COLU @ CONCEPTS

Image copyright REUTERS Image caption North Korea has ramped up its missile testing in recent months CIA director Mike Pompeo has warned that North Korea is on the cusp of being able to hit the US with a nuclear missile. He stressed Washington still preferred diplomacy and sanctions but said military force remained an option. North Korea claims it already has the capability to strike the US. Mr Pompeo also said that a  US-Canadian hostage couple freed  last week had in fact been held in Pakistan, rather than Afghanistan as initially assumed. He said Canadian Joshua Boyle and his US wife Caitlan Coleman had been "held for five years inside of Pakistan". This contradicted accounts from Pakistani officials, who said the family had been held in Afghanistan, and moved across the border into the Kurram tribal district of Pakistan on 11 October. Pyongyang's 'final step' North Korea is "close enough now in their capabilities that from a US policy pe...

Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption Quentin Tarantino has worked closely with Harvey Weinstein on many of his films US film director Quentin Tarantino has admitted knowing for years about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's alleged misconduct toward women. "I knew enough to do more than I did," Tarantino told  the New York Times. His comments come as Los Angeles police are investigating Weinstein over a suspected sexual assault in 2013. He already faces  allegations of sexual misconduct and assault  from dozens of women. He has "unequivocally" denied having "non-consensual sex". "There was more to it than just the normal rumours, the normal gossip. It wasn't second-hand. I knew he did a couple of these things," Tarantino said in an interview with the US newspaper. "I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard. If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him." Image co...

Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Pollution has been linked to nine million deaths worldwide in 2015, a report in  The Lancet  has found. Almost all of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, where pollution could account for up to a quarter of deaths. Bangladesh and Somalia were the worst affected. Air pollution had the biggest impact, accounting for two-thirds of deaths from pollution. Brunei and Sweden had the lowest numbers of pollution-related deaths. Most of these deaths were caused by non-infectious diseases linked to pollution, such as heart disease, stroke and lung cancer. "Pollution is much more than an environmental challenge - it is a profound and pervasive threat that affects many aspects of human health and wellbeing," said the study's author, Prof Philip Landrigan, of the Icahn School of Medicine, at Mount Sinai in New York. The biggest risk factor, air pollution, contributed to 6.5 million premature deaths. This included polluti...

Image copyright GETTY IMAGES/REUTERS Image caption Neither Barack Obama nor George W Bush mentioned President Donald Trump by name Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush have voiced concern about the current political climate in the US, in comments seen as a veiled rebuke of Donald Trump's leadership. Mr Obama urged Americans to reject the politics of "division" and "fear", while Mr Bush criticised "bullying and prejudice" in public life. They were speaking separately. Neither mentioned President Trump by name. Mr Trump, who has been critical of his two predecessors, is yet to comment. Ex-presidents traditionally shy away from commenting publicly on their successors, and Mr Obama said on leaving office he would extend that courtesy for a time to Mr Trump, as George W Bush had to him. He has broken his silence since to issue statements on Mr Trump's efforts to dismantle Obamacare, as well as his controversial "Muslim ban...