Hello, I'm Jerry Smit with the BBC News.
The UN Security Council has agreed to start work immediately on drawing up news anctions against North Korea following its claim to have tested a hydrogen bomb. There is skepticism that Pyongyang's latest nuclear test, the fourth in adecade, was powerful enough to have been a hydrogen device. From Washington,here is Aleem Maqbool.
“The White House says initial analysis is not consistent with the North Korean claims it tested a hydrogen bomb. Nevertheless, its condemnation of whatever nuclear
test might have taken place was unequivocal.The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting when members said Pyongyang had threatened world peace. The Council resolved to come up with strong measures to deter North Korea in the future.”
The Governor of California Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in response to a major methane gas leak that has forced thousands of people from their homes on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Peter Bowes reports from LA.
“Thenatural gas leak has been going on since October. It stems from a vast underground storage field in Porter Ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles.Local people have complained about headaches, nausea, vomiting and dizziness,although health officials have said the gas is not toxic. According to the Southern California Gas Company which owns the storage facility, the leak has been traced to a steel pipeline more than 1,000 meters under the ground.”
The US Defense Department says that two Yemeni detainees held in its prison facility in Guantanamo have been transferred to Ghana. They are the first Guantanamo
inmates to be relocated to Sub-Saharan Africa. Enn Buzby reports.
“The Pentagon said one detainee Khalid al-Dhuby was approved for release ten years ago and the other Mahmud Umar Bin Atef in 2009. But they couldn't leave until a
stable country was found to receive them. Although neither man has ever been charged with any crime, they aren't allowed to return to Yemen. TheForeign Ministry in
Ghana said it is the request of the US government that it agrees to take in the men for a period of two years. It said their activities would be monitored.”
Officials in Libya say shelling by Islamic State militia of two main oil terminals has sparked fires that have spread to giant storage tanks. Fires are said to be
raging in Es Sider and Ras Lanuf near the city ofBenghazi. Libya's National Oil Company said ten security guards had been killed and forty injured since Monday.
The man accused of buying the guns used in the deadly shooting in San Bernadino in California last month has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. Fourteenpeople
were killed in the attack on a social center by Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik. Enrique Marquez was a friend of Farook and a Muslim convert.The FBI says he
admitted planning other mass shootings with Farook, but never carried them out. He faces up to fifty years in prison if convicted.
Worldnews from the BBC.
Qatar has become the latest country to show its support for Saudi Arabia in its dispute with Iran by withdrawing its ambassador to Tehran. Kuwait, Bahrain,Sudan and
Djibouti have already cut or reduced their diplomatic ties with Iranin the continuing fallout from the Saudi's execution of a prominent Shiitecleric. This was followed
by a violent protest against the Saudi Embassy in the Iranian capital.
The World Bank has said that there would be global economic growth this year,but it forecasts that it would be modest and held back by weakness in many emerging
economies. Brag Schisger Ernzoger is one of the authors of the WorldBank report.
“This is the key risk to global growth in 2016, in our view, thata number of emerging markets, not just one, but a number of large emerging markets, slow at the same
time. And we estimate, for example, that 1% decline in BRICS growth, with slow growth in other emerging markets by 0.8%, and possibly global growth by 0.4%.”
During its first full session in control of the Venezuelan Congress, the opposition has defied the Supreme Court swearing in three of its members suspended for alleged
election irregularities. The move gives the opposition atwo-thirds majority which could eventually clear the way for a referendum on whether the Socialist President
Nicolas Maduro should remain in office.
The President of Haiti Michel Martelly has said his country's delayed presidential runoff election will now take place on January 24. It was postponed last month to
allow investigations into alleged vote rigging in October's first round, which gave the lead to the government backed candidate.
The video streaming site Netflix says it's now available in nearly every country in the world. The firm announced it has switched on its service in 190 countries
including India, but not China.