South Korea to target leaders if North strikes

SEOUL - South Korea's military said it would strike back at North Korea and target its top leadership if Pyongyang launches a threatened attack in response to what it says are "hostile" drills between US and South Korean forces. The military exercises began on March 1 and run until April 30. North Korea is gearing up to expand its own military drills and may be preparing to test-fire short-to-medium-range missiles by banning flights and sailing off its coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting South Korean government sources. Reuters

Police and soldiers to be charged in killings

MANILA - Murder charges will be filed in the Philippines against 21 police officers and 14 soldiers in the January killings of 13 suspected criminals at a road checkpoint. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said an investigation ordered by President Benigno Aquino into the January 6 killings concluded the victims were summarily executed. She said the National Bureau of Investigation found the killings were a plan by the leader of the security forces, a police colonel, to eliminate his rival in an illegal gambling operation. The police colonel has denied the charges. AP

Vietnam to ban short and fat traffic officers

HANOI - Short, pot-bellied policemen will be banned from traffic duty in Vietnam's capital Hanoi and given office jobs in a bid to improve the force's public image, police said. Details of the new height and weight restrictions were not available but the head of Hanoi's traffic police said they were working on a list of cops who didn't measure up and would be redeployed out of sight. Vietnam's traffic police - which were voted the "most corrupt" institution in the communist country according to a recent World Bank-funded survey - have long been dogged by a poor public image. AFP

Oldest Khmer Rouge defendant in hospital

PHNOM PENH - A former Khmer Rouge leader on trial for genocide was in critical condition in hospital, his lawyer said, stoking fears that top figures in the murderous regime may never face justice. Ieng Sary, who at 87 years old is the oldest defendant at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court, was taken to hospital with stomach problems. Sary emerged as one of the few public faces of the Khmer Rouge during its brutal rule in the late 1970s. AFP