Declaring North Korea a "grave threat" to the world, President Barack Obama yesterday pledged the United States and its allies will aggressively enforce fresh international penalties against the nuclear-armed nation and stop rewarding its leaders for repeated provocations.

In a display of unity with South Korea's leader, Obama said the world must break a pattern in which North Korea puts the globe on edge, only to put itself in line for concessions if it holds out long enough.

MySpace cuts staff

LOS ANGELES (AP):

MySpace said yesterday it is cutting nearly 30 per cent of its workforce in a bid to become more efficient, bringing its staffing level more in line with its more popular rival, Facebook.

The move comes less than two months after MySpace, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, hired former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta, 39, as its new chief executive.

Big drug find

GUATEMALA CITY (AP):

Guatemalan authorities have confiscated nearly 10 million pseudoephedrine pills worth $33 million in a record seizure of the precursor chemical for methamphetamine. Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez says the 9.9 million pills were seized yesterday at Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala's main port on the Pacific coast.

The Attorney General's Office says information from the US Drug Enforcement Administration led to the seizure. The pills arrived in a ship coming from India.

Gonzalez called it the biggest seizure of methamphetamine precursor chemicals in Guatemala.

More gays being killed

NEW YORK (AP):

The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people killed in bias-motivated incidents increased by 28 per cent in 2008 compared to a year ago, according to a national coalition of advocacy groups.

Last year's 29 killings was the highest recorded by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs since 1999, when it documented the same number of slayings, according to a report released yesterday by the coalition.

Protests continue

IRAN (AP):

Thousands of pro-reform protesters marched yesterday in a second straight day of large street demonstrations in the Iranian capital, defying the government after the clerical regime said it would recount some disputed ballots from the presidential election.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranians to unite behind the cleric-led ruling system despite the rival demonstrations and street clashes, state television reported, and he said representatives of all four candidates should be present for any limited recount of disputed ballots.