North Korea Blows up Parts of Inter-Korean Road on Its Side of Border, Seoul Says

North Korean border county of Kaepoong is seen from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
North Korean border county of Kaepoong is seen from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
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North Korea Blows up Parts of Inter-Korean Road on Its Side of Border, Seoul Says

North Korean border county of Kaepoong is seen from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
North Korean border county of Kaepoong is seen from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on October 15, 2024. (AFP)

North Korea has blown up sections of an inter-Korean road on its side of the heavily militarized border between the two Koreas, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Tuesday.

At around midday, some parts of the road north of the military demarcation line dividing the countries were blown up, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message sent to media.

South Korea's military had ramped up surveillance and its readiness in response, it said. Seoul had warned on Monday that Pyongyang was getting ready to blow up the roads.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been increasing amid an escalating war of words after the North accused its rival of sending drones over the country's capital Pyongyang.

North Korea on Friday said the drones had scattered a "huge number" of anti-North leaflets over the city, in what it called political and military provocation that could lead to armed conflict.

A spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff declined on Monday to answer questions over whether the South Korean military or civilians had flown the alleged drones.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had overseen on Monday a meeting with defense and security officials to discuss how to respond to the "enemy's serious provocation that violated the sovereignty of the DPRK", state media KCNA reported. DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.



King Charles to Visit New York to Commemorate 9/11 Victims

US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
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King Charles to Visit New York to Commemorate 9/11 Victims

US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)

Britain's King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla arrive in New York on Wednesday to commemorate victims of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attack on the city, part of a four-day state visit to the US.

The king and queen's visit to New York follows a packed day in Washington on Tuesday, when Charles delivered a speech to the US Congress, held private meetings with President Donald Trump amid tensions between the US and Britain over the Iran war, and sat down with leaders of the US tech industry.

At a White House state dinner on Tuesday night, Trump suggested Charles told the president he did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The king is not a spokesman for the UK government and it could not be confirmed that Charles made the statement to Trump.

Britain was one of the countries alongside the US that negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which sharply limited Tehran's nuclear programs and opened them to inspectors until Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement during his first White House term.

Charles and Camilla's visit to New York comes on the third day of their state visit to the US during a tense time in relations between the US and Britain after Trump has repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for what Trump says is his lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.

Charles and Camilla will begin their day in New York with a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by al Qaeda suicide bombers on September 11, 2001, an attack that killed nearly 2,800 people.

Charles is expected to meet with New York City's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the ceremony.

The king will then head to Harlem to visit a grassroots community organization that created a sustainable after-school urban farming initiative in an effort to combat food insecurity, according to local media. Such projects have been a passion of the king's for decades.

Meanwhile, Camilla will celebrate the 100th birthday of A.A. Milne’s fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh on behalf of her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, which Buckingham Palace is calling a "literary engagement" event.


UK Police Say Two Men Stabbed in London in Stable Condition

Elements of the British police (Reuters)
Elements of the British police (Reuters)
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UK Police Say Two Men Stabbed in London in Stable Condition

Elements of the British police (Reuters)
Elements of the British police (Reuters)

British police said on Wednesday that a man had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two men were stabbed in an area of north London with a large Jewish population.

London's Metropolitan Police said the two men who had been stabbed had been taken to hospital and were in a stable condition.

The suspect also attempted to stab police officers, the Met said, adding that no officers were injured, Reuters reported.

"Specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing are leading the investigation and working with the Metropolitan Police to establish the full circumstances and any links to terrorism," the Met said in a statement.

Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said that "investigators are considering all possible motives".


UN: Iran Has Executed 21, Arrested 4,000 Since Start of War

A man walks past an Iranian flag installed along the roadside in Tehran on April 29, 2026, depicting images of children killed on the first day of the war in an alleged US-Israeli missile strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A man walks past an Iranian flag installed along the roadside in Tehran on April 29, 2026, depicting images of children killed on the first day of the war in an alleged US-Israeli missile strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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UN: Iran Has Executed 21, Arrested 4,000 Since Start of War

A man walks past an Iranian flag installed along the roadside in Tehran on April 29, 2026, depicting images of children killed on the first day of the war in an alleged US-Israeli missile strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A man walks past an Iranian flag installed along the roadside in Tehran on April 29, 2026, depicting images of children killed on the first day of the war in an alleged US-Israeli missile strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran has executed at least 21 people and arrested more than 4,000 since the beginning of the Middle East war, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Since the US-Israeli strikes sparked the war in late February, at least nine people have been executed in connection with the protests that rocked Iran in January 2026, another 10 for alleged membership of opposition groups and two on spying charges, the UN's rights office said.

More than 4,000 people are meanwhile estimated to have been arrested on national security-related grounds, the agency added, according to AFP.

It said many detainees had been victims of forced disappearances, torture or "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment", including forced confessions -- sometimes televised -- and mock executions.

"I am appalled that -- on top of the already severe impacts of the conflict -- the rights of the Iranian people continue to be stripped from them by the authorities, in harsh and brutal ways," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

"I call on the authorities to halt all further executions, establish a moratorium on the use of capital punishment, fully ensure due process and fair trial guarantees, and immediately release those arbitrarily detained."