The U.S military says two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers have completed a training mission in South Korea amid threats from North Korea that include nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul. The statement Thursday by U.S. Forces Korea is an unusual confirmation. It follows an earlier U.S. announcement that nuclear-capable B-52 bombers participated in ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills. The U.S. says the B-2 stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base and dropped munitions on a South Korean island range before returning home. The announcement will likely draw a strong response from Pyongyang. North Korea sees the military drills as part of a U.S. plot to invade and becomes particularly upset about U.S. nuclear activities in the region. . .

In today’s New York Post, a “Cuomo administration source” pins the blame for the flaws in the state’s new gun regulations, in part, on Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“Much of what’s in the law was drafted by people connected to Mayor Bloomberg and the Brady Center, not by the governor’s staff,” the sourcetold Post state editor Fred Dicker, himself a Cuomo insider who has been critical of the governor over the gun-control package. “That’s why there are so many problems with it.”

Asked about that criticism today, Bloomberg erupted in anger.

“What did we do, put a gun to their head, if you pardon the pun, and force them to write legislation?” he said, during a press conference in Brooklyn about helping the unemployed get jobs. “Is that the allegation? That we were up there with automatic weapons with expanded capacity magazines forcing them to write a bill?”

“That’s the kind of journalism that I find troublesome,” he continued. “You’ve got a source that isn’t willing to put their name on the bill and the reporting of it wasn’t in the context of, is that credible? But they were forced by guns, or a knife at their throat, to take our ideas. If they took our ideas, I’m flattered. I hope they did. And I don’t know whether they did or didn’t, and I don’t know whether they got it accurate or not.”. . .

Former UN envoy Kofi Annan criticises the people “far away from Syria” calling for increased military support in the country – as Britain and France pushes to supply rebels with more weapons. Mr Annan was the UN’s Arab League envoy before resigning in August, blaming “finger pointing” at the United Nations Security Council for stifling his efforts at mediation. Speaking at the Graduate Institute in Geneva on Tuesday night, Mr Annan said: “I don’t see a military intervention in Syria. We left it too late. I’m not sure it would not do more harm. “Further militarisation of the conflict, I’m not sure that is the way to help the Syrian people. They are waiting for the killing to stop. You find some people far away from Syria are the ones very keen for putting in weapons. . .

A dog that killed a sea lion in Laguna Beach over the weekend belonged to the stepdaughter of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, local media reported. A witness’ video shows the 65-pound American bulldog mix attacking the sea lion while Giffords’ husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, and her stepdaughter try to free the sea lion from the dog’s grip. Jen Bluestein, senior advisor to the Giffords and Kelly’s Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC, confirmed to the confirmed to the Orange County Register that the dog belonged to Giffords’ stepdaughter. . .

For months now, the United States has been training secular Syrian fighters in Jordan with the goal of bolstering the array of forces battling President Bashar Assad’s regime while at the same time strengthening the hand of moderates among the country’s fractured opposition, American and foreign officials said. They said the effort is ongoing. The training has been taking place since late last year at an unspecified location, concentrating largely on Sunnis and tribal Bedouins who formerly served as members of the Syrian army, officials told The Associated Press. The forces aren’t members of the leading rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, they said. The U.S. and others fear the growing role of extremist militia groups in the rebel ranks, including some linked to al Qaeda. . .

The rebel Free Syrian Army’s Col. Riad al-Asaad was reportedly injured in a blast, while the Free Syrian Army rejected the political council’s appointment of Ghassan Hitto as provisional prime minister. One of the Syrian rebels’ top military leaders was wounded – and perhaps killed – by a bomb today in eastern Syria, while Syria’s tenuous opposition threatened to come further unglued after the resignation of its leader and a rejection of the group’s new provisional prime minister. Col. Riad al-Asaad, the nominal head of the Free Syrian Army, was injured in a blast in the town of Mayadeen in eastern Syria, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Agence France-Presse reports that, according to the Observatory, Colonel Assad survived a car bomb and was transferred to Turkey for treatment of his injuries. . .

The Democrat-controlled Senate approved its first budget blueprint in four years early Saturday, a political milestone that capped months of GOP criticism and set the stage for direct negotiations with the Republican-controlled House. The Senate blueprint calls for nearly $1 trillion in new taxes over the next decade and only modest reductions in projected government spending. While it would replace sharp, automatic spending cuts known as the sequester, it would do little to alter the nation’s financial outlook, permitting the portion of the national debt held by outside investors to swell from nearly $12 trillion today to more than $18 trillion by 2023. . .

Hours after Palestinian militants fired at least two rockets from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip that crashed into the Israeli border city of Sderot on Thursday, President Obama traveled to the West Bank city of Ramallah and renewed his call for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, saying that continued Israeli settlement-building did not advance the cause of peace. . .

Britain will cut the main rate of corporation tax to 20 percent from April 2015 to try to boost investment and create jobs, finance minister George Osborne said on Wednesday. “Britain will have a 20 per cent rate of corporation tax – the lowest business tax of any major economy in the world,” he told parliament in his budget statement. “That’s a tax cut for jobs and growth.”. . .

Two juvenile females accused of making threats against a juvenile rape victim will remain in the Jefferson County Juvenile Detention Center until an adjudication hearing scheduled for March 27 in Juvenile Court. Juvenile Judge Sam Kerr ordered the two unidentified juveniles remanded after hearing a statement from Assistant County Prosecutor Sam Pate, who requested the two remain detained, “to protect a person from immediate or threatened harm.” Both juveniles were charged this morning with intimidation of a witness which is a felony, aggravated menacing and telecommunication harassment, both misdemeanor. Attorney Francesca Carinici represented the 15-year old girl who is accused of threatening the rape victim. . .

The Syrian government and Syrian rebels and activists traded accusations on using chemical weapons in the northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday.

Whether chemical weapons had been used could not be immediately confirmed.

The Syrian rebel forces are not known to possess chemical weapons, while the government has large stockpiles. There has long been a fear on all sides — in the Syrian government, in neighboring Israel and among the rebels’ western backers — that rebel groups could seize chemical weapons, but it is unclear whether any such weapons have been loaded onto rockets or missiles for use, or whether the rebels would be able to fire them if they were.

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said “terrorists” fired a rocket “containing chemical materials” into the Khan al-Assal area of Aleppo, and a government official told state television that the episode would be reported to human rights organizations and to countries supporting the rebels.

But a senior rebel commander, Qassim Saadeddine, who is also a spokesman for the Higher Military Council in Aleppo, blamed Assad’s forces for any chemical strike. “We were hearing reports from early this morning about a regime attack on Khan al-Assal, and we believe they fired a Scud with chemical agents,” he told Reuters by telephone from Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog group, said witnesses heard over walkie-talkies that 26 people were killed, including 16 government soldiers and 10 civilians, after a rocket landed on Khan al-Assal. Activists said the government tried to hit the police academy there, which was recently taken by rebel forces, with a Scud missile, but it accidentally fell on a government-controlled area instead. . .

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says the jail is nearly full, and he’s concerned the facility will be bursting at the seams as summer months approach and arrests typically rise with the mercury. Late last week, the jail at 27th and California was almost 96 percent full, with a daily population of 9,721. The capacity is about 10,150. “That will become a humongous problem for me come June, July and August,” Dart told the Chicago Sun-Times in a recent interview. A confluence of events has prompted the surge in detainees, including a spike in arrests and in the amount of time suspects spend behind bars as their cases wind through the justice system. A recent drop in the number of suspects who go home on electronic monitoring also is pushing up the number of detainees. Dart and Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans blame each other for that decrease. . .

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says the jail is nearly full, and he’s concerned the facility will be bursting at the seams as summer months approach and arrests typically rise with the mercury. Late last week, the jail at 27th and California was almost 96 percent full, with a daily population of 9,721. The capacity is about 10,150. “That will become a humongous problem for me come June, July and August,” Dart told the Chicago Sun-Times in a recent interview. A confluence of events has prompted the surge in detainees, including a spike in arrests and in the amount of time suspects spend behind bars as their cases wind through the justice system. A recent drop in the number of suspects who go home on electronic monitoring also is pushing up the number of detainees. Dart and Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans blame each other for that decrease. . .

Federal officials have charged the former head of the nation’s largest pension fund and one of his business associates in connection with influence peddling and bribery. A federal grand jury on Monday indicted Fred Buenrostro, the former CEO of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, and former CalPERS board member Alfred Villalobos with conspiring to commit fraud, obstruction of justice and other charges. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against the pair last year. The SEC alleged the pair fabricated financial documents to dupe a prominent investment firm into paying $20 million in fees to Villalobos’ firms for investing $3 billion worth of CalPERS’ money. . .

The Ohio Attorney General said he will convene a grand jury next month to continue investigating the Steubenville rape case, even as two teens were convicted earlier today.

Attorney General Mike DeWine said the grand jury would meet April 15 where prosecutors from his office will present evidence to determine if other crimes were committed Aug. 11 and 12 at a series of parties the night of the assault.

Testimony in the rape trial of two Steubenville High School athletes has indicated that a number of teens were drinking at the homes of several students. Photos of the nude 16-year old were also taken and distributed among party goers and others. Also, several party-goers saw what was happening and did little or nothing to stop or report the assault. A rarely used Ohio law makes it a crime not to report a felony, such as a rape. . .

Tuareg rebels are moving to exert their own authority over north Mali by issuing security passes for the region, officials and residents said on Friday, underscoring the challenge of unifying the West African state before planned elections. Rebels from the pro-autonomy MNLA have been handing out the security documents, stamped in name of the Azawad Republic they proclaimed last year, to drivers of vehicles in and around their northern stronghold of Kidal. The Tuaregs re-occupied the isolated northern town in January after Islamist rebels holding the town fled an offensive by French troops. The MNLA had seized control of north Mali, which it calls Azawad, in an April 2012 uprising. It was quickly pushed aside by better-armed Islamist rebels, including al Qaeda’s North African wing AQIM, sparking fears the region would become a launchpad for attacks on the West. . .

The American commander in Afghanistan quietly told his forces to intensify security measures on Wednesday, issuing a strongly worded warning that a string of anti-American statements by President Hamid Karzai had put Western troops at greater risk of attack both from rogue Afghan security forces and from militants. The order came amid a growing backlash against Mr. Karzai’s public excoriation of the United States, including a speech on Tuesday in which he suggested that the government might unilaterally act to ensure control of the Bagram Prison if the United States delayed its handover. An array of Afghan political leaders issued a joint statement criticizing Mr. Karzai and saying his comments did not reflect their views. And though American military and diplomatic officials have mostly refrained from replying publicly to Mr. Karzai’s criticism, in private they have expressed concerns that relations between the allies had reached a worrisome low point right at a critical point in the war against the Taliban. Frustration with Mr. Karzai was clear in the alert, known as a command threat advisory, sent on Wednesday by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. to his top commanders. “His remarks could be a catalyst for some to lash out against our forces — he may also issue orders that put our forces at risk,” the advisory read. . .

Iran and Hezbollah have built a 50,000-strong parallel force in Syria to help prolong the life of the Damascus regime and to maintain their influence after Assad’s fall, Israel’s military intelligence chief has claimed. Major General Aviv Kochavi said Iran intended to double the size of this Syrian “people’s army”, which he claimed was being trained by Hezbollah fighters and funded by Tehran, to bolster a depleted and demoralised Syrian army. Kochavi, the director of military intelligence in the Israel defence forces (IDF), also said Assad’s troops had readied chemical weapons but had so far not given the order for them to be used. At the same time, he warned of the increasing sway of extremist groups in the opposition, particularly the al-Nusra Front, which he claimed was beginning to infiltrate Lebanon and was making connections with a Sinai-based militant organisation, Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, which is focused on attacks on Israel. . .