​North Korea digs DMZ trench after recent defection

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North Korea appears to be fortifying its border in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) with the South, days after a soldier defected by running across. A US diplomat to South Korea has tweeted a picture showing workers digging a trench. The defector was shot multiple times by border guards from the North at the spot last week.

South Korea has handed out medals to its soldiers who helped rescue the wounded defector. Marc Knapper, chargé d'affaires at the US embassy in Seoul tweeted a picture of the scene after a visit to the DMZ. Another diplomat visiting the same spot told the Reuters news agency he had also seen several workers digging a trench.

May to Russia: We Know What You Are Doing​

Theresa May last night made her most outspoken attack on Russia for using fake news to “sow discord” in Britain and other western nations. The prime minister accused President Putin of trying to “weaponise information” in the age of social media to undermine democracies. “I have a very simple message for Russia,” Mrs May said. “We know what you are doing.”

In a lengthy charge-sheet of actions that she said risked provoking “dangerous and unpredictable” conflicts, Mrs May accused Russia directly of meddling in elections. The comments risk raising tensions with President Trump, who drew criticism last week for saying that he believed Mr Putin’s denial that Russia had interfered in the US presidential race.

​E.U. Ministers Approve Venezuela Arms Embargo​

The foreign ministers of the European Union approved an arms embargo against Venezuela on Monday as part of what they called “restrictive measures” to pressure the administration of President Nicolás Maduro to strengthen the rule of law and democracy.

The ministers also established the legal framework for sanctions, including travel bans and the freezing of assets, against government officials, a step the Trump administration has taken against dozens of Venezuelan government officials, including Mr. Maduro. But the ministers stopped short of naming any specific officials who might be subject to such penalties, saying they still hoped Venezuela could find a “peaceful negotiated way” out of its economic and political crises.

“The primary responsibility for ending the crisis in Venezuela lies in the country,” the ministers said in a statement. “The E.U. calls upon the government to urgently restore democratic legitimacy, including through free and fair elections, and on the opposition to continue engaging in a united manner towards a negotiated solution to the current tensions, in the interest of the country.”

Ganduje buys N208m noodles, others to empower tea sellers​

The Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, says his administration has spent N208m on the empowerment of 5,200 Masu Shayi (tea sellers) in the state. Ganduje stated this on Saturday while distributing empowerment items to the 5,200 tea sellers from the 44 local government areas of Kano State.

The distributed items included cartons of noodles, cocoa beverage, liquid and powdered milk, tea, crates of eggs, nylon and cups, baskets, brown and white sugar, spaghetti and bread. At an elaborate ceremony held at the Open Theatre, Government House, Kano, Ganduje said each of the beneficiaries would also receive N40,000 cash as take-off capital.

He described the distribution of the materials as a significant milestone and the first of its kind in the history of Kano, adding that it would also boost the economic potential of the tea sellers and their families.

George Bush Snr 👀 'groped 16-year-old girl' 👧 during 2003 photo op​

A woman has said she was 16 when former US President George HW Bush groped her buttocks as she posed for a photo with him and her mother. 
Rosyln Corrigan is the sixth woman to accuse Bush of inappropriately touching her in similar circumstances. She told Time Magazine she met Bush at a 2003 meeting of CIA officers in Texas, where her father worked. 
"My initial reaction was absolute horror," she said about the incident. "I was really, really confused. I was a child," Corrigan added. 
A Bush spokesman has previously acknowledged he has touched several women on the rear. 
On Monday, Jim McGrath, a spokesman forBush, told the BBC the 41st president, who once directed the CIA, "simply does not have it in his heart to knowingly cause anyone harm or distress, and he again apologises to anyone he may have offended during a photo op". 
Corrigan said the incident occurred as Bush was posing for a photo with her and her mother at the CIA office in The Woodlands, Texas, in November 2003. 
"As soon as the picture was being snapped on the one-two-three he dropped his hands from my waist down to my buttocks and gave it a nice, ripe squeeze, which would account for the fact that in the photograph my mouth is hanging wide open," Ms Corrigan said. 
Bush was 79 years old at the time.

​Lagos ‘policeman’ robs, stabs commuter, leaves ID card at scene​

Highway robberies may have taken a turn for the worse after a police sergeant, Williams Godwin, was allegedly involved in the robbery of a commuter identified only as Henry. ​PUNCH Metro​ learnt that the 41-year-old victim was on his way to work when he joined a cab along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway en route to Lagos Island.

He was said to have been attacked at gunpoint, as the assailants, which included Godwin, allegedly dispossessed him of his ATM card and N4,000. However, during the incident, the policeman’s ID card allegedly fell into the luggage of the victim, who was rushed to the Lagos State Accident and Emergency Centre at Toll gate, Ojota, where he was admitted and treated.

One of those who rescued Henry told _PUNCH Metro _that he was stabbed with a sharp object in the back.