North Korea stages massive parade to mark 70th anniversary
Pyongyang, Sep 9 : North Korea on Sunday held a massive military parade on Sunday to mark the 70th anniversary of its founding, an intelligence source said. "The North held the military parade in the morning, and it has been completed," the source told Seoul's Yonhap News Agency.
It is not yet clear whether North Korean leader Kim Jong-un joined the event and if intercontinental ballistic missiles were put on display.
The North's media has stayed silent on the event, which is the first since Kim held a historic summit with US President Donald Trump in June.
Meanwhile, international journalists have been invited to watch the military parade, a torch-lit rally and the Arirang Mass Games, a highly choreographed event expected to involved hundreds of thousands of people, CNN reported.
The Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance Arirang - or Arirang Games - last took place in 2013. This year's games, which tells a symbolic story of North Korea's history, are titled "The Glorious Country", according to the BBC.
Analysis of satellite images from the past two weeks suggest this year's games, which will continue throughout September, are going to be very big.
With tickets for foreigners costing more than $930, the country could rake in foreign currency at a time it is still under sanctions from many Western nations.
National carrier Air Koryo has scheduled additional flights from Beijing to bring in more tourists to watch the performances. Sunday's parade will be North Korea's second such event of the year.
The first came in February a day before South Korea held the Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics. Those games helped kick start the current stage of rapprochement between the Koreas.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
