The Morning Report -- Sunday January 27, 2013

Obama Takes Up Immiration -- Gun Rules Around The World -- Obama, Gun Control Advocates Square Off -- North Korea Vows Action -- Casey Anthony Bankruptcy

AS OBAMA TAKES UP IMMIGRATION, STRATEGY IS CHALLENGE

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — As President Obama settles on a strategy to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, he faces a quandary that speaks volumes about the bitter nature of politics in a divided capital: The very fact that a plan has Obama's name on it might be enough to kill it.

Obama will relaunch his drive for an immigration overhaul Tuesday in Las Vegas, where heavy turnout by Latino voters in November helped seal his reelection. But some allies inCongress warn that embracing too specific a proposal could mean its death warrant.

AROUND THE WORLD, GUN RULES, AND RESULTS, VARY WIDELY

Associated Press

OOI, Japan (AP) - After a tragedy like the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it's a statistic that is always trotted out. Compared to just about anywhere else with a stable, developed government - and many countries without even that - the more than 11,000 gun-related killings each year in the United States are simply off the charts. To be sure, there are nations that are worse. But others see fewer gun homicide deaths in one year than the 27 people killed Dec. 14 in Newtown, Connecticut.

OBAMA: GUN CONTROL ADVOCATES HAVE TO LISTEN MORE

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says gun-control advocates have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes in the debate over firearms in America. In an interview with The New Republic, Obama says he has "a profound respect" for the tradition of hunting that dates back for generations.

NORTH KOREA LEADER VOWS STRONG ACTION

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations. The meeting of top officials led by Kim makes clear that he backs Pyongyang's defiant stance in protest of U.N. Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.

CASEY ANTHONY FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY

Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Casey Anthony filed for bankruptcy in Florida on Friday, claiming about $1,100 in assets and $792,000 in liabilities. Court records show that Anthony, who was acquitted of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2011, sought Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in federal court in Tampa.