North Korea has tested a number of short-range missiles - the latest in a series of launches condemned by other nations.
The projectiles fired on Monday flew for 200km and landed in waters east of North Korea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing an unidentified government source, said the South Korean military was trying to find what types of missile and projectile were fired.
The test is the fourth reported in North Korea since the beginning of March, as the secretive state steps up its defiance of US and UN sanctions imposed in response to recent launches.
It came three days after the South said the North fired a medium-range missile into the sea for the first time since early 2014.
Monday, March 21, 2016
10 years of Twitter: The tweets that changed lives
Ten years after Jack Dorsey launched Twitter with the words "just setting up my twttr", the micro-blogging site has become a feature of millions of people's lives - but for some it has been life changing.
From a 140-character marriage proposal to inspiring a revolution from the comfort of a sofa, people have been sharing their stories to mark 10 years of Twitter.
The first Twitter marriage proposal
When American Greg Rewis was thinking of an unusual way to propose to his then girlfriend Stephanie, he decided to tweet her after she had turned him down on a private messaging service.
"The proposal started as a joke" he told BBC News. "I was talking to Steph on an instant messenger and asked her if she wanted to marry me. She said that I had never asked her in a proper way. So I posted on Twitter and told her to refresh her feed. It simply looked like it was the right moment.
"It was quite a shock when I found out that this was the first proposal on Twitter. Had we known it was the first time, we would have made it more impressive. I would have planned everything way better.
"We now live together and split our time between Phoenix and California, but I have to travel a lot for work. We still use Twitter to stay in touch and actually we live-tweeted our wedding a year after the proposal in 2009."
'I met my husband on Twitter'
Sumita Dalmia, from Atlanta, has won almost $10,000 worth of prizes through Twitter over the past few years, so it came as no surprise to her friends and family when a Twitter chat led her to true love.
"I was searching for tickets one day in September 2013 on Twitter for Jazzoo, an annual event held at Zoo Atlanta" Sumita told BBC News.
"I searched "jazzo tickets" and Anuj Patel's (my now fiancé) tweet popped up.
"He had already given up his ticket but his biography on Twitter caught my attention because he works in sports and entertainment, which is a field I was very much interested in getting into.
"We started chatting and tweeting turned into direct messaging and then emailing, and then texting, and phone calls, and then we met in person. The rest is history I guess!"
In September 2013, Anuj arranged an elaborate proposal for Sumita which was Twitter themed. After sending her on a treasure hunt around Atlanta by sending her tweets, Anuj got down on one knee on a helicopter landing pad in the centre of the city, holding a large Tweet poster asking her to marry him.
Teenager's take on UK election changes debate
During the 2015 UK general election, 18-year-old Abby Tomlinson, from Merseyside, helped to create the hashtag #Milifandom after she felt the then Labour leader Ed Miliband was not getting fairly treated by the press.
"I decided that I wanted to play an active role and my admiration for Ed Miliband started," she said.
The hashtag soon became the number one Twitter trend in the UK and unveiled a cult following for Miliband. It didn't help his fortunes in the election but it has changed Abby's life.
The next day, a couple more news organisation got in touch and wrote articles and I started doing interviews. Then a couple of weeks later, Ed rang me up to thank me.
"I would say Twitter changed my life in a way because it helped me decide what I wanted to do. I was always interested in politics and I've always enjoyed writing, but this gave me a chance to write for prestigious media outlets.
'I found a career through Twitter'
Marwa Mammoon, from Egypt, is a BBC journalist, but in 2011 she was a stay-at-home mum. Pregnant with her second child and unable to take part in public demonstrations during the Egyptian revolution, she activated her Twitter account and changed her life.
"I was sitting at home but I was being politically active" she said.
"I would pick a new topic every couple of weeks, such as female genital mutilation, sexual harassment and other women's issues which mattered in the Arab world and would write about them.
"I didn't realise what influence I had. I was just ranting. Then before I knew it, I was named on Twitter as one of the most influential women in the Arab world.
"The next day all the political parties in Egypt were trying to get me to join them. I was broke and needed a job though so I sent out a funny tweet appealing for a job.
"For most of the time this was happening I was tweeting from a broken phone which had half a broken screen.
"I wasn't a journalist, I had worked in marketing but ended up working as a chief editor of a website which was set up by an American investor."
The website was a success and after a few years Marwa left to work for the United Nations. She then worked Radio Netherlands before joining the BBC.
10 years of Twitter: The tweets that changed lives
Ten years after Jack Dorsey launched Twitter with the words "just setting up my twttr", the micro-blogging site has become a feature of millions of people's lives - but for some it has been life changing.
From a 140-character marriage proposal to inspiring a revolution from the comfort of a sofa, people have been sharing their stories to mark 10 years of Twitter.
The first Twitter marriage proposal
When American Greg Rewis was thinking of an unusual way to propose to his then girlfriend Stephanie, he decided to tweet her after she had turned him down on a private messaging service.
"The proposal started as a joke" he told BBC News. "I was talking to Steph on an instant messenger and asked her if she wanted to marry me. She said that I had never asked her in a proper way. So I posted on Twitter and told her to refresh her feed. It simply looked like it was the right moment.
"It was quite a shock when I found out that this was the first proposal on Twitter. Had we known it was the first time, we would have made it more impressive. I would have planned everything way better.
"We now live together and split our time between Phoenix and California, but I have to travel a lot for work. We still use Twitter to stay in touch and actually we live-tweeted our wedding a year after the proposal in 2009."
'I met my husband on Twitter'
Sumita Dalmia, from Atlanta, has won almost $10,000 worth of prizes through Twitter over the past few years, so it came as no surprise to her friends and family when a Twitter chat led her to true love.
"I was searching for tickets one day in September 2013 on Twitter for Jazzoo, an annual event held at Zoo Atlanta" Sumita told BBC News.
"I searched "jazzo tickets" and Anuj Patel's (my now fiancé) tweet popped up.
"He had already given up his ticket but his biography on Twitter caught my attention because he works in sports and entertainment, which is a field I was very much interested in getting into.
"We started chatting and tweeting turned into direct messaging and then emailing, and then texting, and phone calls, and then we met in person. The rest is history I guess!"
In September 2013, Anuj arranged an elaborate proposal for Sumita which was Twitter themed. After sending her on a treasure hunt around Atlanta by sending her tweets, Anuj got down on one knee on a helicopter landing pad in the centre of the city, holding a large Tweet poster asking her to marry him.
Teenager's take on UK election changes debate
During the 2015 UK general election, 18-year-old Abby Tomlinson, from Merseyside, helped to create the hashtag #Milifandom after she felt the then Labour leader Ed Miliband was not getting fairly treated by the press.
"I decided that I wanted to play an active role and my admiration for Ed Miliband started," she said.
The hashtag soon became the number one Twitter trend in the UK and unveiled a cult following for Miliband. It didn't help his fortunes in the election but it has changed Abby's life.
The next day, a couple more news organisation got in touch and wrote articles and I started doing interviews. Then a couple of weeks later, Ed rang me up to thank me.
"I would say Twitter changed my life in a way because it helped me decide what I wanted to do. I was always interested in politics and I've always enjoyed writing, but this gave me a chance to write for prestigious media outlets.
'I found a career through Twitter'
Marwa Mammoon, from Egypt, is a BBC journalist, but in 2011 she was a stay-at-home mum. Pregnant with her second child and unable to take part in public demonstrations during the Egyptian revolution, she activated her Twitter account and changed her life.
"I was sitting at home but I was being politically active" she said.
"I would pick a new topic every couple of weeks, such as female genital mutilation, sexual harassment and other women's issues which mattered in the Arab world and would write about them.
"I didn't realise what influence I had. I was just ranting. Then before I knew it, I was named on Twitter as one of the most influential women in the Arab world.
"The next day all the political parties in Egypt were trying to get me to join them. I was broke and needed a job though so I sent out a funny tweet appealing for a job.
"For most of the time this was happening I was tweeting from a broken phone which had half a broken screen.
"I wasn't a journalist, I had worked in marketing but ended up working as a chief editor of a website which was set up by an American investor."
The website was a success and after a few years Marwa left to work for the United Nations. She then worked Radio Netherlands before joining the BBC.
Cameron to defend record after Duncan Smith resignation
David Cameron will defend his record later after Iain Duncan Smith resigned as work and pensions secretary and condemned cuts to disability benefits.
Mr Duncan Smith quit on Friday and said the government had focused benefit cuts on people who do not vote Conservative. He warned it risked dividing society.
But the prime minister will tell MPs he is an advocate of "a modern, compassionate Conservatism".
Mr Duncan Smith's replacement is set to scrap the disability benefit cuts.
Stephen Crabb will tell the Commons on Monday that the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP) have been abandoned.
On Sunday, Mr Duncan Smith told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that he had supported a consultation on the changes to PIP but had come under "massive pressure" to deliver the savings ahead of last week's Budget.
The way the cuts were presented in the Budget had been "deeply unfair" because they were "juxtaposed" with tax cuts for the wealthy, he said.
He suggested the government was in "danger of drifting in a direction that divides society rather than unites it, and that, I think, is unfair".
Analysis
As reactions to a Budget go, it doesn't get any worse for a government - a cabinet resignation just over 48 hours later, with several incendiary parting shots to boot, and a weekend of insults hurled by Conservatives, at each other, with gusto.
Today, then, the prime minister's challenge is clear: calm things down. David Cameron will tell the Commons he has long been a believer in what he will call "One Nation Conservatism".
The new Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb will make clear the proposed changes to PIP will now not happen. But that leaves the government either looking for cuts elsewhere or not saving as much as it hoped.
And it leaves David Cameron and the Chancellor George Osborne attempting to recover from the biggest challenge to their authority since the election.
Mr Duncan Smith also criticised the "arbitrary" decision to lower the welfare cap after the general election and suggested the government was in danger of losing "the balance of the generations", expressing his "deep concern" at a "very narrow attack on working-age benefits" while also protecting pensioner benefits.
If the focus on the working-age benefit budget continued, he said, "it just looks like we see this as a pot of money, that it doesn't matter because they don't vote for us".
'Not personal'
Mr Duncan Smith spoke of his "love" for the Conservative Party and described claims he was trying to undermine David Cameron as "nonsense", saying he had had a "robust" conversation with the PM after telling him of his resignation.
He also insisted his "painful" decision was "not personal" against Chancellor George Osborne.
A Number 10 spokesman said: "We are sorry to see Iain Duncan Smith go, but we are a 'one nation' government determined to continue helping everyone in our society have more security and opportunity, including the most disadvantaged.
"That means we will deliver our manifesto commitments to make the welfare system fairer, cut taxes and ensure we have a stable economy by controlling welfare spending and living within our means."
He said more people were in work under this government with fewer "trapped" on unemployment benefits.
'Long grass'
In his Budget on Wednesday, Mr Osborne had said the government would be spending an extra £1bn on disability but changes to disability benefits announced a few days earlier had suggested the government would save £4.4bn by 2020-21.
They included changes to PIP, which will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in January 2017, that were expected to save £1.3bn a year and sparked outcry from opposition parties and some Tory MPs.
On Friday, prior to Mr Duncan Smith's resignation, a government source said the planned changes would be "kicked into the long grass" and Mr Crabb will formally tell MPs that they will not happen.
It is not yet clear if his department will have to find cuts immediately to make the equivalent savings.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has called for Mr Osborne to "rip up" the Budget, saying it is no longer sustainable.
Labour is likely to table an urgent question in a bid to force Mr Osborne to come to the Commons.
More UK Flight Delays As France Strike Bites
Hundreds of British travellers are expected to face further flight cancellations today because of industrial action by French air traffic controllers.
Passengers flying on a number of airlines from Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton to European airports were forced to wait for or reschedule their flights on Sunday.
Gatwick said passengers had experienced delays averaging more than 50 minutes on Sunday, while Luton confirmed that flights to Amsterdam and Nimes had been affected as a result of a "knock-on effect in the network".
A spokesman for easyJet confirmed that 82 flights had been cancelled, including 32 arriving and departing from the UK.
British Airways refused to disclose how many flights would be affected by the strikes, but said that it was doing "all we can to minimise disruption to customers affected".
A spokeswoman added that larger aircraft were now being used and some flights were being re-routed.
Ryanair has called on the French government and the European Commission to intervene in order to prevent UK passengers being "held to ransom" by "tiny numbers" of French workers.
Passengers flying on a number of airlines from Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton to European airports were forced to wait for or reschedule their flights on Sunday.
Gatwick said passengers had experienced delays averaging more than 50 minutes on Sunday, while Luton confirmed that flights to Amsterdam and Nimes had been affected as a result of a "knock-on effect in the network".
A spokesman for easyJet confirmed that 82 flights had been cancelled, including 32 arriving and departing from the UK.
British Airways refused to disclose how many flights would be affected by the strikes, but said that it was doing "all we can to minimise disruption to customers affected".
A spokeswoman added that larger aircraft were now being used and some flights were being re-routed.
Ryanair has called on the French government and the European Commission to intervene in order to prevent UK passengers being "held to ransom" by "tiny numbers" of French workers.
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Obama visits Cuba, hails 'historic opportunity'
President Barack Obama has called his trip to Cuba a "historic opportunity" in his first comments after becoming the first serving US leader to visit the state in almost nine decades.
The three-day visit marks the culmination of thaw in relations between Washington and the communist island that began in December 2014.
Obama arrived in Havana on Sunday evening with his wife and daughters and is due to meet Cuban President Raul Castro later on Monday.
"It's been nearly 90 years since a US president stepped foot in Cuba, it is wonderful to be here...for the first time ever Air Force One has landed in Cuba," he said during a speech at the US embassy in Havana shortly after his arrival.
"This is a historic visit and it's a historic opportunity to engage directly with the Cuban people and to forge new agreements, commercial deals, to build new ties between our two peoples."
 |
| Air Force One arrives into the Cuban capital Havana [Reuters] |
Excitement in Havana
Al Jazeera's Lucia Newman, reporting from Havana, said the visit had excited Cubans, many hopeful of what the newly re-established ties could bring.
"Many Cubans were actually saying they needed to pinch themselves, that they could not really believe that an American president was finally coming to their country," she said.
"People want to know what the president is going to say...he will be addressing the Cuban people on Tuesday [and] this message will be broadcast live on Cuban television."
Obama is set to meet Cuban dissidents during his visit, a move our correspondent Newman said would have been considered "intolerable" by the government in the past.
"The Cuban government is clearly not happy about it and to make the point, as the president's plane was coming here, some 50 dissidents were actually arrested."
Cold War rivalry
The two countries have moved towards normalising relations after a breakdown following the 1959 communist revolution led by former Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Successive US government have tried to oust the Cuban leadership, most notably during the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.
Former US President John F Kennedy imposed a trade embargo on Havana in 1962 and in the same year the movement of nuclear missiles from the Soviet Union to Cuba brought the countries close to nuclear war.
Since the restoration of diplomatic relations, the states have signed telecommunication deals and put into place airline services but obstacles remain, including the continuing embargo.
Obama faces opposition to the rapprochement from the opposition-Republican party, which controls both Congress and the Senate.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who is of Cuban descent, criticised Obama in an article posted on Politico.
"I have news, Mr President: No progress has taken place. Cuba is going backward," Cruz wrote.
 |
| Obama arrived with his wife and two daughters [Carlos Barria/Reuters] |
Migrant crisis: Turkey and Greece to discuss deal as influx continues
Officials from Turkey and Greece are set to discuss how to implement last week's deal on migrant repatriation.
Under the agreement between the EU and Turkey, migrants arriving in Greece are now expected to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or their claim is rejected.
But Greece still lacks the manpower to process all the new asylum-seekers.
Some 875 migrants arrived in Greece overnight Saturday to Sunday as the deal came into effect.
They are expected to be transferred to temporary camps on the mainland.
Authorities will discuss the deal which says that for every Syrian migrant sent back to Turkey, one Syrian already in Turkey will be resettled in the EU.
But questions remain over some points, including how the migrants will be sent back or what will happen to those thousands of people already in Greece. Officials have said the returns to Turkey are unlikely to start before 4 April.
Additionally, some 2,300 experts, including security and migration officials and translators, are yet to arrive in Greece to help enforce the plan.
"[The deal] is in force. Its practical implementation remains to be seen," government migration spokesman Giorgos Kyritsis was quoted by AP as saying.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of migrants are still stuck in Greece and on its closed border with Macedonia as their route north has been blocked.
Key points from the agreement
- Returns: All "irregular migrants" crossing from Turkey into Greece from 20 March will be sent back. Each arrival will be individually assessed by the Greek authorities.
- One-for-one: For each Syrian returned to Turkey, a Syrian migrant will be resettled in the EU. Priority will be given to those who have not tried to illegally enter the EU and the number is capped at 72,000.
- Visa restrictions: Turkish nationals should have access to the Schengen passport-free zone by June. This will not apply to non-Schengen countries like Britain.
- Financial aid: The EU is to speed up the allocation of €3bn ($3.3 bn; £2.3 bn) in aid to Turkey to help migrants.
- Turkey EU membership: Both sides agreed to "re-energise" Turkey's bid to join the European bloc, with talks due by July.
With the deal, it is hoped people will be discouraged from making the dangerous journey by sea from Turkey to Greece. In return, Turkey will receive aid and political concessions.
Since January 2015, one million migrants and refugees have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece. More than 143,000 have arrived this year alone, and about 460 have died, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Critics, however, have said the deal could force migrants to start using other and potentially more dangerous routes, such as the journey between North Africa and Italy.
In the hours before the plan came into force, hundreds of people were rescued by Italian and Libyan officials amid an increase in traffic through the Strait of Sicily.
And in Turkey, at least 200 people were caught in a coastal town and turned back as they tried to reach Greece ahead of the deadline, authorities said.
Human rights groups have strongly criticised the deal, with Amnesty International accusing the EU of turning "its back on a global refugee crisis".
Most of the migrants arriving in Europe are keen to go to Germany and other northern countries, which have seen increasing public discontent with the high influx.
Meanwhile, Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder - a member of the sister party of Mrs Merkel's CDU, the Christian Social Union - has said the deal could lead to a mass migration of Kurds to Germany, as the agreement gives Turks visa-free travel rights.
"It could ultimately lead to more immigration, especially if you take visa freedom into account. Many, many Kurds fleeing the Turkish government could come to Germany," Mr Soeder told German public broadcaster ZDF.
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