North warns it's ready to cut talks

SEOUL - North Korea said yesterday that it was ready to give up dialogue and attack the South, ignoring a call from its wealthy neighbor's new president to calm down and get back to serious talks. In the past week, the North has warned it could reduce its neighbor to ashes and hurled insults at President Lee Myung-bak, who took office in February with a threat to end the free flow of aid to the North. (Reuters)

PARAMARIBO - A plane crashed yesterday en route to a remote gold mining region in southern Suriname, killing 19 people, officials in the South American country said. The twin-engine Antonov AN-28, operated by Surinamese carrier Blue Wing airlines, crashed in the jungle on approach to an airstrip in the Benzdorp region, near the country's border with French Guiana, officials said. All 19 people on board, including the pilot and copilot, were killed, said Satnarain Joeglall, air traffic supervisor at the airfield in Parmaribo, where the plane had departed about two hours earlier. (AP)

TOKYO - Japanese police arrested a US sailor yesterday in the stabbing death of a taxi driver near an American naval base outside Tokyo, fueling anger here over crimes allegedly involving US troops. Olatunbosun Ugbogu, a 22-year-old Nigerian national, was arrested on murder and robbery charges, a local police spokesman said. The spokesman said he had confessed. Japanese officials reacted sharply to the arrest. Ugbogu, a crew member on the USS Cowpens, is accused of stabbing a 61-year-old taxi driver, Masaaki Takahashi, on March 19 in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo and the site of a large US naval base. Police also accuse him of failing to pay the $190 fare. (AP)