The ACN Morning Report Monday March 18, 2013

Good Morning! Today is Monday March 18th, 2013. Here are today's top and most interesting headlines from ACN: 

Venezuela Urges Obama To Halt 'Plot' -- Body, Explosives Found At FL Dorm -- There And Back Again, A Student's Spy Story -- S. Korea Cyber Warfare Soldiers Prepare -- "Talk Of Tax Increases Is Over" -- Republican: Congress Can Reach Grand Bargain -- U.S. Doesn't Have A Debt Crisis -- Bailout Looms For EU -- Earthquakes Have The Midas Touch -- Plane Crash In Indiana -- Perez As Labor Secretary -- SCOTUS Hears Voting Rights Case 

VENEZUELA'S MADURO URGES OBAMA TO HALT "PLOT" AGAINST RIVAL

CARACAS, March 17 (Reuters) - Venezuela's acting president urged U.S. leader Barack Obama to stop what he called a plot by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to kill his opposition rival and trigger a coup before an April 14 election.

Nicolas Maduro said the plan was to blame his opponent's murder on the OPEC nation's government and to "fill Venezuelans with hate" as they prepare to go to vote following the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

Maduro first mentioned a plot against his rival, Henrique Capriles, last week, blaming it on former Bush administration officials Roger Noriega and Otto Reich. Both rejected the allegations as untrue, outrageous and defamatory.

UCF DEATH: MALE COMMITS SUICIDE AT DORM, POLICE FIND GUNS AND EXPLOSIVES

Law-enforcement officers investigating an apparent suicide inside a University of Central Florida residence hall have found several weapons and improvised explosive devices, a school spokesman said early Monday.

UCF spokesman Grant Heston said a fire alarm call registered for Tower 1, a residence hall for about 500 students located near the Arena and Bright House Networks stadium, about 12:20 a.m. Monday.

While UCF police were on the way, officers received a 911 call for a male with a gun in the residence hall.

FROM STUDENT TO SPY, AND BACK AGAIN

BAKERSFIELD — Fernando Jara is something of a star in Kern County — and a mystery.

From humble beginnings, Jara founded a program to rehabilitate drug addicts and felons on a five-acre farm. He is completing a master's degree at Claremont School of Theology and will soon begin work on a doctorate and a law degree.

The energetic 37-year-old and his wife, a Kern County supervisor and rising political star, attended President Obama's inauguration in January at the invitation of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

SOUTH KOREA'S 'TOP GUN' CYBER WARRIORS PREPARE FOR BATTLE AGAINST NORTH KOREA

AFP

Cheon Joon-Sahng may not look like an elite warrior, but the shy, South Korean high school student has been fully trained for a frontline role in any future cyber battle with North Korea.

Cheon, 18, was one of 60 young computer experts chosen in July from many applicants for a government programme providing specialist training in vulnerability analysis, digital forensics and cloud-computing security.

At the end of December their number was narrowed to 20 who completed a further two months survival-of-the-fittest training in cyber warfare.

HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: "TALK OF TAX INCREASES IS OVER."

AP

Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Budget Committee, compared the U.S. debt situation with being “the healthiest-looking horse in the glue factory.”

“So we do not have a debt crisis right now, but we see it coming. We know it’s irrefutably happening, and the point we’re trying to make with our budget is, let’s get ahead of this problem,” said Mr. Ryan on “Face the Nation.” “If we keep kicking the can down the road, if we follow the president’s lead or if we pass the Senate budget, then we will have a debt crisis.”

CORKER: CONGRESS CAN REACH A GRAND BARGAIN, BUT ONLY IF OBAMA "GETS SERIOUS"

FOX NEWS

Republican Sen. Bob Corker expressed optimism Sunday about Democrats and Republicans reaching a long-term budget deal, but only if President Obama provides leadership and gets "serious” about entitlements.

"When the president is serious will be when he begins using the podium to explain to the American people that the average American family is only paying one-third of the cost of Medicare," Corker told “Fox News Sunday.”

RYAN: U.S. DOESN'T HAVE A DEBT CRISIS YET

(CBS News) The United States does not have a debt crisis, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said today on "Face the Nation," corroborating what House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama have said as both chambers of Congress scramble to concoct a budget plan to shore up the federal deficit. But, Ryan added, a crisis is "irrefutably" on its way.

"To borrow a phrase from my friend Erskine Bowles" - President Clinton's former chief of staff and Washington's go-to budget guru - "we are the healthiest-looking horse in the glue factory," Ryan said. "That means America is still a step ahead of the European nations who are confronting a debt crisis, of Japan, that's in its second lost decade. It's probably because of our resilient economy, because of our world currency status.

CYPRUS BAILOUT CRISIS 

GETTY IMAGES

Global markets traded lower and the euro hit a three-month low against the dollar on Monday as a weekend decision by the euro zone to force bank depositors in Cyprusto contribute towards a bailout provided a stark reality check for investors.

The losses were limited however, on reports the Cyprus government would put forward a new proposal on Monday to reduce the levy imposed on bank deposits.

EARTHQUAKES HAVE THE MIDAS TOUCH, NEW STUDY CLAIMS

Water in faults vaporizes during an earthquake, depositing gold, according to a model published in the March 17th issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. The model provides a quantitative mechanism for the link between gold and quartz seen in many of the world's gold deposits, said Dion Weatherley, a geophysicist at the University of Queensland in Australia and lead author of the study. 

When an earthquake strikes, it moves along a rupture in the ground — a fracture called a fault. Big faults can have many small fractures along their length, connected by jogs that appear as rectangular voids. Water often lubricates faults, filling in fractures and jogs. 

SOUTH BEND PLANE CRASH KILLS 2 INJURES THREE

Two people were killed and three people hospitalized when a small plane crashed into three homes in South Bend, Ind., Sunday afternoon.

The crash happened about 3:15 p.m. as the plane, which had taken off from a Tulsa, Okla., airport, made an approach to South Bend, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, an FAA spokeswoman.

The pilot radioed the airport tower as he was approaching the airport, signaling that he was having electrical problems, Cory said. The pilot made multiple approaches to the airport, and the airplane stalled and fell, hitting at least one structure, Cory said.

OBAMA TO NOMINATE THOMAS E. PEREZ AS LABOR SECRETARY 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to nominate the government's top-ranking civil rights lawyer as the new secretary of Labor on Monday, a key position as the administration prepares to take on immigration reform.

Thomas E. Perez's nomination had been expected, but the administration said last week that the announcement was not imminent. If confirmed by the Senate, Perez would be the only Latino in Obama's second-term Cabinet. He is the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

SUPREME COURT TAKES UP VOTING RIGHTS CASE

Voting rights advocates are sounding the warning sirens as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments Monday on a low-profile but important case on whether states may require people to submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

At issue is whether the Arizona law, known as Proposition 200, violates a federal law that requires states to let people register to vote while renewing drivers licenses or applying for social services. The form provided by the National Voter Registration Act requires people to attest that they are U.S. citizens, but not to provide documented proof, like the Arizona law does.