World News Roundup: N.Korea fires two ballistic missiles from Pyongyang airport, S.Korea says; Cold-case investigation leads to surprise suspect in Anne Frank's betrayal and more

Russia, a close ally of Belarus, has worried the West and Kyiv with a troop build-up near Ukraine's borders and a barrage of threatening rhetoric, stirring fears that it plans to invade. Germany says Russia will pay price if it moves on Ukraine German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday that she hoped mounting tensions with Russia over Ukraine could be solved by diplomacy, but she warned that Moscow would suffer if it does attack the country.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

N.Korea fires two ballistic missiles from Pyongyang airport, S.Korea says

North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) on Monday from an airport in its capital city of Pyongyang, South Korea's military reported, the fourth test this month to demonstrate its expanding missile arsenal. Japan also reported the launch, with chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno condemning it as a threat to peace and security while China urged all sides to preserve for stability.

Cold-case investigation leads to surprise suspect in Anne Frank's betrayal

A six-year cold case investigation into the betrayal of Anne Frank has identified a surprising suspect in the death of the famous diarist, who was discovered in her canal side hideout and died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945. A relatively unknown figure, Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh, has been named as a suspect by a team that included retired U.S. FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and around 20 historians, criminologists and data specialists. Some other experts emphasised that the evidence was not conclusive.

Drinking water, ash big concern as Tonga assesses damage after tsunami

Australia and New Zealand sent surveillance flights on Monday to assess damage in Tonga, isolated from the rest of the world after the eruption of a volcano that triggered a tsunami and blanketed the Pacific island with ash. Australia's Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said initial reports suggested no mass casualties from Saturday's eruption and tsunami but Australian police had visited beaches and reported significant damage with "houses thrown around".

Former Ukrainian president lands in Kyiv to face treason case

Ukraine's former President Petro Poroshenko landed in Kyiv on Monday to face treason charges in a case he says was trumped up by allies of his successor, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In a brief stand-off at border control after arriving on a flight from Warsaw, he accused the border guards of taking away his passport. He later emerged to a crowd of flag-waving supporters outside the airport.

Explainer-Sri Lanka on the edge as debt burden mounts

Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka is facing its most serious financial crisis in years, raising doubts about its ability to pay its creditors. On Tuesday, the island nation will repay $500 million towards an international sovereign bond, the first tranche of a total of $4.5 billion that it needs to pay back this year, to avoid the first default in its history.

Russia and Belarus plan joint military drills in February - Lukashenko

Russia and Belarus will hold joint military drills in February, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday, amid soaring tensions between East and West over Ukraine. Russia, a close ally of Belarus, has worried the West and Kyiv with a troop build-up near Ukraine's borders and a barrage of threatening rhetoric, stirring fears that it plans to invade.

Germany says Russia will pay price if it moves on Ukraine

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday that she hoped mounting tensions with Russia over Ukraine could be solved by diplomacy, but she warned that Moscow would suffer if it does attack the country. "Each further aggressive act will have a high price for Russia, economically, strategically, politically," Baerbock, in Kyiv on a trip that will next take her to Moscow, told a joint news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

Three killed in UAE fuel truck blast, Yemen Houthis claim attack

Three fuel trucks exploded, killing three people, and a fire broke out near Abu Dhabi airport on Monday in what Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group said was an attack deep inside the United Arab Emirates. The Houthi movement, which is battling a Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE, has frequently launched cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, but has claimed few such attacks on the UAE, mostly denied by Emirati authorities.

Kazakh ex-leader's nephew sacked as deputy state security chief

Samat Abish, the nephew of former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, was sacked as second-in-command at the National Security committee on Monday, the president's office said, the latest Nazarbayev relative to be pushed out of office.

Timur Kulibayev, Nazarbayev's billionaire son-in-law, also resigned on Monday as chairman of the Central Asian nation's main business lobby group.

Discord over Myanmar as ASEAN postpones year's first meeting

Unresolved differences about engagement with Myanmar's military rulers are causing discord among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), diplomats and government officials say, as a ministers' meeting set for this week was pushed back. The friction follows a tumultuous final few months of 2021 after ASEAN took the unprecedented step of sidelining Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing from its leaders' summit in the wake of a military coup and use of deadly force against protesters.