N. KOREA LEADER URGES DEVELOPMENT OF BIGGER ROCKETS
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered the development of bigger rockets, state media said on Saturday, after Pyongyang sparked international condemnation with a long-range rocket launch.

He gave the order to scientists, technicians and others involved in this month’s launch at a banquet on Friday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

MEXICO’S DRUG WAR LEAVES 20,000 MISSING
MEXICO CITY: Over 20,000 people have disappeared in Mexico in the past six years of a brutal crackdown on drugs during the government of former president Felipe Calderon, civic group Propuesta Civica (Civic Proposal) said. The group released a database on its website listing 20,851 people who went missing from August 2, 2006 to February 29, 2012. Young people ages 10 to 17 account for about a third of those who disappeared. About one-quarter of the victims was ages 18 to 30. The group warned that it could not distinguish between victims of possible violence at the hands of the government and those who perished in Mexico’s brutal drug war, which it called a “humanitarian tragedy.”

COURT PUTS CALIFORNIAN GAY CONVERSION BAN ON HOLD
LOS ANGELES: A US court put on hold a new Californian law banning a form of therapy designed to change the sexual orientation of minors, pending a further appeal. The law barring doctors from performing so-called “reparative therapy” was signed by California governor Jerry Brown in October, and was due to go into force on January 4. But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request for an injunction, putting it on hold until a decision is made on its constitutionality. Under the law, doctors would not be able to provide therapy that seeks “to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.” AFP