NKorea Vows 'Total Destruction' of Enemy on Korean War Anniversary

HANDOUT - 28 July 2024, North Korea, Pyongyang: A photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 28 July 2024 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un placing a flower at the base of the Monument to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War, during celebrations to mark the 71st anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Photo: KCNA/dpa
HANDOUT - 28 July 2024, North Korea, Pyongyang: A photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 28 July 2024 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un placing a flower at the base of the Monument to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War, during celebrations to mark the 71st anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Photo: KCNA/dpa
TT

NKorea Vows 'Total Destruction' of Enemy on Korean War Anniversary

HANDOUT - 28 July 2024, North Korea, Pyongyang: A photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 28 July 2024 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un placing a flower at the base of the Monument to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War, during celebrations to mark the 71st anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Photo: KCNA/dpa
HANDOUT - 28 July 2024, North Korea, Pyongyang: A photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 28 July 2024 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un placing a flower at the base of the Monument to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War, during celebrations to mark the 71st anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Photo: KCNA/dpa

North Korea vowed to "totally destroy" its enemies in case of war when leader Kim Jong Un gives an order, state media KCNA reported on Sunday.
Senior military officials including Army Colonel Ri Un Ryong and Navy Lieutenant Commander Yu Kyong Song made the comments "out of surging hatred" towards the US and South Korea at a meeting on Saturday attended by Kim to celebrate the 71st Korean War armistice anniversary, according to KCNA.
North Korea and the United States do not have diplomatic ties and talks over reducing tensions and denuclearizing North Korea have been stalled since 2019. North Korea's state media recently said it doesn't expect that to change no matter who is next elected in the White House.
While accusing the US and South Korea of "being hell-bent on provoking a nuclear war," the military officials vowed to strengthen war efficiency to stage an "overwhelming attack on the enemy anytime and without delay and totally destroy them once the respected Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un gives an order."
North Korea signed an armistice agreement with the United States and China on July 27, 1953 ending hostilities in the three-year war. US generals signed the agreement representing the United Nations forces that backed South Korea.
North Korea calls July 27 "Victory Day" while South Korea does not mark the day with any major events.



Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
TT

Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday that the man suspected of shooting top Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and handed over to Russia.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, ⁠Russia's military intelligence arm, was shot several times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said. He underwent surgery after the shooting, Russian media ⁠said.

The FSB said a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said was designed to sabotage peace talks. ⁠Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the shooting.

Alexeyev's boss, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU, has been leading Russia's delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.


Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
TT

Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo

An explosion at a biotech factory in northern China has killed eight people, Chinese state media reported Sunday, increasing the total number of fatalities by one.

State news agency Xinhua had previously reported that seven people died and one person was missing after the Saturday morning explosion at the Jiapeng biotech company in Shanxi province, citing local authorities.

Later, Xinhua said eight were dead, adding that the firm's legal representative had been taken into custody.

The company is located in Shanyin County, about 400 kilometers west of Beijing, AFP reported.

Xinhua said clean-up operations were ongoing, noting that reporters observed dark yellow smoke emanating from the site of the explosion.

Authorities have established a team to investigate the cause of the blast, the report added.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards.
In late January, an explosion at a steel factory in the neighboring province of Inner Mongolia left at least nine people dead.


Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TT

Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran will never surrender the right to enrich uranium, even if war "is imposed on us,” its foreign minister said Sunday, defying pressure from Washington.

"Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear program and for uranium enrichment," Abbas Araghchi told a forum in Tehran.

"Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up even if a war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behavior," he said, two days after he met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman.

The foreign minister also declared that his country was not intimidated by the US naval deployment in the Gulf.

"Their military deployment in the region does not scare us," Araghchi said.