SOUTH KOREA: Seoul placed overseas travel bans on three people as part of an investigation into alleged drone flights over North Korea, authorities said today.

Pyongyang threatened retaliation earlier this month after accusing the South of launching a surveillance drone flight in September and again in January. Seoul denied operating any drones and began probing if civilians sent them.

The three civilians put under travel bans include a man who told reporters that he flew drones to check radiation levels at a North Korean uranium facility.

MOZAMBIQUE: As floods ravage the country’s south, crocodiles are appearing in submerged towns and are responsible for at least three deaths, the authorities have warned.

Torrential rains and severe flooding across parts of southern Africa over the past month have killed more than 100 people in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, destroying thousands of homes and damaging infrastructure.

Weeks of heavy rainfall, compounded by dam releases to prevent structural failure, have affected more than 700,000 people, more than half of them children.

JAPAN: Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dissolved the lower house of parliament today, paving the way for an early election on February 8.

The move is an attempt to capitalise on her popularity to help her right-wing governing party regain ground after major losses in recent years.

Ms Takaichi, elected in October as Japan’s first female leader, has been in office only three months, but she has seen strong approval ratings of about 70 per cent.

GERMANY: Oke Gottlich, the president of Bundesliga club St Pauli and one of the German federation’s 10 vice-presidents, told reporters that “the time has come” to “seriously consider and discuss” boycotting the World Cup because of US President Donald Trump’s actions.

“What were the justifications for the boycotts of the Olympic Games in the 1980s?” Mr Gottlich said. “By my reckoning the potential threat is greater now than it was then. We need to have this discussion.”