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North Korea tests new nuclear-capable underwater drone

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North Korea has tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, state media reported on Friday, as leader Kim Jong Un warned joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S. should stop, Reuters reported.

During the test, the new North Korean drone cruised underwater at a depth of 80 to 150 metres (260-500 feet) for over 59 hours and detonated a non-nuclear payload in waters off its east coast on Thursday, North Korean state news agency KCNA said.

Analysts say North Korea is showing off its increasingly diverse nuclear threats to Washington and Seoul, though they are sceptical whether the underwater vehicle is ready for deployment.

North Korea intends to signal “to the United States and South Korea that in a war, the potential vectors of nuclear weapons delivery that the allies would have to worry about and target would be vast,” said Ankit Panda, senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“There would be silos, railcars, submarines and road mobile missile launchers. And now they’re adding this underwater torpedo to the mix,” he said.

According to Reuters on Monday, the isolated country flew a short-range missile from a buried silo, a departure from usual basing methods.

Dubbed “Haeil”, or tsunami, the new drone system is intended to make sneak attacks in enemy waters and destroy naval strike groups and major operational ports by creating a large radioactive wave through an underwater explosion, the KCNA said.

“This nuclear underwater attack drone can be deployed at any coast and port or towed by a surface ship for operation,” the news agency said, adding that Kim oversaw the test.

A South Korean military official said they were analysing North Korea’s claims. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there was no indication of a nuclear test.

It is unclear whether North Korea has fully developed miniaturised nuclear warheads needed to fit on its smaller weapons.

Analysts say perfecting such warheads would most likely be a key goal if the North resumes nuclear testing, read the report.

A photo released by state media showed Kim smiling next to a large torpedo-shaped object, but did not identify it as the new drone. Other photos showed tracks of the object’s underwater trajectory, and blasts visible on the sea surface.

Panda said the weapon’s operational concept was similar to Russia’s Poseidon nuclear torpedoes, a new category of retaliatory weapon meant to create destructive, radioactive blasts in coastal areas.

On Friday South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would make sure North Korea paid for its “reckless provocations”, during a speech to commemorate service members who died in clashes with North Korea in western waters, including a 2010 sinking of a navy ship that South Korea said was struck by a North Korean torpedo.

North Korea also said it had fired cruise missiles on Wednesday to practice carrying out tactical nuclear attacks, confirming earlier reports from the South Korean military, Reuters reported.

The cruise missiles were tipped with a “test warhead simulating a nuclear warhead,” and flew 1,500-1,800 km (930-1,120 miles), according to KCNA.

The latest tests took place as South Korean and U.S. troops launched their largest amphibious landing drills in years, involving a U.S. amphibious assault ship, on Monday.

North Korea said military exercises by the United States and South Korea require its forces to “gird themselves for an all-out war and bolster up its nuclear force both in quality and quantity on a priority basis”.

Pyongyang has long bristled at exercises conducted by South Korean and U.S. forces, saying they are preparation for an invasion of the North.

South Korea and the U.S. say the exercises are purely defensive and have criticised the North’s tests as destabilising and in breach of U.N. sanctions.

The allies concluded 11 days of their regular springtime exercises, called Freedom Shield 23, on Thursday, but have other field training exercises continuing.

North Korean leader Kim expressed “his will to make the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet regime plunge into despair for their choice,” KCNA said, adding that he warned the enemies that they should stop reckless anti-North Korea war drills.

The director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said on Wednesday North Korean leader Kim does not appear poised to carry out a nuclear test during U.S.-South Korea military exercises, but the United States is staying vigilant.

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Trump took secret flight out of Turkey due to Iran threat, the Washington Post reports

The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.

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U.S. President Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard Air Force One, an extraordinary move prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington ​Post reported Monday.

Trump had taken the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet to Ankara for the NATO summit but he unexpectedly used ‌an older Air Force One when departing the country, a move that prompted questions about the newer plane’s security, Reuters reported.

The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.

Before departing Ankara, Trump said on Truth ​Social that he would use an older baby blue Air Force One plane “for old time’s sake” to RAF Mildenhall in Britain while ​the new plane stopped at the same base so U.S. service members stationed there could tour the aircraft.

After Trump ⁠boarded the old Air Force One in front of cameras in Ankara, he was secretly shuttled by an airport catering truck to a smaller plane, ​an Air Force C-32A, the Post reported citing a U.S. official familiar with the operation and corroborating material it reviewed.

The deception operation was triggered by ​a credible threat to Trump, the Post reported. A similar operation had taken place in 2000, when President Bill Clinton used an unmarked executive jet to fly into Pakistan while sending his formal Air Force One as decoy.

On this occasion, the journalists who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older Air Force One, which was effectively ​used as a decoy, reported being advised to keep their window shades in the press cabin closed. The Post said aside from reporters, some ​White House staff also believed that the president was on board.

When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the flight, Trump said ‌it was ⁠because they were “probably on a dangerous flight.” He went onto say: “But if I go, you go. Right?”

The C-32A carrying Trump flew to Britain and arrived at around 10:20 p.m. while the older Air Force One and media, arriving minutes later, the Post reported. It was not clear, the paper said, how Trump was moved from the C-32A back to the older Air Force One.

Trump’s traveling press pool reported he climbed down the stairs of the ​older Air Force One at 10:56 p.m. ​UK local time.

He gave press ⁠a peace sign but didn’t walk over to talk to them. He then spent some time greeting service members before walking to the new, Qatar-donated plane.

When asked for comment on the revelation of a secret flight on a ​third plane, the White House provided a statement from Communications Director Steve Cheung saying the Qatari-donated jet ​has been fitted with ⁠high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” Cheung said. It was the same statement provided to the Post.

The ⁠Pentagon did ​not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new plane, with red, white, dark blue ​and gold livery chosen by Trump, is a Boeing 747 gifted to the United States by Qatar last year and refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies. It was intended to serve ​as a temporary placement while Boeing (BA.N) struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes.

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More than 100 killed after strongest quake this century hits western Colombia

The U.S. Geological Survey said the ⁠7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.

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More than 100 people were killed after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, toppling buildings, damaging hospitals and infrastructure and trapping people beneath the rubble in the country’s strongest earthquake this century.

The quake struck just ​days after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in as president, thrusting the new administration into its first major crisis, with memories still fresh of devastating twin earthquakes in neighboring Venezuela in June, Reuters reported.

“The ‌national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed,” he said in a national address around 1 p.m. local time, upon declaring a national state of emergency and giving a death toll of 111. “The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble.”

De La Espriella visited Quibdo, the capital of coastal Choco province, where he promised rent subsidies for those who have lost homes, and then traveled to Cali, western Colombia’s largest city.

Though he had ​been expected to give an updated national death toll on Monday evening, De La Espriella offered only figures for Valle del Cauca province, where Cali is located, saying 35 people had died there, while ​700 had been injured. Some local media have cited a national total of 132 deaths, though the origin of the figure is unclear.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the ⁠7.4-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 107 km (66 miles). Colombia’s Geological Service said it was the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in the 21st century.

As night fell, rescue workers and volunteers with headlamps hurried to ​find people still trapped under rubble.

Authorities in Cali, Armenia and Manizales announced curfews, with Cali’s mayor saying threats of looting had forced him to deploy police and military personnel to the streets. De La Espriella promised 1,000 additional ​security personnel for the city.

Cali authorities said the Petronio Alvarez festival, an annual celebration of Pacific music which was due to start on Wednesday, has been postponed.

Video broadcast by Caracol Television showed a group of people pulling a small baby covered in dust from under a pile of rubble. Caracol reported the six-month-old girl and her mother were rescued from under a five-story building in Cali.

Video from Cali also showed rescue workers rappelling people out from the windows of a local hospital.

BUILDINGS CRUMBLE, AIRPORTS CLOSED

In the hard-hit ​city of Pereira, rescue workers told local television they were in contact with a young boy trapped under a bakery, and crane operators were working to remove badly damaged parts of buildings.

A four-story building crumbled in Pereira during ​the quake, according to Reuters-verified video, while footage from Manizales showed one of the side towers of the city’s landmark neo-Gothic cathedral collapsing and scattering debris onto nearby streets.

Reuters video showed rescue workers, police and volunteers shoveling debris by hand and ‌loading rubble into ⁠trucks as they searched for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings. Other footage showed damage to residential towers and emergency-service facilities, with debris crashing onto ambulances parked below.

Mauricio Andrade, a firefighter in Cali, said his team had rescued two adult women and two children from a collapsed building. As he spoke to Reuters, his team was preparing to rescue more people from the rubble.

“They are alive,” he said. “We are making space so we can free them and get them out.”

Carmen Yasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident and rescue volunteer, said her group had helped seven people out of a fallen building but there were still four people and a dog trapped underneath.

“A moment ago there was scratching ​but now we can’t hear anything, we still have ​faith that the dog is alive and we ⁠can get these people out,” she said. “The more people lending a hand the better.”

Saul Paz, 69, a resident of a Cali residential complex that partially collapsed, told Reuters he had been in the dining room with his son and wife when the shaking began.

“I think if it had lasted five seconds more there would be nothing left,” ​he said. “There are people who went to bed last night with a house and a car and today they won’t have anything.”

Colombia’s civil aviation authority suspended operations ​at several airports in the ⁠region, including Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, while engineers carried out structural inspections.

RING OF FIRE

Colombia sits along the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and records thousands of mostly minor earthquakes each month.

Northwestern University seismologist Suzan van der Lee said the quake’s powerful magnitude, inland location and strike-slip motion may have amplified damage in populated valleys despite its considerable depth.

“This one was far below the crust, and in theory it shouldn’t cause as much shaking. At this magnitude, it did ⁠actually cause a ​lot of shaking,” she said, adding Colombia is particularly difficult for seismologists to analyze due to the interaction of several major tectonic plates.

The ​Colombian Geological Service said it had recorded 21 aftershocks by late Monday and warned that additional tremors were likely.

Colombia’s coffee region was devastated by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 1,000 people, particularly around Armenia and Pereira.

 

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Fire at Saudi factory kills 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers

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A major fire at a sofa manufacturing factory ​in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, ‌killed 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers, officials in Dhaka said on Monday.

The ​fire broke out on ​Sunday in the Musa Sanaiya industrial ⁠area, Reuters reported.

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign ​Affairs is monitoring the situation, ​while officials from the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh are working with Saudi authorities ​to complete the repatriation formalities.

​Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful ‌Haque ⁠Choudhury has instructed officials to bring back the bodies as soon as possible and ensure ​necessary government ​assistance and ⁠compensation for the bereaved families.

With around 3.5 ​million Bangladeshis living in ​Saudi ⁠Arabia, the country remains the largest destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers, ⁠who ​sent home more ​than $2.7 billion in remittances last year.

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