World news in brief
US and South Korea confirm latest North Korean missile failure
North Korea's latest missile launch ended in failure as the United States sent a supersonic bomber streaking over ally South Korea in a show of force against the North, officials said. The reported launch failure comes as the North angrily reacts to ongoing annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. Earlier this month, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles that landed in waters off Japan, triggering strong protests from Seoul and Tokyo. The American military detected what it assessed as a failed North Korean missile launch on Wednesday morning, the U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement. It said the missile “appears to have exploded within seconds of launch.”
South Korea's Defence Ministry said it also believes the launch from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan ended in failure. It said it was analysing what type of missile was launched. The failure might mean that the missile is a newly developed one the North has not deployed, according to South Korean media. Last year, the country suffered a series of embarrassing failed launches of its new medium-range Musudan missile
before it successfully test-fired one. AP
Turkish military officers granted asylum in Norway
A group of Turkish military officers based in Norway who had refused to return home after the failed July 15 coup attempt, have been granted political asylum. “I can confirm they have gotten political asylum in Norway. We are talking about a number of officers, based in Norway and who had been ordered home after the coup,” lawyer Kjell M. Brygfjeld told AP. Norwegian justice and immigration authorities declined to comment. “They had been in Norway for a couple of years,” Brygfjeld said, declining to confirm local media reports that there were five men involved.
Newspaper Verdens Gang said the group feared being arrested in Turkey. One of them, who was not identified, told the daily last month he had been fired, his passport had been cancelled and he feared torture if he returned. “If I return, I will be detained and risk torture and will be forced to make a false confession. People die inexplicably in Turkish prisons,” the person who was not identified told Verdens Gang last month. The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Norwegian ambassador to protest the decision to grant the officers asylum. A ministry statement said it was “regrettable and unacceptable” that a NATO ally had supported the officers' “efforts to abuse the political, social and economic resources” of Norway instead of their return to Turkey.
AP
Historic restoration of Jesus' burial shrine completed
A Greek restoration team has completed a historic renovation of the Edicule, the shrine that tradition says houses the cave where Jesus was entombed and resurrected. “If this intervention hadn't happened now, there is a very great risk that there could have been a collapse,” Bonnie Burnham of the World Monuments Fund said Monday. “This is a complete transformation of the monument.”
The fund provided an initial $1.4m for the $4m restoration, thanks to a donation by Mica Ertegun, the widow of a co-founder of Atlantic Records. Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also chipped in about 150,000 euros each, along with other private and church donations, Burnham said. The limestone and marble structure stands at the centre of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, one of the world's oldest churches — a 12th-century building standing on 4th-century remains. The shrine needed urgent attention after years of exposure to environmental factors like water, humidity and candle smoke.