The ACN Morning Report -- Monday April 8, 2013

WikiLeaks Publishes 1.7 Million Records -- Palestinian Leader Warns Of Slipping Opportunity -- North Korea May Be Preparing Nuclear Test...Or Not -- US Diplomat To Afghanistan Killed -- A Deal On Immigration? One Senator Thinks So -- White House Asks GOP For Compromise -- Clinton Hints Clinton May Run in '16 -- China's Bird Flu Outbreak -- Gas Prices Are Dropping

WIKILEAKS PUBLISHES 1.7M DIPLOMATIC RECORDS

Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

WikiLeaks has published more than 1.7m US records covering diplomatic or intelligence reports on every country in the world.

The data, which has not been leaked, comprises diplomatic records from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, covering a variety of diplomatic traffic including cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence.

PALESTINIAN LEADER WARNS WINDOW CLOSING FOR LASTING TWO-STATE SOLUTION 

Majdi Mohammed/AP

Time is running out on the two-state solution for Middle East peace and the current push to relaunch peace talks may be “the last opportunity,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warns.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail at his presidential compound in Ramallah, the Palestinian leader, in the midst of an intense round of international diplomacy aimed at reviving the moribund peace process, insisted he can make a deal, but time is slipping away. “I think there was some opportunities in the past, but unfortunately we missed these opportunities,” he said.

NORTH KOREA TESTS NOT IMMINENT SAYS SOUTH

Image Credit: GeoEye

A defence ministry spokesman said while activity had been detected at the Punggye-ri underground test site, it appeared to be routine.

South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae had earlier said there were indications a test was being prepared.

Meanwhile the North has said it is withdrawing all its workers from the shared Kaesong industrial complex.

FATHER: YOUNG US DIPLOMAT KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN DIED DOING WHAT SHE LOVED

(AP Photo/Courtesy of Tom Smedinghoff) (The Associated Press)

CHICAGO –  The family of an American diplomat who was among those killed in a terrorist attack in southern Afghanistan is taking solace in knowing she died doing what she loved.

Anne Smedinghoff, who was killed Saturday, was the first American diplomat to die on the job since last year's attack in Benghazi, Libya.

KEY US SENATOR SEES DEAL THIS WEEK ON IMMIGRATION

WASHINGTON (AP) — A noisy debate over the flawed U.S. immigration system begins in earnest this week as senators finalize a bipartisan bill to secure the border, allow tens of thousands of foreign workers into the country and grant eventual citizenship to the estimated 11 million people living here illegally.

Negotiators warned of struggles ahead, but all involved are optimistic that it's time to make the biggest changes to the nation's immigration laws in more than a quarter-century.

WHITE HOUSE ASKS GOP FOR COMPROMISE ON BUDGET DEAL

Associated Press

The Obama administration said Sunday that it is searching for rank-and-file Republicans willing to work with the president on a budget deal who “don’t think compromise is a dirty word.”

The outreach was made just days before President Obama plans to formally unveil his proposed 2014 federal budget, but details of the blueprint that leaked early have Republican leaders and Mr. Obama’s liberal base fuming.

HILLARY MAY RUN FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN 2016 HINTS BILL CLINTON

REUTERS

Washington: Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, could run for the 2016 presidential elections, her husband Bill Clinton has hinted.

Bill Clinton, one of the most popular American presidents in recent past, added fuel to the speculation when at an event on Saturday night he said that the country would have some good choices in the 2016 presidential elections.

CHINA'S BIRD FLU OUTBREAK NOT CAUSE FOR PANIC: WHO

REUTERS

(Reuters) - A strain of bird flu that has been found in humans for the first time in eastern China is not a cause for panic, the World Health Organization said on Monday, as the number of people infected rose to 21, with six deaths.

The WHO praised China for mobilizing resources nationwide to combat the H7N9 flu strain by culling tens of thousands of birds and monitoring hundreds of people close to those infected.

GAS PRICES ARE GOING DOWN, AND THE TREND COULD CONTINUE

Photo Credit: Yakima Herald

The extra weekly cash incentive that Brad Hurd receives as a courier is tied to gas prices.

When gas prices were going up, his boss would have to cut those incentives to make up for the higher fuels costs for company vehicles, leading to a smaller paycheck for the Yakima resident.

But as gas prices in Yakima have dropped over the year, Hurd saw that incentive increase from $25 a week to $100.

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.

North Korea Launches Short-Range Missiles

SEOUL – North Korea has tested short-range missiles in the Sea of Japan (known as the East Sea in Korea), in an apparent attempt to counter-act joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

“North Korea test-launched a short-range missile in the East Sea [Sea of Japan] this afternoon, amid the ongoing security crisis on the Korean peninsula following Pyongyang’s third nuclear test last month,” Yonhap news said.

The source, Yonhap said, was a military source within the South Korean government. The North Korean military launched two KN-02 short-range missiles into international waters, the report said.

KN-02 missiles are mobile missiles. Based on the Soviet-era OTR-21 Tochka, they are launched from the back of SCUD-like trucks (see above headline image) and, of all North Korean missiles, they have the shortest range, as the above BBC infographic shows.

The short-range missile is a domestic variant of the Syrian ‘Scarab A’ missile, and has a range of 120-140km. It is usually used to take out large building targets and, when miniaturized, can carry a small, tactical, nuclear load.

This is not a ’rocket’ test or ICBM launch, and this is not the first time North Korea has tested this particular short-range missile. Pyongyang has reportedly been ‘test-launching’ the same missile from its East Sea [Sea of Japan] coast since 2004, and other launches were detected in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Like the rest of the North Korean missile program, the KN-02 is based on old Soviet technology (in this case the reverse engineered 9K79 Tochka provided to North Korea by Syria in 1996).  However, what separates the the KN-02 from the rest of the North’s missile arsenal is that it uses solid-fuel, is more accurate than the notoriously inaccurate SCUD derivatives, and is road mobile.

The KN-02 allegedly also flies a cruise missile profile, making it difficult for PATRIOT missile batteries located in South Korea to intercept. If fired from close enough to the DMZ, it could target U.S. military installations in the ROK.

The question today, however, is timing. With tensions at boiling point, today’s launches will get a lot more attention than normal. John Swenson-Wright senior lecturer in East Asian International Relations at the University of Cambridge told NK NEWS  earlier today “the danger of uncontrolled escalation in this situation seems real and therefore something to be managed very very carefully.”

“The real problem is one of miscalculation and misjudgement by either side – with the North believing it can risk a provocation comparable to the 2010 Yeonpyeong shelling, and the South determined to respond decisively.”

North Korean Leader Guides Exercises Against S. Korea

SEOUL, March 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guided artillery exercises that targeted South Korean islands in the Yellow Sea, the communist country's media reported Thursday.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report monitored in Seoul said Kim oversaw live ammunition drills to test the capabilities of artillery batteries under real battle conditions. It said that exercises were aimed at the islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong that lie just south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) that acts as the de facto sea border between the two Koreas. The North does not recognize the NLL and has tried to impose its own demarcation line that has been rejected by Seoul.

Kim's actions come as Pyongyang put its armed forces on high alert in response to the joint South Korea-U.S. Foal Eagle and Key Resolve military exercises that began in earnest on Monday. It also follows the isolationist country's moves to ratchet up tensions on the Korean Peninsula by unilaterally nullifying the Armistice Agreement that halted the Korean War (1950-53) and claiming all nonaggression pacts between the two countries were null and void. The North on several occasions has threatened to turn Seoul and Washington into a "sea of fire" and boasted it has significant nuclear weapons capability to deal with outside aggressors.

The North's official news wire service, meanwhile, did not give the exact date of the exercise or the units involved, but it likely took place on Wednesday, and involved batteries capable of targeting Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong. It said the North Korean leader, who holds the rank of marshal in the Korean People's Army, was pleased with the level of accuracy of the artillery units.

The KCNA said the goal of the exercise was to destroy the headquarters of South Korean Army and Marine Corps units on the two islands as well as other military installations. South Korea has a Harpoon anti-ship missile detachment, multiple rocket launcher systems and 155 millimeter howitzers on the islands, as well as tanks, anti-artillery radar and electronic intelligence gathering posts.

The latest report comes as North Korean media gave high profile coverage to Kim visiting several front-line units along the country's southwestern coast that have seen numerous clashes with the South.

There have been three naval clashes along the NLL since 1999 in addition to the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel by a North Korean submarine in March 2010 that left 46 sailors dead. The North also shelled Yeonpyeong Island in Nov. 2010, which resulted in four deaths.

The Morning Report -- Thursday March 7 2013

South Korea Pushes Back -- House GOP Averts Shutdown -- Obama Pays For GOP Outreach Dinner -- Rand Paul Holds Senate Floor...For 12+ Hours! -- Menendez Scandal: How? -- Giffords Returns To Shooting Scene -- Arkansas Bans Abortions Past 12 Weeks -- Can President Obama Kill Americans? -- Study: More Gun Laws = Less Crime

SOUTH KOREA PUSHES BACK ON NORTH'S THREATS 

SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean military warned on Wednesday that if it was provoked by North Korea, it would strike the North’s “command leadership,” escalating a war of words and hinting at an attack on a North Korean headquarters.

The day before, the North Korean People’s Army threatened to attack the United States and its ally South Korea with “lighter and smaller nukes,” apparently in reaction to the United Nations Security Council’s consideration of new, toughersanctions against the North over the nuclear test it conducted in February.

HOUSE GOP PASSES SHORT-TERM BUDGET DEAL TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Washington — House Republicans approved legislation Wednesday to avoid a government shutdown at the end of this month while creating more flexibility in cutting $85 billion from this year's budget.

The budget bill, passed 267-151 mostly along party lines, would fund the government until the new fiscal year in October at the reduced levels set by the automatic sequester.

"We have won an important battle in the war to wean our nation off of this addiction of debt," said U.S. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Milford.

GOP OUTREACH DINNER: OBAMA PICKS UP TAB

As part of his effort to improve relations between the White House and Capitol Hill, President Obama dined with a small group of Republican senators this evening and, according to the White House, he paid for the dinner out of his own pocket.

Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; John Hoeven, R-N.D.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; Mike Johanns, R-Neb.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Dan Coats, R-Ind., Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; and Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; are among the senators who joined the president for dinner tonight. The group dined at the Jefferson Hotel a few blocks from the White House.

RAND PAUL (R-KY) USES RARE FILIBUSTER TO BLOCK OBAMA CIA NOMINEE

WASHINGTON — A Republican senator and tea party favorite from Kentucky used an old-style filibuster lasting nearly 13 hours to take control of the chamber and block Senate confirmation of John Brennan’s nomination to be CIA director.

Sen. Rand Paul ended his filibuster Thursday shortly after midnight, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also a Kentucky Republican, said he would continue to oppose Brennan’s confirmation and resist ending the debate on President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the spy agency.

MENENDEZ PROSTITUTION SCANDAL: HOW IT HAPPENED

New Jersey Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez is demanding an investigation into the political operatives who may have been behind an elaborate plot to embroil him in an international sex scandal.

"I have no idea who is behind these efforts, but I hope that the press will pursue them as vigorously to find out who was behind these efforts as they did in the first place," Menendez said Tuesday. "All I know is obviously there must be interests [who] were trying to defeat me in my election and who obviously did not want to see me in my role as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

GIFFORDS URGES BACKGROUND  CHECKS IN EVENT AT SHOOTING LOCATION

TUCSON, Ariz. — Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords returned to the scene of the horrific shooting that wounded her and killed six people two years ago, urging senators Wednesday to pass background checks for gun purchases in her first public event at the site since the rampage.

Giffords, who is still recovering from her injuries, spoke fewer than 20 words in the parking lot of the Safeway grocery store in her hometown of Tucson in a brief but emotional call for stricter gun control measures.

ARKANSAS ADOPTS RESTRICTIVE BAN ON ABORTIONS AFTER 12 WEEKS

Arkansas adopted what is by far the country’s most restrictive ban onabortion on Wednesday — at 12 weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected by abdominal ultrasound.

The law, the sharpest challenge yet to Roe v. Wade, was passed by the newly Republican-controlled legislature over the veto of Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, who called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” The State Senate voted Tuesday to override his veto and the House followed suit on Wednesday, with several Democrats joining the Republican majority.

KILLING AMERICANS ON U.S. SOIL: ERIC HOLDER'S EVASIVE, MANIPULATIVE LETTER

On December 7, 1941, Japanese war planes bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Six decades later, Al Qaeda terrorists flew hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Neither President Franklin Roosevelt nor President George W. Bush targeted and killed Americans on U.S. soil in the aftermath of those attacks. Doing so wouldn't have made any sense. 

How strange, then, that Attorney General Eric Holder invoked those very attacks in a letter confirming that President Obama believes there are circumstances in which he could order Americans targeted and killed on U.S. soil. "It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws ... for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States," he wrote. "For example, the President could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941 and on September 11, 2001."

STATES WITH MORE GUN LAWS HAVE LESS VIOLENCE

States with more gun laws have fewer gun-related deaths, according to a new study released Wednesday by Boston Children's Hospital.

The leader investigator behind the research hopes the findings will drive legislators to pass gun reform across the country and increase federal funding to research on gun laws and violence. However, at least one critic argues that the study fails to take into account several important factors such as the types of laws, enforcement of laws, and gun ownership rates in states.

South Korean Military Sharpens Reflexes

Reuters

(Reuters) - As North Korea prepares a third nuclear test, South Korean soldiers on the world's most heavily armed border now have orders to shoot back immediately if they come under attack, a move that risks escalating any small-scale conflict.

Stung by criticism three years ago of the time it took South Korean artillery to respond to a burst of shelling from the North, Seoul's Defence Ministry has relaxed rules that required officials at its command centre to sanction a response.

"We will respond immediately to any enemy provocation," said Captain Kim Sang-min, a 29-year old company commander at the "Invincible Typhoon" unit that is stationed just 800 meters from the demarcation line that separates the two countries which remain technically at war.

Read more at Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/07/us-korea-frontline-idUSBRE91614Y20130207