News

Mr Kim took centre stage at a memorial service in Pyongyang's main square a day after his father's funeral.
Kim Yong-nam, formally the number two leader, told a million-strong crowd their sorrow would be turned into strength "1,000 times greater under the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un".
State TV showed Kim Jong-un surrounded by top government and army officials.
The memorial event appeared to be the Kim dynasty's unofficial handover of power, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in neighbouring South Korea.
A three-minute silence was also held, after which trains and ships throughout the country sounded their horns.
Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack on 17 December, aged 69, state media said. He had ruled North Korea since the death of his father Kim Il-sung in 1994.
'Military first' "Respected Comrade Kim Jong-un is our party, military and country's supreme leader who inherits great comrade Kim Jong-il's ideology, leadership, character, virtues, grit and courage," Kim Yong-nam told the massive crowd gathered in Kim Il-sung square.
"The fact that he completely resolved the succession matter is Great Comrade Kim Jong-il's most noble achievement."
A top military official, Kim Jong-gak, also addressed the crowd.
"Our people's military will serve comrade Kim Jong-un at the head of our revolutionary troops and will continue to maintain and complete the Songun accomplishments of great leader Kim Jong-il," he said.
Songun refers to the "military-first" policy - channelling funds into the military.
Half-mast On Wednesday, thousands stood weeping and wailing in the snow as Kim Jong-il's funeral cortege passed, images from state television showed.
Kim Jong-un - Mr Kim's third son - cried as he walked alongside the hearse. Tens of thousands of soldiers lined up to bow their heads in homage in the city's main square.
Kim Jong-un - who is thought to be in his late 20s and who has little political experience - was accompanied by his uncle, Chang Song-taek.
Mr Chang is expected to be a key player as the younger Kim consolidates power.
Kim Jong-il - known in North Korea as the "Dear Leader" - was in the process of formalising Kim Jong-un as his successor when he died.
However, the transition was not complete, leaving regional neighbours fearful of a power struggle in the nuclear-armed pariah state.
Mr Kim's two older sons, Kim Jong-nam and Kim Jong-chol, were not seen at the funeral.
No foreign delegations have attended any of the events. However, UN offices around the world lowered their flags to half-mast.
A spokesman at the UN headquarters in New York said that the move had been requested by Pyongyang's UN mission but was part of normal protocol for the funeral of any head of state.

The move will allow Japan to jointly develop arms with other countries and supply military equipment for humanitarian missions, the spokesman said.
It is expected to help bring military costs down at a time of growing concern about the massive public debt.
It is the first comprehensive revision to the ban since it was enacted.
Japan is concerned about the growing military might of China - and the threat from North Korea - and hopes the move will strengthen the domestic arms industry.
Close watch "The new standards (on weapons exports) are a result of the government considering measures that required attention amid recent changes to the environment surrounding international defence equipment," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said.
The revised rules will continue to ban sales to communist nations, those subject to UN trade embargoes and those involved in international conflicts, the government said.
Mr Fujimura said Japan would still keep a close watch on exports to avoid fanning conflicts.
The ban is a legacy of Japan's post-war pacifist constitution. The restrictions on weapons sales date from the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, when Japan banned exports to communist countries and those engaged in international conflicts.
The ban was extended to most other countries in the following decade.
Exemptions have been granted in the past to allow technology sharing with the US, with which Japan has a security alliance.
Joint development with other nations is seen as a way to bring defence spending costs down. The move could also open up new markets for Japan's big defence contractors.

The move will allow Japan to jointly develop arms with other countries and supply military equipment for humanitarian missions, the spokesman said.
It is expected to help bring military costs down at a time of growing concern about the massive public debt.
It is the first comprehensive revision to the ban since it was enacted.
Japan is concerned about the growing military might of China - and the threat from North Korea - and hopes the move will strengthen the domestic arms industry.
Close watch "The new standards (on weapons exports) are a result of the government considering measures that required attention amid recent changes to the environment surrounding international defence equipment," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said.
The revised rules will continue to ban sales to communist nations, those subject to UN trade embargoes and those involved in international conflicts, the government said.
Mr Fujimura said Japan would still keep a close watch on exports to avoid fanning conflicts.
The ban is a legacy of Japan's post-war pacifist constitution. The restrictions on weapons sales date from the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, when Japan banned exports to communist countries and those engaged in international conflicts.
The ban was extended to most other countries in the following decade.
Exemptions have been granted in the past to allow technology sharing with the US, with which Japan has a security alliance.
Joint development with other nations is seen as a way to bring defence spending costs down. The move could also open up new markets for Japan's big defence contractors.

Officials say more bodies had been found in the waters south of the island of Mindanao.
It is not clear how many people are still missing but officials say the search for bodies will continue.
Typhoon Washi struck from 16 to 18 December, devastating the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
Many of those who died were sleeping as Typhoon Washi caused rivers to burst their banks, leading to landslides. Entire villages were washed away.
Civil defence chief Benito Ramos said that an earlier higher death toll provided by the health department had been revised downwards and that the current toll was now based on an actual count of both identified and unidentified recovered bodies.
Appeal for funds
Regional disaster council chief Ana Caneda told AFP news agency that they expected to find more bodies.
"There are still a lot of areas we have examined that are stinking of dead bodies," she told the agency. "We don't know how many people are buried under that mud."
The national disaster agency said it could take up to six months to build temporary housing for the 60,000 who are now homeless in the wake of the storm.
Many of them are currently taking temporary shelter in school buildings.
The chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, Richard Gordon, told the BBC that providing long-term housing was a challenge.
"Right now, what they (flood victims) are in need of is transitional housing," he said, adding that they would have to move out of school buildings and into tent cities by 3 January when classes start.
"The problem is land. We need to have safe land, land that will not be threatened by any earthquake or any floods or any landslides," said Mr Gordon.
Aid agencies have appealed for funds to help those who are affected. The United Nations is seeking $28.6m (£18.2m) from donors to help provide water and sanitation to storm victims.

Shimon Peres was speaking as activists gathered to protest in the town of Beit Shemesh against the way some ultra-Orthodox Jews treat women.
There have been two days of clashes in the town after a girl said she had been harassed on her way to school.
Some ultra-Orthodox in Beit Shemesh are seeking to segregate men and women.
Mr Peres said today was a "test for the nation", not just the police.
"The entire nation must be recruited in order to save the majority from the hands of a small minority," Mr Peres said.
He said the demonstration was a defence of the "character" of the state of Israel "against a minority which breaks our national solidarity".
'Afraid to go to school'
Anger spilled over after an eight-year-old American girl, Naama Margolese, said she was afraid to walk to school in the town because ultra-Orthodox men shouted at her.
"When I walk to school in the morning, I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared... that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting," she said in a subsequent interview with The Associated Press on Monday.
In his statement, Mr Peres said: "No person has the right to threaten a girl, a woman or any person in any way. They are not the lords of this land."
Dozens, many holding placards, have gathered outside the Orot girls' school, attended by the eight-year-old.
Women have reported similar incidents in the town of 100,000, some 18 miles (30km) south-west of Jerusalem.
Sarit Ramon described the situation in the town, where religiously observant immigrants live alongside Israelis embracing a more modern lifestyle, as having been "catastrophic for years".
"When I told that I was spat at a year and a half ago, people raised an eyebrow, and that was about it," she told Reuters.
Microcosm
Though underlining that this behaviour was carried out by only a tiny proportion of the community, she said what was happening in Beit Shemesh was "a microcosm of what's happening in the whole country".
On Monday, one police officer was slightly hurt and a number of Orthodox Jews were detained after a group of some 300 ultra-Orthodox residents pelted police with stones and eggs in an incident reportedly triggered after police tried to remove a sign ordering segregation.
A television crew attempting to film in the town were surrounded and harassed - the second alleged attack on journalists in as many days.
On Sunday, a crew from Channel 2 news, which originally aired Naama Margolese's story, were attacked as they were filming, say reports, with rocks allegedly thrown at their van.
After Monday's clashes, unnamed ultra-Orthodox activists from Beit Shemesh issued a statement condemning the violence, but also accusing the media of initiating "deliberate provocations in order to make the peaceful, quiet and tolerant residents, who live their lives according to their beliefs, look bad".
Such clashes have become more frequent in Israel in recent years as the authorities have challenged efforts by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate women in public places.
The BBC's Jon Donnison, in Jerusalem, says the events have highlighted what is a growing religious divide in Israel.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 10% of the population in Israel. The community has a high birth rate and is growing rapidly.