North Koreans Agree to Freeze Nuclear Work

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North Koreans Agree to Freeze Nuclear Work
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North Korea announced that it would suspend its
nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment and
allow international inspectors to monitor
activities at its main nuclear complex. The
announcement seemed to signal that North Koreas
new leader, Kim Jong-un, is at least willing to
consider a return to negotiations and to engage
with the United States, which pledged in exchange
to ship tons of food aid to the isolated,
impoverished nation.
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In Other News

• With no clear end to tensions with Iran and Syria
  and rising demand from countries like China, gas
  prices are already at record highs for the winter
  months averaging 4.32 in California and 3.73
  a gallon nationally on Wednesday. As summer
  approaches, demand for gasoline rises, typically
  pushing prices up around 20 cents a gallon. And
  gas prices could rise another 50 cents a gallon
  or more, analysts say, if the diplomatic and
  economic standoff over Irans nuclear ambitions
  escalates into military conflict or there is some
  other major supply disruption. Your country
  should be prepared for an additional budget
  expense.
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering
  an experiment in which it would kill or transfer
  some barred owls sometimes referred to as the
  hoot owl, thanks to its call as part of a plan
  to preserve the smaller northern spotted owl. The
  U.S. government has listed the northern spotted
  owl, whose range includes British Columbia,
  Washington, Oregon and California, as a
  threatened species since 1990. Its population
  declined by 40  in the last 25 years, not only
  because of shrinking habitat, but also because
  the barred owl moved into the area starting in
  the late 1950s. The service is calling for one to
  11 experiment sites in areas including national
  parks and recreation areas. Depending on the
  number of sites, the service would kill or
  transfer 257 to nearly 8,960 barred owls. If the
  experiment goes forward and works, the service
  would propose a wider-scale barred owl removal
  program in the northern spotted owls range, with
  the ultimate goal of getting the populations to
  the point where they can co-exist. The Seattle
  Audubon Society was among the groups that
  consulted with the Fish and Wildlife Service
  before it made its proposal.
• Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will sign into law
  Thursday a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Six
  states and the District of Columbia already issue
  same-sex marriage licenses -- Connecticut, Iowa,
  Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and
  Vermont. Five states -- Delaware, Hawaii,
  Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island -- allow
  civil unions that provide rights similar to
  marriage.
• Davy Jones, who was in the band "The Monkees,"
  died Wednesday most likely from a heart attack.
  He was 66. The group had a handful of No. 1 songs
  (including "I'm a Believer," Billboard's top song
  of 1967) and four No. 1 albums.
• The Texas Department of Public Safety will deploy
  the first of a fleet of six gunboats on the Rio
  Grande, the river that forms the border between
  the state and Mexico. The purpose is to work with
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection to combat drug
  smuggling coming across the Rio Grande.