Kim in call for ‘offensive’ protection measures
Pyongyang: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for his military and diplomats to prepare unspecified “offensive measures” to protect the country’s security and sovereignty, the North’s state media said.
The call came before his end-of-year deadline for the Trump administration to make major concessions to salvage a fragile nuclear diplomacy.
At a ruling Workers’ Party meeting on Sunday, Mr Kim also “comprehensively and anatomically analysed” problems arising in efforts to rebuild the North’s moribund economy and presented tasks for “urgently correcting the grave situation of the major industrial sectors,” the Korean Central News Agency said.
The plenary meeting of the party’s Central Committee, which began on Saturday, is being closely watched amid concerns Mr Kim could suspend his deadlocked nuclear negotiations with the Untied States and take a more confrontational approach by lifting a selfimposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.
Mr Kim, who has said the North would pursue a “new path” if Washington persists with sanctions and pressure, is expected to announce major policy changes during his New Year’s address tomorrow.
Ankara: Police in Turkey have detained dozens of people suspected of links to the so-called Islamic State group (IS).
The state-run news agency said the move was an apparent sweep against the militant group ahead of New Year celebrations.
At least 33 foreign nationals were detained in the capital Ankara in a joint operation by antiterrorism police and the national intelligence agency, according to the Anadolu Agency.
Police conducted simultaneous, pre-dawn raids in the city of Batman, in south-east Turkey, where 22 suspects were detained. Raids were also conducted in the cities of Adana and Kayseri where 15 people were held, including six foreign nationals.
Anadolu said the IS suspects apprehended in Ankara were from Iraq, Syria and Morocco. Police were searching for some 17 other suspects, the report said.
Beijing: A Chinese scientist who claimed he had made the world’s first genetically edited babies has been sentenced to three years in prison.
He Jiankui, who was convicted of practising medicine without a licence, was also fined 3 million yuan (£327,000) by a court in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. Two other researchers involved in the project received lesser sentences and fines.
The verdict said three defendants had not obtained qualification as doctors, pursued fame and profits, deliberately violated Chinese regulations on scientific research and crossed an ethical line in both scientific research and medicine.