Image copyrightEPAImage captionDoctors removed five bullets from the soldier's body last week
A North Korean soldier who was shot at least five times while defecting to the South has regained consciousness.
The soldier asked to watch television and is being shown South Korean films, Yonhap news agency reports.
"We believe the most life-threatening moment has now passed," a government official told the agency.
The soldier made his escape over the demilitarised border last week and was shot at more than 40 times before reaching safety, the South says.
Medical staff say that he is traumatised from his ordeal.
"To provide psychological stability a South Korean flag has been placed hanging on the hospital room wall," the government official told Yonhap.
The identity of the soldier, who had been in a critical condition, has not yet been announced.
He crossed to the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the village of Panmunjom on 13 November.
He had to finish his journey on foot when a wheel on his vehicle came loose - but he made it across and was found under a pile of leaves, the South said.
On Friday, it emerged he had an infestation of worms in his body, contaminating his wounds and making his situation worse. His condition was said to give a rare insight into life in North Korea.
About 1,000 people from the North flee to the South each year - but very few defect via the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which is one of the world's most heavily guarded strips of land.
It is even more unusual for North Koreans to cross at the JSA, which is a tourist attraction, and the only portion of the DMZ where both forces stand face-to-face.
North and South Korea are technically still at war, since the conflict between them ended in 1953 with a truce and not a formal peace treaty.
Image copyrightEPAImage captionThe JSA is the only part of the DMZ where North and South Korean troops face each other
Seoul says more than 30,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
The majority of the defectors flee via China, which has the longest border with North Korea and is easier to cross than the heavily protected DMZ.
China though regards the defectors as illegal migrants rather than refugees and often forcibly repatriates them.
Jonathan Trott and Alastair Cook rescued England at the Gabba in 2010
We are at the stage where everything that has happened in the build-up to this Ashes series is totally irrelevant.
The Ben Stokes affair, the surprise over some selections of both teams and Nathan Lyon's trash talk will cease to matter when the players walk out at the Gabba on Thursday.
Australia begin as favourites, but that brings a pressure of its own. I will always be optimistic about England's chances, but what happens over the five Tests depends entirely on the players that are lucky enough to be chosen.
Here, in my view, is what England must do in order to defend the Ashes.
The last time that Australia lost a Test at the Gabba, in 1988, George Bush Sr had just been elected president of the United States, Cliff Richard was about to release Mistletoe and Wine and neither of Steve Smith or Joe Root had been born.
The last time England won in Brisbane, in 1986, they won the Ashes. When England won in Australia in 2010-11, they got out of the 'Gabbatoir' with a draw they were barely entitled to because of some heroic batting from Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott.
Similarly, when they were destroyed 5-0 here four years ago, the Gabba was where we got our first glimpse of the destruction that Mitchell Johnson would cause. England never recovered.
It's not being negative to say that England must do everything they can not to lose the first Test.
It will not be easy, not only because Australia's team is well suited to playing in Brisbane, but because of the hostility of the place. From ground-level, if you look up, the stadium feels like it is on top of you.
There's no doubt that it is intimidating, but intimidated is something that England simply cannot be.
Do not play that big drive early on and nick to slip, do not take on the short ball and hole out to long leg, do not be taken out of your comfort zone and do something that you regret later.
Remember that this is the same game you have been playing all of your life. Yes, there is the extra spice of it being the first match of an Ashes series, but know that only by doing the basics right will you succeed.
England must not give Australia the momentum, especially with what comes next.
Take the chance in Adelaide
Stuart Broad will be bowling with the pink ball in the second Test in Adelaide
The second Test in Adelaide, the first day-nighter in men's Ashes cricket, provides England with a real opportunity. It is imperative they arrive in South Australia in the right frame of mind to take it.
In the evening conditions, with the pink ball moving around, it gives a chance for James Anderson and Stuart Broad to show off the full range of their skills.
Even now, with the first Test not yet under way and the second more than a week away, I'm keeping an eye on the Adelaide weather forecast.
The southerly wind looks set to hang around, which is good news for England. The evenings will not be hot and dry, they will be cooler, so the ball should swing.
I would be disappointed if England do not play well in Adelaide. I know that anything that helps Anderson, Broad and co will also help Australia's battery of fast bowlers, but I doubt the home batsmen will be too keen to face England's experienced pair in Adelaide.
If the conditions are right, Root's men could be dangerous under the lights.
England must build pressure
England's bowlers should be licking their lips at the prospect of that day-night Test, because they may not get a great deal of assistance during the rest of the series.
For that reason, and because they are not blessed with Australia's express pace, the touring bowlers must be willing to be patient.
I'll be interested to see how Broad goes, because I thought he was down on pace during the summer. He bowled nicely to left-handers, taking the ball away, but his away-swinger to the right-handers wasn't there. I'd like to see that return.
Anderson will bowl tidily, using his accuracy and variations to extract what he can. I expect Chris Woakes, probably England's quickest bowler, to do well at the Gabba if he can find a full length.
For the majority of the time, England's best plan of attack is to try to bowl maidens, to frustrate the likes of Smith and David Warner, who like to see the scoreboard ticking over.
It is worth remembering that Australia's top order is just as unsettled as England's so the visiting bowlers have to make things as awkward as possible.
Root must impress on his bowlers the importance of building the pressure, with the rest of the team backing it up by holding the catches.
In the three Tests that England won in their 2010-11 series victory, they made first-innings scores of 620-5 declared, 513 and 644.
Cook said on Tuesday that very few sides come from behind to win Tests in Australia and he is correct. The message is simple - bat big, bat long.
When you watch England, there is nothing more frustrating than a player who looked set getting out by playing a stupid shot.
That sort of batting does not win series in Australia.
Show patience and discipline, knuckle down. No one wants to be out fielding in 90-degree heat all day, so that is exactly what you must make the opposition do.
England's batsmen must show the maturity and sensibility to wear out the Aussies - and that cannot be left to Cook and Root. The rest of England's top seven must play their part.
I accept this is very easy to talk about and much harder to do in the middle, especially when the ball is fizzing past your nose, the crowd are making a huge din and the chat is coming from the slips.
But it is not only when batting that England will have to show great mental strength.
Romelu Lukaku has scored 12 goals for Manchester United since joining in the summer
Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has agreed to pay compensation to Beverly Hills police after they responded to five noise complaints at a house he was renting in the summer.
The 24-year-old was arrested in July - the week before United signed him from Everton for an initial £75m.
The Belgian will pay $450 (£340) to reimburse police for the callouts.
That will mean the charge is reduced from a misdemeanour, which carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
Instead, Lukaku will be charged with a disturbance of the peace infraction, which carries a $100 (£76) fine plus other costs and penalties.
The case will be heard again at Los Angeles Airport Courthouse on 18 December.
Russia says a nuclear accident has not occurred on its territory despite "extremely high" traces of a radioactive isotope being found.
Russia's weather service acknowledged it had measured pollution of ruthenium-106 at 1,000 times normal levels in the Ural mountains.
It said there was no health risk.
The announcement appeared to confirm a report by France's nuclear safety institute which detected a cloud of radioactive pollution over Europe.
The Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) said on 9 November it had detected ruthenium-106 in France. It added that the source of contamination could have been an accident at a nuclear facility in either Russia or Kazakhstan.
Both countries said nothing untoward had happened at their plants.
The report by the Russian meteorological service, Roshydrome, is the first official data from the country supporting the French report.
Roshydrome said two stations in the southern Ural mountains found "extremely high pollution" of the radioactive isotope between September and October.
A station close to the Mayak nuclear facility in Chelyabinsk region indicated levels 986 times those of the previous month, it said, without specifying the origins of the pollution.
Mayak, owned by state nuclear company Rosatom, is a large plant that reprocesses nuclear fuel. It said it was not the source of the increased level of ruthenium-106 while Rosatom said there were no accidents at any of its facilities.
The Mayak plant was the scene of a major nuclear accident in 1957, when a waste storage facility blew up.
Ruthenium-106 is a product of splitting atoms in a reactor and does not occur naturally. It is also used in some medical treatments.
Following the allegations he was suspended by CBS, PBS and Bloomberg. Rose co-hosted the CBS This Morning show and was a correspondent for its Sunday night news magazine 60 Minutes. He appeared on PBS and Bloomberg with the Charlie Rose show.
Rose apologised following the Washington Post story, but said not all the claims were accurate.
The allegations span from the 1990s to 2011 and include groping, lewd telephone calls and unwanted advances.
The internal email to staff from CBS News president David Rhodes read: "Despite Charlie's important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organisation, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace - a supportive environment where people feel they can do their best work. We need to be such a place.
"I've often heard that things used to be different. And no-one may be able to correct the past. But what may once have been accepted should not ever have been acceptable."
Rose, 75, is one of America's most respected broadcasters and his interviews have won him Emmy and Peabody awards. He was named by Time magazine as one of its 100 most influential people in 2014.
He is known for conducting in-depth interviews, including with such high-profile guests as former President Barack Obama, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and billionaire Warren Buffett, on his eponymous television programme which first aired in 1991.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionCharlie Rose's interviews have won him several awards
In recent weeks, numerous high-profile figures, including Oscar-winning actors and a Hollywood filmmaker, have been accused of sexual harassment.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionVigils for the 44 missing crew are being held outside the naval base in Mar del Plata
Argentina's navy says it will take advantage of improved weather conditions to further step up its search for a submarine that vanished last Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean.
Strong winds and high waves have hampered the search for the ARA San Juan and its 44 crew in the past days.
On Monday, navy officials said that noises picked up by two search vessels did not come from the sub, dashing relatives' hopes for a speedy rescue.
It was the second false alarm.
A navy spokesman had earlier confirmed that satellite signals picked up on Saturday did not come from the missing boat.
What happened to the sub?
The ARA San Juan was returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia, near the southern-most tip of South America, when it reported an "electrical breakdown".
According to naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi, the submarine surfaced and reported the breakdown, which Capt Galeazzi described as a "short circuit" in the sub's batteries.
The sub was ordered to cut its mission short and return to the naval base in Mar del Plata immediately.
According to navy spokesman Enrique Balbi, the captain of the ARA San Juan contacted the naval base once more after reporting the problem.
In the message, he reportedly said that the problem had been adequately fixed and that the sub would submerge and proceed towards Mar del Plata naval base.
The last contact was made at 07:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on Wednesday 15 November. It is not known what happened to the sub after that contact.
Argentine navy protocol stipulates that in peace time, submarines make contact twice a day with the base.
When the submarine failed to call in, the Argentine navy began its search for the vessel.
ARA San Juan submarine
Missing since 15 November
Built in Germany: 1983
Length: 66 metres
Crew: 44
Top speed: 45 km/h
Range: 22,224 km
Reuters
Navy commander Carlos Zavalla at that point spoke only of a "failure to communicate" and urged relatives of the crew to remain calm.
There was no mention by navy officials of the vessel having any problems at the time and rumours of a fire on board were dismissed by the navy's spokesman, Enrique Balbi.
When did news of the breakdown emerge?
On Sunday, relatives of some of the crew said that they had been told in messages sent before contact with the submarine was lost, that there was a problem with the sub's batteries.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionNaval commander Gabriel Galeazzi told journalists about the mechanical problems on Monday
On Monday, naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi confirmed the sub's captain had reported a breakdown on Wednesday describing it as a "short-circuit" in the sub's battery system.
Capt Galeazzi said that mechanical problems were not uncommon and rarely posed a risk. "A warship has a lot of backup systems, to allow it to move from one to another when there is a breakdown," he said.
He also said that the sub had not sent a distress signal to the navy base.
Has there been any sign of the sub?
No, there have been no sightings of the sub and no communication since Wednesday.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionThe ARA San Juan is 66m long and was built in 1983
News of seven failed satellite calls made to naval bases on Saturday briefly raised hopes that they had come from the submarine.
But the signals were found not to have come from the satellite phone on board the ARA San Juan.
"Noise" picked up by sonar on Monday at sea was also found not to have come from the missing vessel.
The noise was described as "a continuous, constant sound" which did not resemble bangs on the sub's wall in Morse code.
"The sound footprint could not correspond to a sub... it may have been a noise from a living thing," Mr Balbi said.
Who is on board?
There are 44 crew on board the submarine, which is under the command of Pedro Martín Fernández.
Forty-three of the crew are men but there is also one woman, Eliana María Krawczyk. The 35-year-old is the first female officer in Argentina to serve on a submarine.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionHer family says it was Eliana María Krawczyk's dream to become a submariner
Nicknamed "the queen of the sea" by her father she comes from Oberá, a city in northern Argentina.
Despite having been born and raised far inland, her relatives say that "she was born to be a submariner", citing her "will of steel" and a passion for her job.
The rest of the crew is made up of submariners of varying ages and experience.
The sub's engineer, Hernán Rodríguez, has been on the ARA San Juan for 11 years, local media reported.
How is the search going?
Submarines are built to be difficult to find and the search has been further hindered by bad weather.
The Argentine Navy tweeted a video showing the rough conditions at sea.
#AYER Compartimos con ustedes más imágenes sobre el temporal que están capeando las unidades afectadas al operativo de búsqueda y rescate del #SubmarinoARASanJuan
EPA
EPA
