69 on 23 September 1973, just 12 days after Gen Pinochet's military coup.
His death certificate says he died of prostate cancer, a view widely accepted for nearly four decades.
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