North Korea describes missile firing as regular exercise\, vote counting begins in South Africa\, and more news in pictures

North Korea describes missile firing as regular exercise, vote counting begins in South Africa, and more news in pictures

This Saturday, May 4, 2019, file photo provided by the North Korean government shows a test of weapon systems, in North Korea.

This Saturday, May 4, 2019, file photo provided by the North Korean government shows a test of weapon systems, in North Korea.   | Photo Credit: AP

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9.30 a.m.

North Korea describes missile firing as regular exercise

North Korea on Thursday, May 9, 2019, has described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile over the weekend as a regular and defensive military exercise and ridiculed South Korea for criticizing the launches.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency published a statement by an unnamed military spokesman who called South Korea’s criticism a “cock-and-bull story,” hours before senior defense officials from South Korea, United States and Japan met in Seoul to discuss the North Korean launches and other security issues.

A separate statement by a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman described the launches as a “routine and self-defensive military drill.”

South Korea’s presidential Blue House and Defense Ministry have raised concern that Saturday’s launches went against the spirit of an inter-Korean military agreement reached last year to cease all hostile activities and urged North Korea to refrain from acts that could escalate tensions. - PTI

10 a.m.

Vote counting begins in South Africa

AP

Vote counting begins at a polling station in Alexandra Township near Johannesburg.   | Photo Credit: AP

 

South Africans voted Wednesday in presidential and parliamentary elections, with signs of a relatively low turnout and voters saying they were disillusioned by widespread corruption and unemployment.

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