BBC News with Sue Montgomery

The United States has called for new sanctions on North Korea at the UN. They would for the first time target aspects of the state’s financial system. The U.S. ambassador Susan Rice said Washington had the support of China for a new draft Security Council resolution. Barbara Plett reports from the UN.

Susan Rice told reporters that the draft resolution calls for strengthening existing sanctions on North Korea as well as breaking new ground. Some of the new measures include targeting diplomats, banking activities and cash transfer she said. This will be the fourth round of UN sanctions against North Korea aimed at halting its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. The draft is a response to Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test and was negotiated between the US and China, North Korea’s ally on the Security Council. Ms. Rice spoke after circulating the text to council members. A vote is expected later this week.

North Korea earlier warned that it would scrap the truce that ended the Korean War in response to increase sanctions and continuing military exercises by U.S. and South Korean forces.

The Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro has said President Hugo Chavez is going through his most difficult hours and has called on the nation to close ranks behind the ailing leader. Nicolas Maduro said Mr. Chavez who’s been receiving treatment for cancer has suffered very severe respiratory complications. Emily Buchanan reports

It’s two months since Mr. Chavez was due to be newly inaugurated, two months in which his absence from public view has fueled rumors and speculation. The president’s chosen successor, his Vice President Nicolas Maduro addressed a cabinet meeting live on state television. He said a U.S. military attaché was being expelled and he denounced conspiracies, even suggested Mr. Chavez’s illness was brought on by an enemy attack.

Share prices in New York have risen to an old time high. The main share indexes in Wall Street have passed the previous record. Here is Samir Hasan.

The Dow broke its previous record high set in October 2007 before the global financial meltdown. Analysts believe strong European sales and China’s economic growth targets are fueling the Dow’s rally. Recent economic debt in the U.S. is also contributing. The U.S. housing market is seen as recovering and U.S. companies are slowly starting to hire again.

London’s index also rose to its highest closing level for more than five years.

Police in Russia have detained a star dancer from the Bolshoi ballet on suspicion of ordering an acid attack on the company’s artistic director Sergei Filin. The dancer, Pavel Dmitrichenko is been held along with two other men, one who is suspected of carrying out the attack and another who is accused of being his driver. It’s not clear whether they are connected with the ballet company.

BBC News

Results so far from Kenya’s presidential election put in the lead, the deputy prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta who’s been indicted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. His main rival, the Prime Minister Raila Odinga is trailing by a significant margin. Mr. Odinga’s running mate Kalonzo Musyoka said he was worried about the failure of some electronic voter registration systems but appealed for calm. The BBC’s Ann Saw is at the counting center in the capital Nairobi.

The electoral commission says that it has faced some challenges with the system, the electronic vote’s transmission system. And they have been in meetings after meetings since. There is a flurry of activity with different political party representatives meeting in small groups, members of the civil society and of course journalists who seem to not know what is going on at the moment, given that there is all seems to have stagnated.

Argentina’s holding a landmark court hearing on Operation Condor, the coordinated effort made by right-wing military rulers in Latin America in the 1970s and 80s to persecute their political opponents. Twenty five people are accused of having conspired to commit crimes against humanity including the former Argentine military rulers Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone. The governments of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Bolivia are accused of collaborating to arrest, torture and extradite dissidents.

The South Korean car manufacturer Kia has apologized and withdrawn the proposed name of a new concept car following complaints from a politician in Northern Ireland. The prototype sports car was supposed to be called the Provo. In Northern Ireland the term is commonly used to refer to a member of the provisional IRA, the paramilitary group that fought a violent campaign against British rule.

BBC News