North Korea reopens hotline with South hours after Trump button boast
Wilderness of Mirrors
Jefferson Morley
VETERAN CIA OFFICER Cleveland Cram was nearing the end of his career in 1978, when his superiors in the agency’s directorate of operations handed him a sensitive assignment: Write a history of the agency’s Counterintelligence Staff. Cram, then 61, was well qualified for the task. He had a master’s and Ph.D. in European History from Harvard. He had served two decades in the clandestine service, including nine years as deputy chief of the CIA’s station in London. He knew the senior officialdom of MI-5 and MI-6, the British equivalents of the FBI and CIA, the agency’s closest partners in countering the KGB, the Soviet Union’s effective and ruthless intelligence service.
Move raises hopes of diplomatic thaw after Kim Jong-un said he would consider sending athletes to Winter Olympics
North Korea has reopened a vital line of communication with South Korea, raising hopes of a diplomatic thaw days after Kim Jong-un said he would consider sending his country’s athletes to next month’s Winter Olympics, to be held just south of the border.
Hours after Donald Trump again baited the North Korean leader on Twitter – this time with a boast about the size and efficacy of his nuclear button – Pyongyang said it would resume communications at the truce village of Panmunjom at 6.30am GMT on Wednesday.
According to the announcement, broadcast on state TV, the order to reopen formal communications along the border was given by Kim. “By upholding a decision by the leadership, we will make close contact with South Korea in a sincere and faithful manner,” said Ri Son-gwon, the head of the North Korean agency that handles inter-Korean affairs.
Police warn modern slaves 'staffing nail bars across UK' as Vietnamese gang jailed in landmark case
Exclusive: Nail-bar manager had £60,000 hidden inside soft toy as vulnerable girls forced to work without pay
Members of one of the most sophisticated modern slavery gangs ever caught in Britain have been jailed in a case that used new laws against enforced labour for the first time.
Police warned other trafficked victims are being “hidden in plain sight” in nail bars across the country, with money from unsuspecting customers funding organised crime.
Three members of a Vietnamese gang uncovered in Bath were jailed for a total of nine years for forcing teenage girls to work without pay and keeping them in squalid conditions.
Frenchwoman on US terror blacklist detained in Syria
Emilie Koenig, a Frenchwoman suspected of recruiting fighters for the Islamic State (IS) group who figured on US and UN blacklists, has been arrested by Kurdish forces in Syria, her mother said Tuesday.
The 33-year-old daughter of a gendarme is "being held in a Kurdish camp and has been interrogated and tortured," her mother told Ouest-France newspaper.
Koenig went to Syria in 2014 and three of her children were born in that country.
She was put on the UN list of the most dangerous fighters and a year later figured on a US terror list.
Koenig converted to Islam after marrying her first husband, a man of Algerian origin, who was arrested for drug trafficking.
1,500 more security barriers are going up in busy parts of New York City
Updated 0550 GMT (1350 HKT) January 3, 2018
New York City plans to install more than 1,500 protective barriers in high-profile locations to guard against vehicle attacks and other terror-related incidents.
The effort, unveiled Tuesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio, is part of a $50 million investment in security infrastructure after vehicles were used to mow down pedestrians in 2017. Known as bollards, the cylindrical metal posts will replace concrete barriers that went up on sidewalks after vehicle-related attacks in Times Square and Lower Manhattan.
"In 2017, New Yorkers witnessed the horrible capacity of people willing to do us harm, whether it was in our subways, on our bike paths or in Times Square," de Blasio said. "But we will not be cowed, and our expanded investment today in barriers and bollards in our public spaces underscores our resolve in keeping New York City safe from future attacks."
Wilderness of Mirrors
Documents Reveal the Complex Legacy of James Angleton, CIA Counterintelligence Chief and Godfather of Mass Surveillance
Jefferson Morley
VETERAN CIA OFFICER Cleveland Cram was nearing the end of his career in 1978, when his superiors in the agency’s directorate of operations handed him a sensitive assignment: Write a history of the agency’s Counterintelligence Staff. Cram, then 61, was well qualified for the task. He had a master’s and Ph.D. in European History from Harvard. He had served two decades in the clandestine service, including nine years as deputy chief of the CIA’s station in London. He knew the senior officialdom of MI-5 and MI-6, the British equivalents of the FBI and CIA, the agency’s closest partners in countering the KGB, the Soviet Union’s effective and ruthless intelligence service.
Trump to Kim: My nuclear button is 'bigger and more powerful'
US President Donald Trump has boasted that his nuclear button is "much bigger" and "more powerful" than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's.
Mr Trump's tweet is the latest contribution to the bickering, increasingly personalised feud between the nuclear-armed leaders.
Mr Kim threatened earlier this week that his nuclear launch button was "always on my table".
Unsurprisingly, Mr Trump's unorthodox words sent social media into a frenzy.
It ended a quick-fire day of tweeting that included taking credit for a lack of airplane crashes, announcing awards for "corrupt media", and threatening to pull aid from Palestinians who do not show "appreciation or respect".
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