News in Brief

N Korea may be close to nuke test: Seoul
Afp, Seoul

North Korea could well be preparing to carry out a fourth nuclear test, South Korea said yesterday, citing increased activity at its main test site just days ahead of a visit to Seoul by US President Barack Obama.
Defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok stressed that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme was at a stage where it could conduct a test "at any moment" once the order was given by the leadership in Pyongyang.

MERS death toll hits 81 in Saudi
Afp, Riyadh

The MERS death toll has climbed to 81 in Saudi Arabia, which sacked its health minister as cases of infection by the coronavirus mount in the country.
The ministry said it has registered 261 cases of infection across the kingdom since the discovery of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in September 2012. The World Health Organisation said on April 17 that it has been informed of 243 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS worldwide, including 93 deaths.

Nine killed in attacks in Pakistan
Reuters Online

3 people were killed and 33 others, including 12 policemen, were wounded yesterday in a bombing in  Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province during the morning rush hour. 5 cops and an ambulance driver were killed in a separate attack on a police patrol on the outskirts of the regional capital of Peshawar.

234 schoolgirls still missing in Nigeria
Reuters, Maiduguri

Parents of girls abducted by Boko Haram Islamists were searching for their daughters in a remote forest, they told the state governor on Monday, adding that 234 were still missing, a much higher figure than authorities said.