Hello, this is Jim Lee with the BBC news.
North Korea has fired several short-range missiles into the sea off its eastern coast. It's an apparent response to tough new sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council following a North Korean nuclear test in January. China, the North's ally and a permanent number of the Security Council voted in favor of the sanctions. But our correspondent John Sudworth who was at China's border with North Korea says Beijing is wary of their impact.
Were it to do anything to push an already fragile neighbor to the brink of economic collapse, then it would lead to chaos and disaster right upon this border, a refugee crisis, serious strategic questions about what to do about the existing assets, the military assets south of that border. China does't want that. So its real priority is stability. And to that end, I think there is big question mark, not over the toughness of the sanctions but over the willingness of China in particular to enforce them.
A monitoring group in the Central African Republic says the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has abducted more than 200 people in recent weeks including 54 children during a sharp rise in attacks. It says the group led by Joseph Kony may have forced the children to become soldiers, sex slaves or camp laborers. Sean Poole is a member of the monitoring group.
This is a huge change in the modus operandi of the group. And we'll probably see that LRA has lost a large chunk of its fighting force over the past four years. It's having to replenish that group and they're utilizing children to do so. That's what they've done in the past. It seems like they are doing currently.
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The president of the European Council Donald Tusk is visiting Greece and Turkey in an attempt to resolve the crisis over migration which is threatening the stability of the European Union. European countries along the main migrant routes have tightened their borders, stranding thousands in the main country of entry, Greece,with new arrivals crossing from Turkey every day. Chris Morris reports from the Greek island of Lesbos.
Donald Tusk has been touring capital cities in central and southeast in Europe this week, trying to ease tensions caused by the migration crisis. But nothing he says and nothing the European Union does will make much difference unless the number of refugees and migrants arriving on the Greek islands starts to fall significantly. So far this year, some 75,000 people have already reached Lesbos alone on small boats that set out from the Turkish coast. Smuggling remains a hugely lucrative business and the demand is still high.
The French finance minister says his country could allow migrants to travel unchecked to Britain if voters in the UK choose to leave the European Union. Emanualle Macron said the next exit vote in the June referendum could end a bilateral deal allowing Britain to vet new arrivals on French territory.
World news from the BBC.
A Ukrainian helicopter pilot who is accused of killing two Russian TV journalists will make his final address to a court in Russia later today. Prosecutors say Nadia Savchenko acted as an artillery spotter and deliberately guided a strike that killed the Russian journalists during fighting in East Ukraine. Nadia Savchenko denies the charge.
Hongkong police say three book sellers from the territory who have been held in mainland China will be released within days. The men have all appeared on state TV, apparently confessing to smuggling illegal books into China. Their supporters say they were abducted and forced to make the confessions because they published books critical of the ruling Communist party.
Australian transport minister says the debris from a plane which washed up on a beach in Mozambique would be transferred to Australia to see if its part of a missing Malaysian airliner. The minister Darren Chester said the metal panel was about 1 meter long but would not speculate about whether it came from flight MH370. Grace Nathan whose mother was on board of the missing plane says the families are urging the authorities to keep searching.
We are basically trying to just emphasize once again that giving up is not an option. And we really really hope that the governments listen to us and hear our plead to continue searching even if it means reevaluating, restarting from the beginning.
Environmentalists say they're worried about the emergence of Facebook as an online market place for the trade in endangered species. The wildlife monitoring network Traffic found hundreds of protected animals for sale on Facebook groups in Malaysia including sun bears, gibbons and binturongs also known as bearcats.
A man who was filmed swimming with pet snake on the Australia Gold Coast could face animal cruelty charges. The man drew attention by swimming with his pet carpet python while holding a a can of beer at a creek in Queenland. Steven Brimelow told the local newspaper that the snake was the love of his life and that he often took it to the pub.