Six In The Morning Sunday January 28

Kabul mourns 100 dead after ambulance bomb

More than 100 people are now believed to have been killed in a suicide bombing on Saturday in Kabul.

Attackers drove an ambulance past a police checkpoint to get to a crowded street in a district full of government buildings and embassies.

Afghanistan's government has declared a day of mourning for Sunday, as funerals take place and relatives search hospitals for survivors.

The Taliban - a hardline Islamist group - said it was behind the attack.

It was the deadliest attack in Afghanistan for months and took place a week after an attack on a Kabul hotel in which 22 people were killed.

Made in North Korea – a unique glimpse of life inside a closed society

Sweet wrappers and posters are among graphic art to be shown in London for the first time

Vanessa Thorpe

Sun 28 Jan 2018 00.05 GMT

Glimpses of normal life in North Korea, something few outsiders ever sample, are to go on show in a London exhibition next month, including many items on display for the first time outside the communist republic.

The House of Illustration exhibition, Made in North Korea: Everyday Graphics from the DPRK, is to offer an unprecedented insight into the look of common objects, such as posters, sweet wrappers and stamps, all collected by Nicholas Bonner, author of the book Made in North Korea (Phaidon) and a guide who has led tours to the country for 25 years.

Bonner’s collection of ephemera reveals a graphic tradition that, although not entirely uniform in style, has developed in near isolation inside a closed society. It also sheds light on the daily activities of North Koreans, from buying food to going to school or watching sport.

Poisoned toothpaste and exploding phones: New book chronicles Israel’s ‘2,700’ assassination operations

Intelligence correspondent Ronen Bergman persuades Mossad agents, Shin Bet and military personnel to disclose their stories on state-sponsored killings 

• Ethan Bronner 

Poisoned toothpaste that takes a month to end its target's life. Armed drones. Exploding mobile phones. Spare tyres with remote-control bombs. Assassinating enemy scientists and discovering the secret lovers of Muslim clerics.

A new book chronicles these techniques and asserts that Israel has carried out at least 2,700 assassination operations in its 70 years of existence. While many failed, they add up to far more than any other western country, the book says.

Ronen Bergman, the intelligence correspondent for Yediot Aharonot newspaper, persuaded many agents of Mossad, Shin Bet and the military to tell their stories, some using their real names. The result is the first comprehensive look at Israel's use of state-sponsored killings.

50 Percent for 5 PercentA Look at Germany's Extremely Unequal Wealth Distribution

European Central Bank statistics show that wealth distribution in Germany is extremely unequal. But a new analysis by the German Institute for Economic Research shows that the situation is even worse than initially thought.

By Florian Diekmann

The gathering of global political and industrial leaders in Davos each year leads many observers to wonder: Who benefits in the long term from economic growth and corporate profits? Society as a whole or just a select few at the very top? One way to approach that question is by looking at how the entire wealth of a given society is distributed among individual members of that society.

The problem, though, is that it isn't so easy to calculate that distribution. Official data does, of course, exist. In Germany it is compiled by the Federal Statistical Office, and the European Central Bank (ECB) has been doing the same for the eurozone over the last few years. That data shows an extremely unequal wealth distribution.

SpaceX sets Falcon Heavy launch date

by Jackie Wattles   @jackiewattles

Falcon Heavy is a brand new rocket that's set to launch for the first time ever on February 6, SpaceX announced on Saturday.

The buzz can be attributed to the Falcon Heavy's size: It will be the most powerful rocket in the world. It's built by SpaceX -- the industry-disrupting rocket maker started by billionaire Elon Musk.

If you're just catching up to the action, we've answered all the questions you need to know before next month's launch.

Why does it matter?

The Falcon Heavy will become part of spaceflight history.

SpaceX has said the rocket will be capable of sending humans to Mars (though SpaceX has plans to build a different rocket/spaceship system for Mars travel, called the BFR).

LOSING SIGHT

A 4-Year-Old Girl Was the Sole Survivor of a U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan. Then She Disappeared.

May Jeong

THE VALLEY OF DEATH

The driver was a 26-year-old father of two named Abdul Rashid. Because the road into Pech Valley toward Gambir was famously treacherous, a kind of buddy system had developed among cab drivers. That morning, Abdul Rashid had been trying to coordinate the journey with his friend and relative, Mohibullah, but by early afternoon, he had decided to go ahead without him. The four children — including Abdul Rashid’s daughter, Aisha, age 4, and her baby brother, Jundullah, 18 months — were growing restless with the wait. Just after 3 p.m., the truck began to move.

Abdul Rashid stopped in the east end of Asadabad to pick up one last passenger, a woman traveling alone, before heading west. For the last three days, the drivers servicing the Pech had staged a strike to protest poor road conditions. September 7 was Rashid’s first day back on the job.