1. Pence: ‘Era of strategic patience’ over

    U.S. Vice President Mike Pence looked across the demilitarized* border between North and South Korea on Monday, a day after North Korea’s failed missile launch, reiterating that the U.S. “era of strategic patience” with Pyongyang was over.

    Pence is on the first stop of a four-nation Asia tour to show America’s allies that the Trump administration is not turning its back on the increasingly volatile* region.

    The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a heavily mined, four-km-wide strip of land lined with barbed* wire running across the Korean peninsula*, with soldiers on both sides in a continual eyeball-to-eyeball standoff*.

    2. Turkey’s leader celebrates victory

    Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan celebrated what he said was a clear result in a referendum* on Sunday to grant him sweeping new powers, but opponents said they would challenge the vote count, which gave a narrow 51.3 percent lead to Erdogan’s supporters.

    Nearly all ballots* had been opened for counting, state-run Anadolu news agency said, although a lag between opening and counting them could see the lead tighten even further.

    3. Deployment of THAAD delayed

    The deployment* of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in South Korea was delayed to unspecified dates after the country’s presidential election ends next month, Yonhap news agency reported on Monday.

    An unidentified senior South Korean government official was quoted as saying South Korea and the United States shared views that it would be physically impossible to complete the THAAD installation* in South Korea before the presidential election.

    A presidential by-election is scheduled for May 9 as Park Geun-hye was ousted from office on March 10.

    4. United ‘won’t remove boarded passengers’

    United Airlines, which is reviewing its policies after the violent removal of a passenger from a flight last week, says it will no longer allow employees to take the place of civilian passengers who have already boarded overbooked* flights.

    “We issued an updated policy to make sure crews traveling on our aircraft are booked at least 60 minutes prior to departure,” spokesman Maggie Schmerin wrote in an email on Sunday. “This is one of our initial steps in a review of our policies.”

    She said the change was meant to ensure that episodes like what happened on April 9 “never happen again.”

    5. 22 killed as garbage mound collapses

    The death toll from the collapse of a massive garbage mound* near Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose to 22 on Sunday, and activists said some 20 more people could still be buried underneath the debris.

    Maj. Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe said authorities were struggling to determine exactly how many people were trapped under the debris due to a lack of information.

    Lawyer and activist Nuwan Bopage, who had worked with local residents in their protests to have the garbage dump removed, said about 20 people were buried under the debris.

    6. Egypt church suicide bomber ID’d

    The Egyptian interior ministry identified on April 12 the suicide bomber who blew himself up in Saint Mark’s Church in Egypt’s Alexandria governorate on Sunday, killing 11 Christians and six Muslim police officers.

    In a press statement, the ministry identified the suicide bomber as Mahmoud Hassan Mubarak from Suez City.

    “The suicide bomber was born on September 28, 1986 in Upper Egypt’s city of Qena and worked for a petroleum company,” the statement read. (SD-Agencies)