In brief: Kerry denounces North Korea conduct

SEOUL, South Korea – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today accused North Korea of a litany of crimes and atrocities while reassuring South Korea of America’s “ironclad” security commitments.

Kerry blamed North Korea for continuing to break promises, make threats and “show flagrant disregard for international law” by continuing provocative nuclear and missile activity while oppressing its own people. He said North Korea’s “horrific conduct” must be exposed and vowed to ratchet up pressure on Pyongyang to change its behavior, particularly since it has rebuffed repeated attempts to restart denuclearization negotiations.

Macedonians rally for leaders to quit

SKOPJE, Macedonia – Tens of thousands of protesters gathered Sunday in the center of the Macedonian capital to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

Zoran Zaev, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, claimed that more than 100,000 attended the incident-free rally.

“More than 100,000 citizens were here today and we got support from different ethnic groups of our country. This could not possibly have been organized by only one party,” Zaev told the Associated Press. He said the rally was “a strong message to our government and to the prime minister to submit their resignations.”

Official: Palmyra under control

DAMASCUS, Syria – A Syrian official said Sunday that the situation is “fully under control” in Palmyra despite breaches by Islamic State militants who pushed into the historic town a day earlier.

Syrian opposition activists also confirmed that militants withdrew from areas they had seized Saturday in the northern part of town.

Palmyra is home to one of the most famous UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Middle East, renowned for its Roman-era colonnades and 2,000-year-old ruins.

Egypt executes six over gunfight

CAIRO – Egypt executed six men Sunday convicted by a military court over a gunfight last year at a suspected bomb factory, as explosives planted outside of courthouses wounded two people following the death sentence given to ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The six executed men were convicted of killing two military officers in an hourlong battle with police, military and special forces north of Cairo in March 2014.

Meanwhile, officials said a bomb exploded late Saturday outside the main courthouse in the southern city of Assiut, seriously wounding a police officer. Early Sunday, a bomb wounded a young girl near a courthouse in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, they said.

Suicide bomb kills three in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan – A Taliban suicide car bomber attacked a convoy from the European Union police training mission Sunday near the Afghan capital’s international airport, killing at least three people, including a Briton, authorities said.

The bomb exploded Sunday morning a few hundred yards from the airport’s main terminal, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.