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North Korea missile launches a "daunting challenge" as Biden considers how to deal with Kim Jong Un
CBSN
Beijing — North Korea test-fired what U.S. officials believe were two short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday. It was Kim Jong Un's first such launch since President Joe Biden took office, and it came just hours before his first scheduled solo news conference as commander-in-chief.
The projectiles, the launch of which would be a violation of United Nations sanctions on North Korea if they're confirmed to have been ballistic missiles, flew approximately 270 miles and landed in the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. "It is a clear statement of intimidation," retired South Korean Lieutenant General Chun In-bum told CBS News. He said North Korea wanted to show the world they "are not bound by any outside rules. The two short range ballistic missiles could easily have been intermediate or longer-range missiles if [North] Korea intended on doing so. This is going to go on and on until North Korea goes too far, and that's what I am afraid of."
Concern over a man who'd exhibited "fixated behavior" caused Emma Raducanu to approach the chair umpire in tears and take an unscheduled break in her second-round match at the Dubai Championships, the Women's Tennis Association said Wednesday. The incident unfolded three years after a man in Britain was convicted of stalking the star player at her family home.
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Rio de Janeiro — Brazil's prosecutor-general on Tuesday formally charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, in a plot that included a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and kill a Supreme Court judge.
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Russia has freed a U.S. citizen arrested earlier this month on drug smuggling charges, according to Russian media reports and a U.S. official who spoke with The Associated Press. The move appeared to be an effort to ease tension between Moscow and Washington ahead of talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, which are expected to focus on the war in Ukraine and the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.
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Beijing — China's Foreign Ministry took issue Monday with a revised U.S. government fact sheet that removed a line on American opposition to independence for Taiwan. The United States "gravely backpedaled" on its position on Taiwan and sent the wrong message to "separatist forces" on the island, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.