US and North Korea's political games threaten to overshadow the Olympics
Updated 0809 GMT (1609 HKT) February 5, 2018
South Korea may be touting the Winter Games, which begin on Friday, as the "Peace Olympics," but that hasn't stopped the US and North Korea seeking to score political points against each other.
In a move sure to annoy Pyongyang, US Vice President Mike Pence will take the father of the late Otto Warmbier, an American student who was jailed in North Korea, to the Opening Ceremony, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Meanwhile, North Korea is sending Kim Yong Nam, the head of the country's parliament, who is one of the most senior North Korean officials to ever visit South Korea.
Whale and shark species at increasing risk from microplastic pollution – study
Large filter feeders, such as baleen whales and basking sharks, could be particularly at risk from ingesting the tiny plastic particles, say scientists
Whales, some sharks and other marine species such as rays are increasingly at risk from microplastics in the oceans, a new study suggests.
Species such as baleen whales and basking sharks, which feed through filtering seawater for plankton, are ingesting the tiny particles of indigestible plastic which now appear to permeate oceans throughout the world. Some of these species have evolved to swallow hundreds or even thousands of cubic metres of seawater a day, but taking in microplastic can block their ability to absorb nutrients, and may have toxic side-effects.
The new study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, advises more research on the megafauna of the oceans, as the effects of microplastics on them is currently not well understood. Scientists have found, for instance through examining the bodies of beached whales, large pieces of plastic in the guts of such creatures, but the effect of microplastics, though less obvious, may be just as harmful.
Israel demolishes EU-funded Palestinian classrooms in occupied West Bank
It was the fifth time the school has been demolished since 2016, Palestinian officials said. Residents, with the help of non-government organisations and EU funding, reconstruct it each timeStaff and agencies Jerusalem
Israeli authorities on Sunday tore down two EU-funded classrooms that were part of a school for Bedouins in the occupied West Bank because they said they were built illegally.
Palestinians condemned the move.
Israeli authorities say such demolitions carry out court rulings against unauthorised building by Palestinians. Palestinians see it as part of a broader move to seize land for potential Jewish settlement expansion.
Berlin Wall now gone for as long as it stood
More than 28 years after the fall of the wall, stories are still emerging about East Berliners' attempts to flee across the border — with help from their western neighbors. Rachel Stewart reports from Berlin.
The Berlin Wall sliced up its city, dividing East from West, for 28 years, two months and 27 days. Monday marks a turning point: for the first time, the wall has been gone for as long as it stood.
Its construction in 1961, designed to stem the flow of East Germans fleeing over the Berlin border, forced would-be escapees to come up with more creative methods to make it to the West. Some enlisted the help of sympathetic West Berliners to try to cross over where nobody would see them: underground.
Nago citizens hope for jobs, worry about U.S. base after mayoral race
Residents of an Okinawa city on Monday voiced hopes for more jobs as well as worries about a planned new U.S. military base in their community, a day after a newcomer calling for economic stimulus defeated the antibase incumbent in a mayoral election.
In Sunday's election in Nago, Taketoyo Toguchi, 56, backed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, beat Susumu Inamine, 72, who has been opposed to the controversial Japan-U.S. plan to transfer to the city the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, located in a crowded residential area in the southern Japanese island prefecture.
Some citizens expressed hope that Toguchi, a former local assembly member who pledged to improve the local economy during his election campaign, will create more jobs. Okinawa's average jobless rate stood at 3.8 percent in 2017, the highest among prefectures in Japan, according to government data.
Olympic dynasties: Why certain countries will dominate the same events they always do
PATTERNS OF THOUGHT As the world prepares to watch the best athletes on earth bedazzle with their talents in the snow-gauzed mountains of South Korea, there's a fundamental question: When it comes to sports – especially Olympic sports – is culture destiny?
To hear Marc Denhartog explain it, Dutch supremacy at Olympic speedskating is more logical than extraordinary.
“There is a lot of water here, and it’s cold in winter,” he says in a typical Dutch deadpan. “When kids are young, they learn two things: swimming, which is really mandatory because you can fall in every canal around you, and in winter time, it’s ice skating.
Yet Mr. Denhartog’s appearance belies his rather mundane analysis. He is at an ice rink with his 9-year-old, who is attending a speedskating camp during a school vacation. But Denhartog is not wearing a polar fleece and thumbing through stock quotes on his cellphone. He’s in a skinsuit taking a breather from doing laps on the 400-meter track himself.
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