Main News of March 29

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* A senior NATO official said on Friday that military conflict between the United States and North Korea was not inevitable, but that Washington and its allies are capable of deterring that outcome

* In an effort to reduce pollution, US President Barack Obama’s administration proposed new rules Friday it says will make gasoline and automobile emissions cleaner, but which the oil and gas industry said will hit drivers hard at the pump

* North Korean strategic rocket forces were ordered to be on standby on Friday to strike US and South Korean targets, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, citing state media

* Delegations from 193 UN member states failed to reach unanimity on the first international treaty establishing rules for cross-border conventional arms trade, due to objections from Iran, North Korea and Syria

RUSSIA

* Russian President Vladimir Putin spent Friday morning on live television, promoting a fledgling political movement and cataloguing prospective initiatives reminiscent of the Soviet Union in their values, traditions and emphasis on social benefits

* Russia cautioned against aggressive posturing in response to increasingly bellicose North Korean rhetoric on Friday, saying that it could spiral into violence

* Russia dismissed the growing alarm on Friday over the ongoing nationwide inspections of non-governmental organizations’ offices that some activists have described as a campaign of systematic intimidation

* A Russian leftist activist accused of plotting a foreign-funded coup fell ill in court on Friday after a Moscow court refused to free him on bail

* President Vladimir Putin sought to soothe concerns on Friday that implementation of the long-awaited juvenile justice system would undermine family rights

* A Moscow court has ordered Yelena Kotova, a former senior Russian representative at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) who has been charged with bribery, to undergo psychiatric assessment, the Interior Ministry said

* Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Friday for curbing generous pay-offs to departing executives in the same week as the head of a poorly performing state-controlled company received a $6.4 million “golden parachute” for resigning

* The Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft, carrying new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS), docked with the station as scheduled on Friday, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said

BUSINESS

* US President Barack Obama announced a $21 billion plan Friday to attract private investors to fund what he said are badly-needed improvements to the nation’s highways, bridges, ports and waterways to spur job creation

DEFENSE

* Russian shipbuilders are working on developing new “super mini” submarines, the United Shipbuilding Corporation state holding company said

* Russia should not build a second pair of French-designed Mistral-class amphibious assault ships, as Russian shipbuilders are capable of designing and building their own vessels of this type, a senior defense industry official said

* Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the country’s southern Black Sea region on Friday to attend large-scale military exercises aimed at testing the combat readiness of units in the area, which will host the Winter Olympic Games next year

CRIME

* A criminal case has been opened into suspected fraudulent financial operations inside Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) involving the purchase of electronic tracking devices for tagging convicts, the Investigative Committee said