NORTH KOREA CLAIMS FIRST H-BOMB TEST
Photo: Yonhap News/ImageCollect/Newscom/ZUMA
North Korea claimed Wednesday it had successfully conducted its first hydrogen-bomb test, with the regime’s official television network hailing the move as “a world-startling event to be specially recorded in the national history.”
- International condemnation quickly followed the first reports. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said in a statement: “The test is not only a grave provocation to our national security but also a threat to our future … and a strong challenge to international peace and stability.”
- The explosion, which took place at the nuclear test site at Punggye-ri provoked an earthquake, the magnitude of which was estimated between 4.8 and 5.1. But experts believe that a genuine hydrogen-bomb explosion should have produced a much stronger quake, leading many, including South Korea’s spies, to say that it’s likely the test involved a less powerful atomic bomb, AP reports.
- The UN Security Council has announced an emergency meeting.
VERBATIM
“We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence,” said a tearful Barack Obama during what CNN describes as “a passionate call for a national “sense of urgency” to limit gun violence.” The U.S. President is pushing for Congress to accept improved background checks for gun buyers and he insisted his plan was “not a plot to take away everybody’s guns.” The Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan criticized Obama’s words and plans, which he said amounted to “intimidation that undermines liberty.”
SANDERS ATTACKS WALL STREET, CLINTON
Hillary Clinton’s main rival for the Democratic nomination for presidency, Bernie Sanders has launched his campaign’s most direct attack on Wall Street and “establishment politicians,” as he unveiled plans Tuesday to break up “too big to fail” banks. “The reality is that Congress doesn’t regulate Wall Street. Wall Street and their lobbyists regulate Congress. We must change that reality, and as president, I will,” The New York Times quotes the Vermont Senator as saying. Sanders saved a harsh note of criticism for Clinton — though without naming her — and those who earned “very generous speaking fees” from bankers.
ON THIS DAY
Mother Teresa, Joan of Arc and more in today’s 57-second shot of history.
18 MINUTES
FBI investigators working on the Dec. 2 San Bernardino shooting said they were “missing 18 minutes” during which the actions of attackers Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik are unknown, The Los Angeles Times reports. “We’re dark,” said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s L.A. office.
COLOGNE PROTESTS AFTER NEW YEAR’S EVE ASSAULTS
- Anger is growing in Germany in the wake of revelations that more than 90 crimes — including a rape — were reported around the train station and cathedral area during the end-of-year festivities by suspects reported to be of North African and Arab origin.
- Germany’s interior ministry reported on Wednesday that about 1.1 million migrants had entered and registered in the country in 2015, five times more than in 2014, with some 40% of the refugees arriving from war-torn Syria.
