Reuters, Geneva
North Korea said on Tuesday it had a “powerful and reliable” nuclear deterrent to thwart any attack and accused the United States of deploying military assets nearby under the pretext of ensuring security at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
“This is a dangerous act of throwing a wet blanket over the current positive atmosphere of inter-Korean relations … which could drive again into an extreme phase of confrontation,” Han Tae Song, North Korea’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said.
Rivers keep swelling in France
AP, Paris
Rivers across France kept swelling on Wednesday despite some improvement in the weather, disrupting train services in Paris as soldiers got ready to intervene in a suburb close to the capital.
Meteo France, the national weather agency, said 23 departments remained on orange alert, the second highest level of vigilance, urging people to limit their movement and to stay vigilant.
Kentucky school shooting leaves two dead
AFP, Washington
A teenage boy opened fire with a handgun at a Kentucky high school early Tuesday, killing two fellow students and wounding more than a dozen people in the latest mass shooting to hit the United States.
The unnamed 15-year-old student, now in custody, is alleged to have carried out the attack at Marshall County High School in Benton, a small town in western Kentucky.
Two Niger police killed in attack
AFP, Niamey
Two policemen have been killed and seven wounded in an attack in southwest Niger, local media reported Wednesday.
It was not clear if the attack overnight Monday-Tuesday near the village of Kokoloukou, in Tillaberi region bordering Burkina Faso, was the work of jihadists or armed bandits.
Four killed in German copter, plane collision
AFP, Berlin
Four people were killed on Tuesday when a small plane and a helicopter collided in southwestern Germany, police said.
The two aircraft crashed in the skies above the town of Philippsburg, close to the French border, a German police spokesman said, adding that he was unable to say if there may be other victims.
Czech govt resigns after losing confidence vot
AP, Prague
The new Czech minority government led by populist billionaire Andrej Babis resigned on Wednesday after it failed to win a mandatory confidence vote in Parliament last week.
Babis submitted the resignation to President Milos Zeman on Wednesday.
Zeman, Babi’s ally, accepted it and immediately asked Babis to try to form a new government again. He said he will swear him in as prime minister as soon as in February if he fails to get re-elected as president.
