World in brief: North Korea issues threat

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea’s military threatened today to retaliate against South Korea over its planned naval drills this week near their disputed sea border.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that the military would crush the naval drills with a powerful physical blow and warned all civilian ships to stay away from areas near the sea border.

South Korea plans to hold five-day naval drills in the Yellow sea, including near the border, beginning Thursday in response to the March sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea.

North Korea vehemently denies involvement in the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan, and has demanded that its own investigators be allowed to visit South Korea to examine the results. Seoul has rejected the North’s repeated requests.

The North’s military denounced South Korea’s planned drills as political provocations aimed at keeping the current sea border – the scene of deadly skirmishes between the two sides in 1999, 2002 and last year.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

KARACHI, Pakistan – Gunmen went on killing sprees in Pakistan’s largest city after the assassination of a lawmaker, killing at least 37 people by today. Dozens of vehicles and shops were set on fire as security forces struggled to gain control as Karachi seethed.

The latest unrest came after Raza Haider, a provincial lawmaker, was shot dead along with his bodyguard in a mosque in Karachi’s Nazimabad area while preparing to offer prayers Monday.

Officials from different hospitals put the total death toll by Tuesday morning at 37. Some 80 people had suffered gunshot wounds as well, they said.

Plague outbreak kills 1, infects 31

LIMA, Peru – Peru’s health minister says an outbreak of plague has killed a 14-year-old boy and infected at least 31 people in a northern coastal province.

Health Minister Oscar Ugarte said authorities are screening sugar and fish meal exports from Ascope province, located about 325 miles northwest of Lima. Popular Chicama beach isn’t far away.

Ugarte said the boy, who had Down syndrome, died of bubonic plague July 26.

He said Monday that most of the infections are bubonic plague, with four cases of pneumonic plague.