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South Korean officials have said North Korea could be ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time.

The North conducted its fifth underground nuclear test on Friday, thought to be its most powerful yet.A defence ministry spokesman said there was still an unused tunnel at the Punggye-ri test site which could be used for a sixth explosion at any time.

Friday’s widely condemned test has ratcheted up tension and led to fierce rhetoric from South Korea.On Sunday, one South Korean military source told the Yonhap news agency that Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, could be annihilated if it showed any signs of mounting a nuclear attack.

While doubts remain over North Korea’s claim that it can now mount nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets – meaning it can carry out a nuclear attack – experts say the recent progress is worrying.

On Monday, Yonhap cited an unnamed government source as saying reports indicated the North had finished preparations for a further test, in previously unused tunnel at the Punggye-ri site deep underneath mountains in the north-east.”Intelligence authorities in Seoul and Washington are keeping close tabs,” the unnamed government official was quoted as saying. Moon Sang-gyun, a defence ministry spokesperson, later gave a similar statement to reporters. He would not give further details citing security reasons.

It is unlikely to happen immediately, as Pyongyang’s scientists will want to study the results of the recent test, but a sixth test could be weeks or months away. The UN Security Council has already agreed to start drawing up new sanctions against North Korea, something the North called “laughable”.

Pyongyang has carried out two nuclear tests this year, as well as several tests of powerful missiles. Both are banned by existing sanctions. On Monday, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho had arrived in Beijing. China is North Korea’s main ally and trading partner, but has grown increasingly intolerant of its military actions and Kim Jong-un’s aggressive rhetoric.

China’s support for toughened sanctions is crucial if they are to have any impact.

A 95-year-old former SS medic has gone on trial in Germany, after his mass murder trial was postponed three times for health reasons.

Hubert Zafke appeared in court in Neubrandenburg in north-eastern Germany accused of assisting in the killing of 3,681 people at the Auschwitz death camp. The indictment covers one month, from 15 August to 14 September 1944.

The Nazis killed about 1.1m people in Auschwitz, most of them Jews.

Shortly before the pre-trial hearing began, Hubert Zafke was given a medical check to determine under what conditions the trial could take place. On three previous occasions the trial has been postponed. His defence has argued he suffers from poor health, high blood pressure and suicidal thoughts.

Zafke’s Role At Auschwitz

According to the indictment, the SS medic served for several weeks in the summer of 1944 in the medical unit at Auschwitz during World War Two.

Hubert Zafke denies the charges, arguing he treated only wounded soldiers and members of the SS. Prosecutors say that, like other SS guards at Auschwitz, Mr Zafke was well aware of the camp’s function as “an industrial-scale mass murder site”. According to the indictment, thousands of people died while he was there. Teenage Jewish girl Anne Frank arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the period covered by Hubert Zafke’s indictment. She died in another camp, at Bergen-Belsen, shortly before it was liberated by the British Army in 1945.

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A cessation of hostilities is due to start in Syria at sunset on Monday, after a weekend of air strikes.

The 10-day truce is due to be followed by co-ordinated US-Russian air strikes against jihadist militants.

Syrian state media reported that President Bashar al-Assad had welcomed the deal, which was reached late on Friday in Geneva after months of talks between Russia and the US. But it is unclear whether rebel factions will abide by it.

The Free Syrian Army group has written to the United States administration saying that while it would “co-operate positively” with the ceasefire, it was concerned it would benefit the government.

Another major rebel group, the hardline Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, has rejected the deal, which is scheduled to come into effect around 15:45 GMT. “A rebellious people who have fought and suffered for six years cannot accept half-solutions,” said its second-in-command, Ali al-Omar, in a video statement. But the group’s commander stopped short of explicitly saying it would not abide by its terms. And President Assad, speaking hours before the ceasefire was due to start, said the Syrian state was still “determined to recover every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild”.

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Israeli researchers have alleged that the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, worked for the Soviet intelligence agency the KGB in the early 1980s.

Researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem say a Soviet-era document lists him as an agent. The president’s spokesman described the claim as an absurd Israeli “smear”.

He suggested it was made to derail attempts to re-start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Researchers Gideon Remez and Isabella Ginor said the document, in an archive at Cambridge University, shows that Mr Abbas was a KGB spy when he lived in Damascus in Syria.

The document, which the University of Cambridge’s Churchill Archives Centre confirmed was authentic, was smuggled in to the UK by a defector called Vasily Mitrokhin. It is entitled “KGB developments – Year 1983” and Mr Abbas identifies him by the codename “Krotov” or “mole”. “‘Krotov’ – Abbas, Mahmoud, born 1935, origin Palestine, member of the executive committee of Fatah, PLO, Damascus, agent of the KGB,” says the brief entry.

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Two Americans have been arrested and charged for allegedly helping to hack high-ranking US government officials.

The US Department of Justice said Andrew Otto Boggs and Justin Gray Liverman were part of the “Crackas With Attitude” group blamed for the attacks.

Email accounts of the CIA’s director, the chief of National Intelligence and many others, were hit by the group.

It also stole and published details of 29,000 FBI and Homeland Security agents and workers.

Court documents, written by FBI agents who aided the investigation, revealed that the hackers tricked technical support staff into giving them access to the sensitive email accounts. The hackers also posed as technicians from ISPs and other service companies to get passwords re-set so they could take over accounts and get at federal computer systems. All the attacks took place in early 2016.

Sensitive messages and documents found by the attackers through the hacked email accounts were published online. The two men have been accused of taking part in a criminal conspiracy and are due to appear in court next week.

Tech news site Ars Tech said prosecutors involved in the case are also pursuing at least three more members of the Crackas With Attitude group. All three are believed to be teenagers who live in the UK. The Crown Prosecution Service is understood to be investigating their alleged part in the attacks.

Court documents suggest the CWA members living overseas placed the calls that led to accounts being taken over.