N.Korea delays talks with UN Command on warship

SEOUL: North Korea has delayed military talks scheduled for Tuesday with the US-led United Nations Command about the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, the Command said.

The meeting would have been the first of its kind since the warship went down in March near the disputed inter-Korean sea border, an incident that sharply raised regional tensions.

South Korea, the United States and other nations accuse the North of torpedoing the corvette with the loss of 46 lives. Pyongyang vehemently denies the charge and threatens war in response to any punishment.

The announcement of the delay came less than an hour before the talks were to begin at the border village of Panmunjom.

The Command, which oversees the armistice that ended the 1950-53 war, said in a statement the North”s army representatives requested a delay “for administrative reasons”.

A new time for the talks was not immediately proposed. The planned colonel-level meeting was due to discuss arrangements for future talks at general-level.

The North previously refused to hold discussions with the US military over the sinking, calling for talks only with South Korea, but it shifted its stance on Friday.

Hours after that development, the UN Security Council issued a statement which condemned the attack but did not apportion blame — a result hailed by the North as a “great diplomatic victory”.

Following the UN statement, which was watered down under pressure from Pyongyang”s ally China, the North reiterated its conditional willingness to return to stalled international nuclear disarmament negotiations.

The Actions Of Sergeant Kimberly Munley

The Actions Of Sergeant Kimberly Munley :A police officer who intervened to stop a shooting spree at America’s biggest military base was hailed today as a heroine as she received treatment for the wounds received in a shoot-out with the gunman. Major Nidal Hasan, an army psychiatrist due to be posted to Afghanistan, shot dead 13 people and wounded 30 others after opening fire with two handguns at Fort Hood yesterday afternoon. But the death toll from the rampage could have been far worse had it not been for the actions of Sergeant Kimberly Munley , a civilian police officer stationed at the base who was the first on the scene as Major Hasan picked off his victims

The Actions Of Sergeant Kimberly Munley:A police officer who intervened to stop a shooting spree at America’s biggest military base was hailed today as a heroine as she received treatment for the wounds received in a shoot-out with the gunman.

Major Nidal Hasan, an army psychiatrist due to be posted to Afghanistan, shot dead 13 people and wounded 30 others after opening fire with two handguns at Fort Hood yesterday afternoon.

But the death toll from the rampage could have been far worse had it not been for the actions of Sergeant Kimberly Munley, a civilian police officer stationed at the base who was the first on the scene as Major Hasan picked off his victims.

Sergeant Munley managed to hit Major Hasan four times but was herself hit by a bullet that passed through both her legs, according to witnesses. Colonel John Rossi, briefing reporters at Fort Hood this morning, said that Major Hasan’s victims, who were killed in a part of the base used to process soldiers for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, had all been unarmed. Sergeant Munley had been the first armed person on the scene and had immediately taken him on.

“Her efforts were superb,” he said.

Colonel Steven Braverman, commander of the base hospital and Major Hasan’s supervisor, said that Sergeant Munley was in a stable condition in a nearby community hospital. more details:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6906278.ece