US sanctions North Korea's Kim Jong-un for the first time

The US has sanctioned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the first time, accusing him of human rights abuses.

A statement from the US Treasury named Mr Kim as directly responsible for violations in his country.

Ten other top North Korean officials have also been blacklisted. There has been no response yet from the North Korean government.

The measures freeze any property the individuals have in the US and prevent US citizens doing business with them.

North Korea is already under an extensive sanctions regime for its nuclear activities but analysts see the latest move as an escalation of US efforts to isolate the nation.

• Kim Jong-un's 'weight problem' and the pitfalls of spy briefings

"Under Kim Jong-un, North Korea continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labour, and torture," the Treasury statement said.

The sanctions were announced to coincide with a State Department report documenting abuses in North Korea.

It estimates that between 80,000 and 120,000 prisoners are being held in North Korean prison camps where torture, sexual assault and executions are routine.

State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted the sanctions were unlikely to deter Mr Kim.

"But that doesn't mean this still isn't the right thing to do and it doesn't mean that it still isn't the right thing for us to continue to pursue," he added.

The US has imposed sanctions against other heads of state before, including Syria's Bashar al-Assad and former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Cautious green light for fracking

The government’s climate change advisors have given a cautious green light to fracking in the UK.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says fracking can go ahead if three key tests are met.

And the government says it already plans to meet those tests – on methane leaks, gas consumption and carbon budgets.

Environmentalists argue fracking will make the UK’s climate change targets impossible to achieve.

But the CCC disagrees. Its tests of government policy are:

• Emissions should be strictly limited during shale gas development, production and well decommissioning. The CCC says this needs tight regulation, close monitoring of emissions, and rapid action to address any leaks.
• Overall gas consumption in the UK must remain in line with UK carbon budgets – so UK shale gas must displace imported gas, rather than increasing gas consumption overall.
• Emissions from shale gas production must be counted as part of the UK’s carbon budgets, and emissions in another part of the economy may need to be cut further in order to accommodate fracking.

Though the government is confident these conditions will be reached, a spokesman admitted that any increase in current carbon emissions in future would make current targets even more challenging.

There is already a growing mismatch between the government's long-term promises on climate change and the policies to deliver carbon cuts according to the CCC and National Grid.

There is huge uncertainty about the projections on fracking from the CCC and the government.

The UK currently has no shale gas production, and many observers believe the potential of fracking in the UK has been hyped.

Learning lessons

A CCC scenario projecting the most aggressive trajectory of shale gas development with minimum necessary regulation by 2030 estimates emissions of around 11 million tonnes of CO2 a year.

But even that is only a quarter of the UK's emissions from agriculture and land use change. One expert told BBC News: "This is more or less loose change when it comes to the carbon budgets. It’s likely that the local effects like lorry disturbance will prove a more significant issue."

The CCC mostly accepts the government’s reassurances on its three tests. The government is confident it has learned from regulatory failures in the early days of so-called wildcat fracking in the US.

Professor Jim Skea from the committee says with best practice, UK shale gas may have a lower carbon footprint than much of the gas currently imported, which has to be compressed at great energy cost.

But he wants more detail on rules over the completion of wells, when methane can burp out along with the fracking fluid injected into the ground to release the gas. He also wants chapter and verse on how wells will be inspected after they have been decommissioned and before they are abandoned.

He told BBC News: "The CCC accepts that the government plans are mostly on track but wants more detail. Our recommendation is to monitor what government does because we are making the assumption that we have a very well regulated industry and we need some details filled in on that."

The CCC also urged the government to make progress on capture and storage technology, which allows fossil fuels to be burned with minimal emissions of CO2.

The Prime Minister previously said this was vital for the UK before he scrapped a competition to develop it - in order to save cash.

The previous head of the Environment Agency, Chris Smith, said fracking should only go ahead if CCS was imposed, and the CCC report says that without CCS the UK would need to eliminate almost all CO2 from all sectors of the economy by 2050.

A government spokesman said ministers were working on other ways of 

Viral hepatitis 'kills as many as Aids or TB'

Viral hepatitis is one of the leading killers across the globe, with a death toll that matches Aids or tuberculosis, research in the Lancet suggests.

The report estimates that hepatitis infections and their complications led to 1.45m deaths in 2013 - despite the existence of vaccines and treatments.

World Health Organization data shows there were 1.2m Aids-related deaths in 2014, while TB led to 1.5m deaths.

The WHO has put forward a global strategy to tackle hepatitis.

'Startling finings'

Researchers say these plans must be put into action urgently to tackle the crisis.

Viral hepatitis refers to five different forms of virus (known as A, B, C, D, E) - some can be spread through contact with infected bodily fluids and others (A and E) through contaminated food or water.

Most deaths worldwide are due to B and C, which can cause serious liver damage and predispose people to liver cancer. But because people don't always feel the symptoms of the initial infection, they can be unaware of the long-term damage until it is too late.

Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Washington examined data from 183 countries, collected between 1990 and 2013.

They found the the number of deaths linked to viral hepatitis rose by more than 60% over two decades - partly due to a growing population.

Deaths from diseases such as TB and malaria have dropped.

Dr Graham Cooke of Imperial College London described the findings as startling.

He said: "Although there are effective treatments and vaccines for viral hepatitis, there is very little money invested in getting these to patients - especially compared to malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB.

"We have tools at our disposal to treat this disease - we have vaccines to treat hepatitis A and B and we have new treatments for C.

"However the price of new medicines is beyond the reach of any country - rich or poor."

The study suggests the problem is biggest in East Asia.

But unlike many other diseases, deaths from viral hepatitis were higher in high and middle income countries than in lower income nations.

The WHO hepatitis strategy, which was put forward in May 2016, includes targets to reduce new cases of hepatitis B and C by 30% by 2020, alongside a 10% reduction in mortality.

The WHO says countries and organisations will need to expand vaccination programmes, focus on preventing mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B and increase access to treatment for hepatitis B and C, to help ensure these targets are met.

Baghdad bombing death toll rises to 281

raqi officials have again raised the figure for the number of people killed in Sunday's suicide bombing in Baghdad.

The health ministry said 281 were now known to have died in the attack, which targeted a shopping complex in the mainly Shia Muslim Karrada district.

The previous death toll, announced by the ministry on Tuesday, was 250.

The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the bombing, the deadliest in the country since the 2003 US-led invasion.

IS militants overran large parts of northern and western Iraq two years ago, but government forces have since regained much of the territory.

The chasm cutting an Antarctic base adrift

Thirty-six years after he first went there as a young meteorologist, BBC Weather's Peter Gibbs returned to the current, sixth incarnation of the British Antarctic Survey's Halley Research Station. There, on "a day with no horizon", he explored the chasm threatening to cast it adrift.
The Brunt Ice Shelf feels like another planet even on the sunniest of days, but when the cloud closes in it turns downright eerie as sky, snow and ice blend into one diffuse white light.
Approaching the chasm, the only hint of this 100m-wide gash is a neon glint of blue from the depths of a crevasse in its far wall.

Norway helicopter crash: 11 killed near Bergen

Eleven of those on board were Norwegian, one was British and one Italian.
Photos from the scene show thick smoke coming from an area of rocky islets.
Meanwhile Norway's civil aviation authority has imposed a flight ban on the type of helicopter that crashed - the Eurocopter (EC) 225L Super Puma.
The helicopter was "totally destroyed", reports said. It was flying from the Gullfaks oil field to Bergen, a centre for the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Oil company Statoil said the aircraft was "on assignment" for it.
It came down near the small island of Turoey, just west of the village of Solsvik.
Police spokesman Morten Kronen said a major operation, which included firefighters, divers and medical workers, was under way to find the two missing people.