N. Korea offers deal to end nuke tests

N. Korea offers deal to end nuke tests

SEOUL, South Korea

North Korea said it could stop nuclear tests in exchange for the U.S. scrapping joint military drills with South Korea, while also calling for a peace treaty with the U.S. in an echo of demands that were rejected by Washington in the past.

The U.S. previously has called the North’s linking the military drills with its nuclear tests an “an implicit threat” and demanded that Pyongyang first demonstrate its sincerity to nuclear disarmament.

An unnamed spokesman of the North’s Foreign Ministry called the purported hydrogen bomb test Jan. 6 a justifiable move to ensure its survival against external threats.

Design for Tucson memorial unveiled

TUCSON, Ariz.

Carved symbols along a dark red steel wall will be among the various parts of a large memorial to honor victims of the mass shooting in Tucson that gravely wounded then-U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords.

Memorial organizers released a final design Friday and said they continue to raise money from private donors.

The Jan. 8, 2011, shooting at a Giffords event left six dead and 13 wounded. Giffords was the target. Others killed included 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, U.S. District Court Judge John Roll and Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman, who was 30.

Dengue fever leads to closing of sites

HONOLULU

Hawaii officials closed a Big Island road, campground and hiking trail in an effort to stop the spread of a dengue fever outbreak that has sickened 223 residents and visitors as of Friday.

Five of those cases potentially could be infectious, according to the Hawaii Department of Health.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources closed the Muliwai hiking trail on the far cliff side of Waipio Valley and its Waimanu Valley campground on Friday.

Hawaii County’s Civil Defense Agency blocked all traffic to Waipio Valley Access Road on Thursday and limited access to residents. The road closure comes three weeks after health officials closed access to state lands near Milolii and Honomalino Bay, which were “hotspots” for the mosquito-borne virus.

Girl falls, dies when hopping rooftops

NEW YORK

Police say a 15-year-old girl who was hopping from rooftop to rooftop in New York City fell between buildings to her death.

Natalya Jimenez was found in an alley off a series of four- and five-story brick buildings in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Police say she and two friends jumped at least three rooftops before they turned to go back to a building and she plunged to the street.

Her body was found about 4:30 p.m. Friday after police received a 911 call of an unconscious person in an alley. She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Fuel thefts in Mexico

MEXICO CITY

Rebellious crowds of townspeople in a rural area in central Mexico are defying police and soldiers to steal diesel from illegally tapped pipelines, creating what officials call an imminent threat of tragedies like fires that have burned dozens of people at other sites in Mexico.

The sight of a crowd of men, women and youths gathered around a huge pool of diesel with buckets in the central state of Tlaxcala exemplifies the trend in pipeline thefts, which rose 52 percent in 2015 to reach a rate of nearly 15 illegal taps per day across the country.

Associated Press