North Korea nuclear: State claims first hydrogen bomb test
- 6 January 2016
- Asia
North Korea says it has successfully tested a miniaturised hydrogen bomb which, if confirmed, would be its fourth nuclear test since 2006.
It came after a 5.1 magnitude quake was detected close to its nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, indicating a test may have been conducted.
This is North Korea's first claim to have tested a hydrogen nuclear bomb - more powerful than an atomic bomb.
International experts have cast doubt over the North's nuclear capabilities.
Suspicion of an underground test was first raised after the US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the quake - detected at 10:00 Pyongyang time (01:30 GMT) - was in the north-east of the country, some 50km (30 miles) from Kilju city, near Punggye-ri.
Then in a surprise announcement, a newsreader on North Korean state TV said: "The republic's first hydrogen bomb test has been successfully performed at 10:00 am on January 6, 2016."
It could be days or weeks before independent tests are able to verify the claim.
Journalist Ruqia Hassan murdered by Isis after writing on life in Raqqa
Activists confirm 30-year-old was killed in September having been accused by Islamic State of spying for rival Syrian groups
Aisha Gani and Kareem Shaheen
Islamic State militants murdered a journalist who wrote about daily life in occupied Raqqa, having accused her of being a spy, activists have confirmed.
Ruqia Hassan, 30, was killed in September, but news of her death became widely known this week after Isis claimed on social media that she was still alive.
Writing under the pen name Nissan Ibrahim, Hassan’s posts described life for residents of Raqqa, Isis’s Syrian stronghold, and the frequent coalition airstrikes against the group.
Hassan studied philosophy at Aleppo University and later joined the opposition to the regime of Bashar al-Assad when the revolution began in Raqqa. She refused to leave after Isis entered the city.
Anti-government militia have 'increased by a third in the last year'
Activists believe the movement was inspired by an infamous stand-off in Nevada in 2014
The number of anti-government militias operating in the US has increased by more than a third in the last 12 months, according to an activist group.
As armed, anti-government protesters continue to hold a government facility at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon, and vow to be killed if necessary, activists said the number of militias now stood at 276, an increase of 37 per cent since 2014.
Heidi Beirich, director of the intelligence project of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors extremist groups in the US, said the actions in Oregon had come as no surprise.
The Case of the Murdered Goats: Exploring Germany's Far-Right Rumor Mill
By Matthias Bartsch and Anna ClaußAbsurd, unfounded reports about asylum seekers are circulating on German social media. They are part of a targeted misinformation campaign by right-wing extremists designed to instill fear and stoke anti-migrant sentiment. But where do the stories come from?
"Shameful!!!!" Four exclamation points punctuated a recent Facebook post, in which a user expressed outrage over an incident in the eastern German town of Lostau. Locals had accused refugees of plundering a petting zoo, slaughtering some goats and eating them around a campfire.
The story aimed directly at the heart of German animal lovers, taxpayers andIMMIGRATION
opponents. But there was just one problem: It wasn't true. "There hasn't been a petting zoo here for years," says Thomas Voigt, Lostau's mayor. Back when East Germany still existed, wild boars, deer and goats were kept near a clinic as a pastime for patients. "But shortly after the Wall fell, the park was closed," Voigt says. "Someone was probably just trying to incite people."Briton confirmed missing as mystery deepens over Hong Kong booksellers
Updated 0426 GMT (1226 HKT) January 6, 2016
Britain has confirmed that one of five missing people connected to a Hong Kong publisher of books critical of the Chinese government is a UK citizen, the latest twist in a case that has unsettled many in the former British colony.
Speaking in Beijing late Tuesday, British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said that he had urgently inquired of both Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities of the whereabouts of Lee Bo, who went missing last week.
Opposition leaders in Hong Kong say they believe he has been taken across the border to China against his will.
Wang Yi, China's Foreign Minister who appeared with Hammond, said that Lee was "first and foremost" a Chinese citizen and "it was not necessary for anyone to make groundless speculations."
Venezuela opposition takes congress, vows to oust Maduro
Latest update : 2016-01-06
Venezuela’s opposition on Tuesday broke the government’s 17-year grip on the legislature and vowed to force out President Nicolas Maduro, despite failing for the time being to clinch its hoped-for “supermajority”.
The National Assembly swore in deputies to 163 of the 167 seats, with four lawmakers—three opposition and one pro-government—suspended pending a lawsuit over alleged electoral fraud.
The new opposition speaker of the assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, said his side soon would take steps to force Maduro from office.
“Here and now, things will change,” he said.
The head of the opposition group in congress, Julio Borges, vowed it would find “a method, a system to change the government through constitutional means.”
The speaker said the process would be worked out within six months.
“Change is not dependent on any time-frame,” Ramos Allup stressed. “We are looking at a change in outlook, a change in the system, at changing what is bad, very bad—and soon will get worse.”
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