In brief: N. Korea declares front-line troops in ‘quasi-state of war’

PYONGYANG, North Korea – North Korea declared today that its front-line troops are in a “a quasi-state of war” and warned of military operations a day after the rival Koreas exchanged fire across the world’s most heavily armed border.

The North has made similar bombastic claims before and the huge numbers of soldiers and military equipment stationed along the Koreas’ tense border mean the area is always essentially in a “quasi-state of war.” Still, the declaration, following South Korea’s firing of dozens of shells across the border after the North lobbed several rounds at a South Korean town, signals a worrying development.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported today that “military commanders were urgently dispatched for operations to attack South Korean psychological warfare facilities if the South doesn’t stop operating them.”

Seoul said the North fired Thursday across the Demilitarized Zone to back up an earlier threat to attack South Korean border loudspeakers that, after a lull of 11 years, have started broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda. North Korea, which denies firing at the South, later said the South Korean shells landed near four military posts but caused no injuries. No one was reported injured in the South, either, though hundreds were evacuated from front-line towns.

Foreigners now being checked at San Ysidro border crossing

SAN DIEGO – Walking into Mexico at the nation’s busiest border crossing with the United States is no longer an uninterrupted stroll for foreigners.

Pedestrians and motorists have generally entered Mexico unencumbered along the 1,954-mile border with the United States.

Now, pedestrians going to Tijuana from San Diego at the San Ysidro crossing must choose between a line for Mexicans who walk through unchecked, and a line for foreigners who must show a passport, fill out a form and – if staying more than a week – pay roughly $20 for a six-month permit.

Peru permits military to shoot down suspected drug flights

LIMA, Peru – Peru’s Congress voted unanimously Thursday to authorize military planes to shoot down suspected drug flights, which police say smuggle more than a ton of cocaine to Bolivia daily.

President Ollanta Humala is expected to sign the legislation into law. It passed 89-0.

Neighboring drug-producing and transit nations, including Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and, most recently, Bolivia, already permit planes suspected of carrying drugs to be shot down. But with the exception of Venezuela and Honduras, such events have been rare in recent years and tend to follow strict guidelines.

Peru halted aerial interdiction after an air force pilot killed a U.S. missionary and her child in a 2001 attack on a plane wrongly identified as carrying drugs.

Since Peru became the world’s No. 1 cocaine producer in 2012, about half those drugs have been traveling via small planes to Bolivia.

Attack in Yemen governor’s compound kills 4; officials safe

SANAA, Yemen – A bomb attack in the governor’s compound in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden on Thursday killed four people, security officials said. The governor and other officials who were present at the time were not hurt in the apparent assassination attempt.

The developments came as Shiite rebels known as Houthis launched new attacks, after weeks of retreating as pro-government troops pushed north out of Aden. Yemen’s fighting, which escalated in March, pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and troops loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Thursday’s explosion in Gov. Nayef al-Bakry’s office also wounded 10 people, local police officials said. Al-Bakry, who oversees the Aden governorate, was in the building at the time, meeting with high-profile military and security officials.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack and authorities were investigating, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations.

Backed by a Saudi-led coalition that started carrying out airstrikes against the rebels in March, pro-government fighters took Aden in July, after driving out the Houthis who had seized it in the spring.

In Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, at least 11 civilians were killed and more than 35 injured by shelling that started on Wednesday, independent local officials, witnesses and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

They all said the shelling was by Houthi fighters. Houthi reinforcements were being sent to the city, witnesses said. Anti-rebel fighters had captured several locations in Taiz over the past week, and currently control most of the city.

Meanwhile, Islamic State-affiliated militants claimed an attack Wednesday that killed a Yemeni soldier at a checkpoint in Hadramawt province. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim, which was posted by IS sympathizers Thursday on Twitter.