Seoul, South Korea | AFP | North Korea Thursday released pictures of its latest missile launch, giving analysts a chance to test Pyongyang’s claim of a breakthrough that brings the whole of the US within range of a nuclear strike. Leader Kim Jong-Un declared the test of a Hwasong-15 intercontinental …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s new coach Paul Put has warned his players to expect Rwanda and Libya to be at full strength when they meet in the group phase of the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup. In his first game since taking over from Stanley Okumbi last month, the Belgian-born …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP | The stench of flesh rotting on a sultry day fills the air as cleaner Hidemitsu Ohshima steps into a tiny Tokyo apartment where a dead man lay decomposing for three weeks. The man, believed to be in his 50s, died alone in a city he shared …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | The British government sought Thursday to play down an extraordinary row with US President Donald Trump after he castigated Prime Minister Theresa May for rebuking him over anti-Muslim tweets, even as individual politicians expressed outrage. Plunging headlong into a high-profile spat with one of America’s …

United Nations, United States | AFP | The United States warned North Korea’s leadership will be “utterly destroyed” if war breaks out but its call for nations to cut ties with Pyongyang was rejected by Moscow while Beijing sidestepped talk of an oil embargo. Washington urged tough action at an emergency …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | The United Nations said Wednesday that some armed groups fighting in Sudan still deploy child soldiers, but acknowledged Khartoum’s efforts to prevent child recruitment into its forces. Olof Skoog, chairman of the UN Security Council’s working group on children and armed conflict, said armed groups including …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Dutch prosecutors are investigating how a Bosnian Croat war criminal managed to dramatically take his own life Wednesday, apparently after drinking poison he had smuggled into a UN court, in scenes that were broadcast live. In shocking footage beamed around the world, Slobodan Praljak drank …

Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Pope Francis on Thursday wraps up a visit to Myanmar defined by his decision not to address the Rohingya crisis in public, and flies to Bangladesh, where huge numbers of refugees from the Muslim minority languish in refugee camps. Christians make up less than 0.5 percent …

Beijing, China | AFP | Nearly 12 tonnes of smuggled pangolin scales have been confiscated by Chinese officials — the country’s largest-ever seizure of the endangered mammal’s prized parts as it seeks to curb illegal trafficking. The pangolin, whose brown scales have earned it the nickname “scaly anteater”, is the most …

Why don’t many policymakers recognise loss of healthy, robust, and diverse ecosystems as serious threat? COMMENT | ROBERT WATSON | With the United Nations’ climate change conference underway recently in Bonn, Germany, rising global temperatures were once again at the top of the world’s agenda. But why care about the increase …