North Korea Defence Chief Hyon Yong-chol 'executed'

North Korea's Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol has been executed for showing disloyalty to Kim Jong-il, South Korea's spy agency has told parliament.

MPs were told Mr Hyon was killed on 30 April by anti-aircraft fire in front of an audience of hundreds, the Yonhap news agency reports.

It said Mr Hyon had fallen asleep during an event attended by Kim Jong-un and had not carried out instructions.

Reports from North Korea are impossible to independently confirm.

Analysts told the BBC that while reshuffling of officials happens often in North Korea, the execution of a figure so close to Mr Kim was surprising and cause for concern about the country's stability.

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The most corrupt countries in the world, ranked in order

Transparency International has released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks 175 countries on their levels of public sector corruption.

A statement released with the report indicated that a low score “is likely a sign of widespread bribery, lack of punishment for corruption and public institutions that don’t respond to citizens’ needs”.

It is pointed out that while no countries score 0 (highly corrupt), there are also none scoring a perfect 100 (very clean).

Bribes and backroom deals don’t just steal resources from the most vulnerable – they undermine justice and economic development, and destroy public trust in government and leaders.

Transparency International

Britain scores 78 which takes it up to 14 on the list and overall the country has seen a steady improvement over the past two years (2012: 74, 2013: 76).

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Nepal quake 'No chance' to find more survivors, as death toll rises

Nepal's authorities have ruled out the possibility of finding more survivors of last Saturday's earthquake, as the death toll has risen to 6,621.

"We are trying our best in rescue and relief work but now I don't think that there is any possibility of survivors under the rubble," Home Ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told AFP.

Nepal said 14,021 people were injured in the 7.9 magnitude quake.

The fate of thousands of people in remote areas remains unknown.

On Friday, the EU envoy to Nepal, Rensje Teerink, said the authorities did not know the whereabouts of some 1,000 EU citizens.

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Japan Gets Bigger As Land Rises From The Sea

Japan has grown in size after a 300m-long strip of new coastline emerged from the sea, rising up to 10m-high in some places.

The expansion of the overcrowded nation took place near the town of Rausu on Hokkaido island at the country's northern tip.

The emergence of the additional stretch of shoreline, revealing what used to be the sea floor, initially sparked fears a major earthquake was imminent, similar to the 9.0-magnitude seismic shock and tsunami of March 2011.

The double disaster, which led to meltdowns and radioactive leaks at the Fukushima nuclear plant, killed almost 16,000 people and destroyed the lives of thousands more.

But geologists believe the phenomenon was probably a result of a nearby landslide, caused by melting ice and snow, pivoting the submerged area of land into the air.

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9/11: Iranian General accuses US of organising September 11 terror attacks

A top Iranian military commander has accused the United States of carrying out the 9/11 terror attacks in order to justify an invasion of the Middle East "with the goal of ruling it".

Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the commander of Iran’s ground forces, made the comments in an interview with Iran’s state-owned Al-Alam news channel, which broadcasts in Arabic as opposed to Farsi.

According to a translation by the US-based Middle East Media Research Institution, he referred to the current conflicts in Iraq and Syria, and told the interviewer: "These wars in the middle and these threats stem from a comprehensive American strategy.

"After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Americans felt that a new force was beginning to materialise, namely the union between Sunnis and Shias. The basis of this force was the blessed Islamic Revolution in Iran, this force is Islam, or the Islamic world.

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Nepal earthquake: 'Nine out of 10 soldiers' in rescue mission

Nine out of 10 Nepalese troops are said to be involved in search and rescue operations, as the country pleads for more foreign aid to deal with a massive earthquake that killed 4,000 people.

Almost the entire army and police has joined the quake effort, officials say.

China, India, the UK and US are among those sending aid from abroad. Nepal says it needs everything from blankets and helicopters to doctors and drivers.

Some 200 climbers stranded by the quake on Mount Everest are being rescued.

About 60 of the climbers had been brought to safety by helicopters on Monday, according to Tulsi Gautam, the chief of Nepal's tourism agency.

He told the BBC that helicopters were only ferrying two people at a time because of the risk of flying at such a high altitude. The climbers had been unable to leave the mountain because of avalanches triggered by the earth tremors.

The quake is now known to have injured at least 7,000 people. Vast tent cities have sprung up in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, for those displaced or afraid to return to their homes. Several aftershocks have been reported - the latest on Monday night.

Across the country, thousands are camping outside for the third night since the quake struck on Saturday. There are shortages of water, food and electricity, while disease is also a concern.

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Dan Fredinburg, Google Executive, Killed On Mount Everest After Nepal Earthquake

Dan Fredinburg, a Google executive, was killed on Mount Everest in an avalanche triggered by the massive, 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked Nepal on Saturday. At least 17 climbers died on the mountain.

Jagged Globe, the company Fredinburg was hiking with, posted a statement mourning his loss.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dan’s family and friends whilst we pray too for all those who have lost their lives in one of the greatest tragedies ever to hit this Himalayan nation," it reads in part. The statement also said that two other climbers sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Tom Briggs, the company's marketing director, told The Guardian that Fredinburg and the others "saw the avalanche coming and were able to make a run for it but the camp was right in the middle of it."

Fredinburg headed up privacy for Google X, the company's secretive ideas lab, and had worked at the Internet giant since 2007. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was involved with initiatives ranging from Google's self-driving car to "Project Loon," which aspires to provide balloon-powered Internet access to remote areas. He also co-founded Google Adventure, which, according to the entrepreneur hub Startup Grind, aims to "translate the Google Street View concept into extreme, exotic locations like the summit of Mount Everest or the Great Barrier Reef off Australia."

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Nepal earthquake: Rescue effort intensifies

Rescue efforts in Nepal are intensifying after nearly 2,000 people were killed on Saturday in the worst earthquake there in more than 80 years.

Many countries and charities have offered aid to deal with the disaster.

Seventeen people have been killed on Mount Everest by avalanches - the mountain's worst-ever disaster.

Meanwhile a powerful aftershock was felt on Sunday in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, and more avalanches were reported near Everest.

The 6.7 magnitude tremor, centred 60km (40 miles) east of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, sent people running for open ground in the city.

Screams and the sound of an avalanche could be heard as an Indian mountaineer was interviewed by phone from near Everest by Reuters news agency.

The death toll from the original earthquake could rise, as the situation is unclear in remote areas which remain cut off or hard to access.

Many mountain roads are cracked or blocked by landslides.

Scores of bodies have been ferried to hospitals in Kathmandu, many of which are struggling to cope with the number of injured.

More than 700 have died in the capital alone.

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WWI: Battle of Gallipoli centenary marked with services

Events are due to take place to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign, one of the bloodiest of World War One.

Prince Charles and Prince Harry will be among those attending services at the site of the battle at Cape Helles on the Turkish peninsula on Friday.

The leaders of Australia, New Zealand and Turkey will also attend the events.

About 141,000 died in the campaign, including 10,000 Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) soldiers.

Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in modern-day western Turkey - then part of the Ottoman Empire - in April 1915.

Their aim was to move inland and capture the capital Constantinople (now Istanbul) in order to force the Ottomans, who were fighting alongside the Germans, out of the war.

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Russia sets its sights on Middle East

Russia's decision to go ahead with the sale of the advanced S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran has angered its critics in the West and alarmed the Israeli government in equal measure.

For some it has raised additional question-marks over the fate of any putative nuclear deal between Iran and the international community.

But more significantly it may also mark a renewed effort by Moscow to bolster its diplomatic profile in the Middle East.

The decision to sell the S-300 to Iran is not new, the contract goes back to at least the latter part of 2010.

But for a variety of reasons - concern about Iran's nuclear activities and with intense lobbying from Israel and the West - the Russians never went ahead and delivered the system.

It is not yet clear exactly which version of the S-300 will be sold to Iran.

It is no longer the most sophisticated of Russia's air defences, but it is nonetheless a highly capable system and much better than those the Israelis and Western air forces have faced in the region during recent campaigns.

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Kim Jong-Un climbs North Korea's highest mountain

Kim Jong-Un has climbed the highest mountain in North Korea, state-run media claims.

Photos of the country's leader show him standing on a snowy mountaintop, with the sun behind him.

His father, Kim Jong-Il, is said by the state to have been born on the mountain, however many historians say he was actually born in Russia.

Reports say Kim Jong-Un reached the 2,750-metre peak alongside hundreds of fighter pilots and party officials.

"Climbing Mount Paektu provides precious mental pabulum more powerful than any kind of nuclear weapon," the Rodong newspaper quoted him as saying to troops.

The purpose of the visit is said to have been to see pilots from the Korean People's Army who have completed a tour of battle sites in the area.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "pabulum" as "bland or insipid intellectual matter, entertainment".

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Asiana plane skids off runway at Hiroshima, Japan

Air safety authorities in Japan are investigating how a South Korean Asiana Airlines plane skidded off a runway on landing at Hiroshima airport.

The 74 passengers and seven crew members used emergency chutes to evacuate the Airbus 320 in the incident late on Tuesday.

Local media reported that at least 20 people had minor injuries.

Transport ministry officials said a plane wheel may have clipped a radio facility near the runway on landing.

The structure, known as the localiser, helps aircraft find the landing strip. A fragment was found on the plane's left wheel, Japan's national broadcaster NHK reported.

Images from the scene showed apparent damage to the 6m (18ft) tower, with mangled metal torn down.

An aviation safety official told AFP news agency that the left side of the plane's tail was damaged and the country's transport safety board was investigating.

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Bangladesh Islamist politician Kamaruzzaman hanged

An Islamist politician convicted of war crimes during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan has been hanged at a prison in Dhaka.

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman of the Jamaat-e-Islami party was found guilty of genocide by a domestic war crimes tribunal in May 2013.

Kamaruzzaman, 62, was convicted of crimes including the killing of at least 120 unarmed farmers.
He had refused to seek clemency from Bangladesh's president.

Kamaruzzaman was the third most senior figure in Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist opposition party.
He is the second war crimes suspect in Bangladesh to be executed.

In December 2013 Abdul Kader Mullah, assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami since 2010 and a former editor of an Islamist newspaper, was hanged after being found guilty on five of six counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.


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Obama: China 'using muscle' to dominate in South China Sea

The US is concerned China is using "sheer size and muscle" to strong-arm smaller nations in the row over the South China Sea, Barack Obama says.

The US president's comments came amid heightened focus on Beijing's construction of artificial islands in disputed areas of the sea.

On Thursday a US think tank released images showing land reclamation work on a reef claimed by the Philippines.

China says the work is needed to safeguard its sovereignty.

China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with several other Asian nations including Vietnam and the Philippines.

They say China is illegally reclaiming land in contested areas to create artificial islands with facilities that could potentially be for military use.

Images have emerged of work in multiple areas in the Spratly islands, which several nations claim.

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Iran nuclear talks intensify as key deadline nears

Talks have resumed in Switzerland ahead of Tuesday's deadline for a preliminary nuclear deal with Iran.

Foreign ministers from six world powers are meeting their Iranian counterpart, amid hopes of a breakthrough after almost 18 months of negotiations.

They want to impose limits that would prevent Iran from producing enough fuel for a nuclear weapon within a year.

Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, wants to see crippling sanctions lifted in return.

Iranian and Western officials have said that a deal is possible, but that some issues are still to be resolved.
'No compromise'

The negotiations in Lausanne were expected to intensify on Monday, with foreign ministers from the so-called P5+1 - comprising the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany - meeting Iran's Mohammad Javad Zarif. The EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is also there.

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Yemen crisis US troops withdraw from air base - BBC

The United States has evacuated its remaining military personnel from Yemen because of the deteriorating security situation, US officials have confirmed.

On Saturday, Yemeni officials said about 100 US troops were leaving an air base near a southern city that was stormed by al-Qaeda fighters on Friday.

There has been mounting violence by rival armed groups in Yemen, including Houthi rebels, al-Qaeda and IS.

The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting on Yemen on Sunday.

It was requested by Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who fled to the southern port city of Aden after the capital was taken over by Houthis last month.

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Japan marks 70th anniversary of Tokyo firebombing - BBC

Japan has marked the 70th anniversary of the firebombing of Tokyo by US forces that killed more than 100,000 people during World War Two.

On 10 March, 1945, American B-29 planes rained down bombs destroying large parts of Tokyo.

The death toll was higher than the 70,000 people that died in the Nagasaki atomic bomb attack the same year.

The incident receives relatively little attention in Japan, overshadowed by the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Pakistan ends death penalty suspension after seven years - BBC

Pakistan is to resume executions for all death penalty offences, months after a moratorium was partially lifted to allow executions of terror convicts.

All condemned prisoners who have exhausted the appeals process and whose pleas for clemency are rejected now face execution, officials say.

Executions were suspended for seven years until some resumed after the Peshawar school massacre in December.

More than 8,000 people are on death row in Pakistan, human rights groups say.

About 1,000 have lost their appeals and had clemency petitions rejected, a senior official quoted by AFP news agency said.

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US envoy attack: S Korea police seek attempted murder charge - BBC News

South Korean police say they are seeking charges of attempted murder against a man who slashed the US ambassador to Seoul.

Ambassador Mark Lippert is recovering in hospital after Kim Ki-jong attacked him with a knife on Thursday.

During the attack, Mr Kim called for reunification of the two Koreas.

Police said they were also investigating Mr Kim's links with North Korea, after it was revealed he had made multiple visits.

"We are investigating whether there is any connection between the suspect's visits to North Korea and the crime committed against the US ambassador," Yoon Myeong-seong, head of Seoul's central Jongno district said according to Reuters.

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Prince William meets Chinese President Xi Jinping - BBC News

The Duke of Cambridge has met Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the prince begins the highest-profile UK royal visit to China in nearly 30 years.

The president said the Royal Family had contributed "positively" to co-operation between China and the UK.

Prince William presented him with an official invitation from the Queen to make a state visit later this year.

The meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of People also saw the two men discuss their mutual love of football.

The prince's trip will see him promote "brand Britain", highlight the illegal wildlife trade and visit some of the nation's most famous sites.

Chinese officials say the prince and the president discussed wildlife protection, one of the duke's great passions.

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