North Korea&#8217;s foreign minister on Monday accused President Donald Trump of declaring war, saying that gives the rogue regime the right to take countermeasures.
That includes the right to shoot down strategic U.S. bombers, even when they are not flying in North Korean airspace, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters in New York.
&#8220;The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.&#8221;

North Korea accuses US of declaring war

Giselda Vagnoni and Steve Scherer | TAORMINA, Italy
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations met African heads of state on Saturday, the final day of their annual summit which has been marked by discord over climate change, but unity on tackling terrorism.
Italy had hoped to make Africa the major focus of the annual G7 gathering, holding the discussions on the island of Sicily that has taken in hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past four years as they flee war and poverty back home.
However, the two-day meeting got overshadowed by a suicide bombing in northern England on Monday that killed 22 people, and also got bogged down by lengthy discussions on the merit of free trade and the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.
U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether to honour a U.S. commitment to greenhouse gas emissions and has pushed back against a lattice of international trade accords that he says have hurt American economic interests.
&#8220;We are having to talk about things settled years ago,&#8221; said a top level member of one G7 delegation, frustrated by the U.S. position.
Diplomats from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States worked late into the night to agree on the final communique, which was expected to be little more than six pages long, against 32 pages last year.
A French presidential source said substantial progress had been made on the question of trade, particularly in the area of multilateralism, suggesting Trump may have bowed to pressure for a more collaborative approach to international commerce.
Italy had hoped to emphasise the positive impact migration can have and to call on industrialised nations to open up more legal channels for immigration to try to slow the flow of people risking their lives to reach Europe on flimsy boats from Libya.
That idea was shot down ahead of the meeting.
&#8220;There was very strong opposition by the Americans and British who wanted to refocus on security and water down the expansive language on freedom of movement,&#8221; said a European diplomat, who declined to be named.
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT
Security questions dominated initial G7 discussion on Friday and the leaders issued a statement telling internet service providers and social media firms to &#8220;substantially increase&#8221; their efforts to rein in extremist content.
The leaders of Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria&#8217;s acting president joined the talks on Saturday morning, along with the heads of the African Union, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
&#8220;Perhaps the choice (to be in) Taormina and Sicily says much about how important our relations are with Africa,&#8221; Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in opening remarks.
&#8220;Today our discussion on Africa will focus on the need for a partnership across all sectors &#8230; with innovation and development our core objective,&#8221; he said, speaking in Italian.
Unlike other leaders, Trump, who was sitting between the heads of state of Tunisia and Niger, did not put on headphones to listen to a simultaneous translation.
The U.S. president will return to Washington later on Saturday at the end of a nine-day tour of the Middle East and Europe &#8212; his first foreign trip since taking office.
Unlike other G7 leaders, he is not due to give a closing press conference before flying out.
U.S. officials said he had enjoyed &#8220;robust&#8221; conversations with his allies in Sicily and had also learnt a lot &#8212; especially in the debate on climate change, which he has previously dismissed as a hoax.
&#8220;He came here to learn. He came here to get smart. His views are evolving which exactly as they should be,&#8221; Trump&#8217;s economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Giselda Vagnoni, John Irish, and Andrea Rinke; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Noah Barkin and Toby Chopra)

G7 leaders turn gaze to Africa, climate harmony elusive

A court in Congo Republic on Tuesday threw out a challenge to opposition leader Paulin Makaya&#8217;s prison sentence for his role in protests against a third term for President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Makaya was sentenced to two years in jail last July on four counts including &#8220;incitement to disturb public order&#8221; during a demonstration in October 2015, when thousands of people took to the streets to protest against a referendum on a third term for Sassou Nguesso.
He has repeatedly denied the charges.
Sassou Nguesso has ruled Congo for all but five years since 1979, and was re-elected in March 2016 after the referendum passed.
&#8220;We have the possibility of appealing to the court of cassation within two to three days,&#8221; his lawyer Yvon Éric Ibouanga told journalists in Brazzaville, after Makaya&#8217;s defeat in the appeals court.
&#8220;We continue to believe that we can one day obtain a decision grounded in the law.&#8221;
Four people were killed at the march in October 2015 when security forces opened fire on a crowd that had refused to disperse. Residents said the violence was the worst since Sassou Nguesso retook power in 1997 at the end of a brief civil war.
Makaya was also charged a 2.5 million CFA franc ($4,086.30) fine. He is not the only opposition figure to face Congo&#8217;s justice system.
Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko, the former army chief and a power broker in the former French colony&#8217;s 1990s civil war, is on trial for allegedly violating state security and illegally possessing weapons of war. He was denied bail in August.
Mokoko finished third to Sassou Nguesso in the 2016 election criticised by opposition parties and foreign powers for irregularities.
($1 = 611.8000 CFA francs)
(Reporting by Philon Bondenga and Bouka Roch; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Richard Lough)
&nbsp;

Congo Republic opposition leader’s appeal against jail term fails

JUBA &#8211; Displaced civilians and religious leaders in war-torn South Sudan appealed to the U.N. Security Council on Saturday to urgently deploy extra foreign troops as government ministers questioned whether more peacekeepers were needed in the capital, Juba.
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The 15-member council met with President Salva Kiir&#8217;s cabinet, religious and civil society leaders and visited two U.N. compounds in Juba where tens of thousands of civilians have been sheltering amid nearly three years of violence.
While the country&#8217;s conflict was sparked in December 2013 by political rivalry between Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar, Anglican Archbishop Daniel Deng warned that &#8220;people have been made to believe it&#8217;s a tribal war.&#8221;
&#8220;What happened in Rwanda &#8211; we&#8217;re afraid it can happen in this country,&#8221; he told the Security Council, referring to the Hutu genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.
Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro described the planned deployment of a 4,000-strong regional protection force to ensure peace in Juba, authorized by the Security Council last month, as a &#8220;reconciliation force.&#8221;
&#8220;We need this help,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We cannot put our nation on the right track alone.&#8221;
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but slid into civil war after Kiir sacked Machar as his vice president. The conflict between forces loyal to Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and Machar, a Nuer, has often followed ethnic lines.
The pair signed a peace deal a year ago but fighting has continued and Machar has now fled to neighboring Sudan.
After a meeting between the council and Kiir&#8217;s cabinet, U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said the cabinet ministers had asked &#8220;whether the regional protection force was still needed given that Riek Machar has fled the country, given the transitional government is working more smoothly.&#8221;
&#8220;We as a council sent an unequivocal message that &#8216;yes, this force is still needed&#8217;,&#8221; she told reporters. The Security Council has threatened to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan if the government does not cooperate.
South Sudan&#8217;s Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Martin Elias Lomoro, said of the planned deployment: &#8220;We&#8217;re discussing the modalities.&#8221;
The new force will boost a 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force (UNMISS) that has been on the ground since 2011. When the conflict erupted in 2013, the United Nations took the rare step of sheltering civilians at several of its compounds.
&#8220;That&#8217;s one of the reasons why a regional protection force is so necessary because so much of UNMISS&#8217;s resources is devoted to protecting civilians in the camps,&#8221; Deputy British U.N. Ambassador Peter Wilson told reporters.
U.N. peacekeepers currently protect nearly 200,000 civilians at six sites around the country. The Security Council, which visited two camps in Juba on Saturday, were greeted at the U.N. House site by mainly displaced Nuer shouting &#8220;down, down, Salva Kiir.&#8221;
&#8220;We need your help, we are tired,&#8221; said Peter Gatkuoth, 23, who has sheltered at the U.N. House site for several years.
The South Sudan conflict has been marked by the use of rape as a weapon and some displaced women told council members on Saturday that they had to risk being the target of sexual violence every time they left the camp to get food and firewood.
&#8220;As a mother I can&#8217;t imagine that choice,&#8221; Power said. &#8220;I know I would go and take that risk for my children, I think any mother would. We heard desperate appeals for the regional protection force to be deployed quickly.&#8221;
Oil producer South Sudan&#8217;s fledgling economy has been battered by the conflict, driving prices higher and leaving half the country&#8217;s 12 million people without enough food.
Paleki Ayang, director of the South Sudan Women Empowerment Network, told the council her monthly salary had dropped from $2,000 more than two years ago to $80.
&#8220;If somebody is hungry you can&#8217;t preach to them about peace agreements,&#8221; she said.
 
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols in Juba; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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North Korea accuses US of declaring war

G7 leaders turn gaze to Africa, climate harmony elusive

Congo Republic opposition leader’s appeal against jail term fails

Displaced South Sudanese appeal to U.N. to send more troops

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North Korea accuses US of declaring war

G7 leaders turn gaze to Africa, climate harmony elusive

Congo Republic opposition leader’s appeal against jail term fails

Displaced South Sudanese appeal to U.N. to send more troops

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