News in Brief
N Korea leader tells arms factories to boost capacity
REUTERS – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has instructed factories making missile engines, artillery and other weapons to boost capacity as an important part of bolstering the country’s defense capabilities, state media said on Sunday.
Kim’s inspections from Thursday to Saturday included the production of engines for strategic cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as shells for super large-caliber multiple-rocket launchers and transporter-erector-launchers, said state news agency KCNA.
His unusual visits to multiple arms production facilities over several days come as Pyongyang pushes to develop various strategic and conventional weapons and holds prominent displays of a range of arms.
Pence may testify against Donald Trump
REUTERS – Former Republican Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday did not rule out being a prosecution witness if his ex-boss Donald Trump goes to trial on charges of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to try to reverse his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
Asked on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan if he would be a witness against Trump if the case goes to trial, Pence said he had “no plans” to testify, but did not rule it out.
“But people can be confident we’ll obey the law, we’ll respond to the call of law, if it comes, and we’ll just tell the truth,” said Pence, who is running against Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest.
Morocco minibus plunge kills 24
A minibus carrying market-goers in Morocco plunged into a ravine on Sunday, killing 24 people in one of the North African country’s worst-ever road accidents, officials said.
The passengers were travelling a mountainous route to a weekly market in the town of Demnate, in the central province of Azilal, when the minibus overturned on a bend, the local authorities said.
Images on public broadcaster 2M showed the vehicle crushed at the bottom of the ravine.