UN warns of serious crisis in Korean peninsula

United Nations, April 2 The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon said today that the current crisis on the Korean peninsula has gone too far and called for calm and negotiations to resolve the situation.

In remarks made Tuesday in Andorra and distributed in the UN headquarters in New York, the head of the world body warned that nuclear threats are not gaining anything. "Aggressive rhetoric and military positions only cause adverse reactions and feed the fear and instability" He said. "believed that at this moment the situation is worsened by the lack of communication between the parties and warned that the crisis could fall into a path that no one wants to follow." Ban Ki-moon told the DPR Korea (DPRK) that "there is no need to travel a path of collision with the international community. I am convinced that no one tries to attack that country because it does not agree with their political or foreign policy" He said continuing however to stress his fear's because "others respond firmly to any direct military provocation". Dialogue and negotiations are the only way to resolve the current crisis, and the UN Secretary General was ready to assist the parties to take that route" He said.
The DPRK put on alert yesterday its strategic missile forces to attack military bases on U.S. territory, including Hawaii, islands of Guam, the Pacific and in South Korea in case of provocations. The announcement was made ​​through a proclamation of Marshal Kim Jong Un to the People's Army Supreme Command Korea.

FBI busts Queens State Sen. Malcolm Smith in mayoral election bribery plot

 

Sen. Malcolm Smith

The FBI busted Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith of Queens Tuesday and was set to haul in City Councilman Dan Halloran on charges they tried to rig the 2013 mayoral election by buying Smith a spot on the Republican ballot, sources said.
Agents were also rounding up four suspects, including Bronx Republican Chairman Jay Savino and Queens GOP vice chairman Vincent Tabone who were to receive bribes in exchange for backing Smith when he switched sides last year in a never-realized run for City Hall.

 City Councilman Dan Halloran

Smith was picked up by agents early Tuesday at his Queens home.
All six defendants were scheduled to be presented in White Plains Federal Court and Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was scheduled to hold a press conference later in the day in Manhattan.

The charges mark a tremendous fall from grace for Smith, who for a time was president pro tem of the state Senate when Democrats briefly held the chamber’s leadership in Albany.

1 Arrested, Another Sought in LA Girl's Kidnapping

One man has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of a 10-year-old girl who was taken in the middle of the night from her Los Angeles home and let go hours later. Police are focusing on the San Diego area as they seek the transient with a long criminal record who is the central suspect in her abduction.
Daniel Martinez, 29, has been booked for investigation of kidnapping, police said Monday. He was being held on $1 million bail after his Sunday arrest in Northridge, the San Fernando Valley area where the girl lives.

aerial view of San Fernando Valley were crime took place

  Tobias Dustin Summers, a 30-year-old transient with a long criminal record, was identified by authorities over the weekend as a suspect in the case.
Police initially said they were looking for two suspects but noted they were focusing their efforts on Summers, who may have fled to the San Diego area and changed his appearance by shaving his head.
They suspect Martinez was present when the kidnapping occurred, but it was unclear if he was there throughout the crime.
"We believe he is the second person," police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said. He wouldn't provide details on the connection between the two men but said, "certainly they know each other."
The girl was abducted around 3 a.m. Wednesday and found about 12 hours later wandering near a Starbucks several miles away. She was barefoot, had bruises and scratches, and wasn't wearing the same clothes she had on when she vanished.
Investigators have said they believe the girl was driven around the San Fernando Valley in a couple of cars and taken to at least two locations, including a storage facility, before she was released.
The Los Angeles Times reported that law enforcement sources said the girl was sexually assaulted. Police officials would not confirm it but asked the media to not report information about "indignities" the girl may have suffered.
The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault.
Court records show Martinez has been convicted of various offenses, including burglary, grand theft and resisting a police officer.
Police noted Summers had a criminal history dating back to 2002 and had been arrested for robbery, grand theft auto, possession of explosives and kidnapping.
Authorities haven't given a motive for the girl's kidnapping. They don't believe Summers and the family knew one another.

South Korea vows ‘strong’ retaliation

South Korea’s new president on Monday promised a strong military response to any North Korean provocation after Pyongyang announced that the two countries were now in a state of war.
President Park Geun-Hye’s warning came as North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament was set to hold its

annual session and a day after ruling party leaders vowed to enshrine Pyongyang’s right to nuclear weapons in law.

"The DPRK possession of nuclear weapons should be fixed by law and the nuclear armed forces should be expanded and beefed up qualitatively and quantitatively," a KCNA report on the meeting said.
"The People's Army should perfect the war method and operation in the direction of raising the pivotal role of the nuclear armed forces in all aspects concerning war deterrence and war strategy."
 The North is angry at UN sanctions following its nuclear test in February.

It is also unhappy with joint US-South Korea annual military drills. But the US says there is no sign of North Korean actions to back up the rhetoric.
In the last few days North Korea has issued multiple warnings of attacks on US and South Korean targets to which the US has responded with an apparent show of military hardware. The US flew F-22 planes from Japan to South Korea's Osan Air base on Sunday, as part of ongoing joint military exercises with Seoul, officials said.
Meanwhile, North Korea has announced it has appointed a new premier, Pak Pong-ju. He was sacked from the same post in 2007.
In a meeting with senior military officials and defense minister Kim Kwan-Jin, Park said she took the near daily stream of bellicose threats emanating from the North over the past month very seriously.

“I believe that we should make a strong and immediate retaliation without any other political considerations if the North stages any provocation against our people,” she said.
Park, a conservative who had advocated cautious engagement with the North during her election campaign, has been compelled to take a more hardline posture after assuming office in February.
The defense minister made it clear that the South would carry out preemptive strikes against the North’s nuclear and missile facilities in the event of hostilities breaking out.
“We will establish a so called active deterrence aimed at neutralizing the North’s nuclear and missile threats quickly,” Kim said.
The Korean peninsula has been caught in a cycle of escalating tensions since the North’s long-range rocket launch in December, which its critics condemned as a ballistic missile test. UN sanctions were followed by a nuclear test in February.For now, cool heads prevail in Seoul's presidential Blue House. Park, a conservative who took office less than two months ago, has spoken of engagement with the North a departure from the hardline stance of her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, who cut free-flowing aid and took inter-Korean relations to their lowest point in years.
Park reportedly wants to begin the process by offering humanitarian aid, followed by huge investment in North Korea's social and economic infrastructure, but only if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons programme in return.

                                         South Korean President Park Geun-Hye

Burmese rejoice over first private newspapers in 50 years

Privately owned daily newspapers have hit newsstands for the first time in 50 years in Burma

 

Four dailies went on sale on 1 April selling out completely within hours of hitting the newsstands.
"We've been waiting half a century for this day," said Khin Maung Lay, chief editor of the new daily Golden Fresh Land. "It shows how much people long for private daily newspapers. This morning, I was in tears seeing this."
Burma closed all private daily print production in 1964 under a military junta headed by General Ne Win. For much of the next five decades the country became better known for spying on, censoring, jailing, torturing and seizing equipment of journalists deemed against the state.
The changes have significantly opened up freedom for Burma's press, such as last year's rolling back of pre-publication censorship and the recent opening of an Associated Press bureau in Rangoon, the first foreign news agency to be based in the country.
However, journalists are still subject to strict regulations under the 1962 Printing and Registration Act, which carries a seven-year jail sentence for failing to register and also allows the government to suspend publishing licenses at any time meaning there is still much progress to be made in terms of reforms for freedom of speech within the formally reclusive country but the future has been looking bright ever since Aung San Suu Kyi's election to parliament.
A further 12 dailies will soon appear, including one from Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy. There will also be a new Yangon Times and Mizzima Daily, an offshoot of the online news portal Mizzima.
Mizzima's Sein Win stated "From today, the style of reporting has changed."

Mexico: Two bars Attacked in Jalisco, there are 29 injuries and 4 deaths

Attacks on two bars east of Guadalajara apparently perpetrated by the same armed group last night left four dead and at least 29 wounded. 

"There were several people in the bar, and others outside when the attack happened" reported an area commander.

The attack killed two unidentified men. However, apparently one of them is of U.S. origin.

In addition at least 17 people were injured with bullet wounds. Paramedics warned this morning that five injured were in serious condition.

Then, the perpetrators moved 16 blocks to the west and attacked with bullets and an explosive device inside a bar on Javier Mina the intersection with 66th Street in the Old Penal Colony.

At the bar a waiter died and a unknown customer.The attack left 12 others wounded by bullets.

After both attacks, local and state police carried out operations to try to capture the perpetrators.

Meanwhile in different events,  three men were shot dead in zapopan, which totaled seven dead last night in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara

Colombia: Police seized an arsenal from criminal gangs in the Eastern Plains

 

Police seized an arsenal of ERPAC to dissent, known as Block Meta and Vichada Libertadores in the jungle area of Meta, which sought to consolidate in the Llanos a corridor for drug trafficking. The arsenal consists of 38 assault rifles, two machine guns, three mortars , 72 grenades and 25,000 rounds of different calibers, among other Firearms. The first operation took place in a rural area of the Alto del Tigre municipality of Puerto Rico in Meta, where two caches were found underground with rifles , machine guns, mortars, grenades and uniforms.these two caches belonging to the criminal gang Block Meta ERPAC dissident whose leader is Rafael Patiño Escobar aka " Monster "or" Cesar ". The second operation was carried out in the village of Santa Isabel in the municipality of Puerto Gaitan, Meta, where they discovered a cache with rifles, machine guns and grenades in the Libertadores del Vichada whose leader is Martin Farfan Diaz Gonzalez, alias "Pijarvey." Finally, Police confirmed that the third operation was carried out in the Danube Guacamayas sidewalks, municipality of Mapiripan, Meta, where they seized 12,194 rounds , a machine gun and a grenade launcher dissent "Block Meta" and "Liberators of Vichada" commanding "Pijarbey" and "Monstrico." These two leaders of criminal gangs of the Plains have a confrontation due to drug trafficking, extortion and territorial control