1. The question everyone is asking today: How worried do we need to be about North Korea? Dictator Kim Jong-un has threatened nuclear war, and warned that the safety of foreign diplomats in his country cannot be guaranteed beyond April 10.
Pyongyang has moved a second mid-range missile to the country’s east coast. In response, South Korea has placed two warships with missiles on the east and west coastlines. This week the US also strengthened their own military operations on the South Korean coast, to act as a deterrent.
3. Pope Francis has called for action on sex abuse claims, saying that the Catholic Church’s “credibility” is at stake. His call for action has been dismissed by some advocacy groups as ‘just talk’.
4. Nelson Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, has said the former South African president is “getting better and better”. She said in a statement that, “He is in hospital simply because the doctors want to be absolutely sure that he is strong enough to go home and nothing is going to recur.”
5. A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Russia early this morning, near their border with North Korea and China. There were no immediate reports of causalities.
6. A recent study has revealed that young women, who experience sleeping problems or insomnia, can have up to a fivefold risk of depression, reports Fairfax.
7. Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced earlier this week that the government was planning on paying Disney producers $21.6 million, so that big budget film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea would be filmed in Australia. Labor backbencher Ed Husic has criticised the decision.
8. A British social worker lied to her bosses about the deaths of her ex-husband, mother, father, brother, uncle and aunt to get time off work. She took 66 days leave over a period of 2 years.