BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea vowed to strengthen military ties with China on Wednesday, days after the North’s leader Kim Jong-il finished a visit aimed at bolstering the bond with his isolated country’s sole major supporter.

Comments from Kim Yong-nam, the second-ranked official in North Korea, highlighted the recent efforts of Pyongyang and Beijing to shore up their relationship in the face of regional tensions and possible succession moves in the North.

China confirmed on Monday that Kim Jong-il, who rarely leaves his country, visited for five days and told President Hu Jintao that he was willing to return to negotiations about scrapping the North’s nuclear weapons. Kim Yong-nam told a visiting commander of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that the bond between the two neighbors has “shown great vitality,” China’s Xinhua news agency reported from Pyongyang.

Beijing has recently fretted about military exercises between the United States and South Korea.

Fatal end to hunger strike
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – A farmer who held repeated hunger strikes in a land dispute with Venezuela’s government has died in a military hospital where he had been taken against his will.

For opponents of President Hugo Chavez, Franklin Brito’s emaciated figure became a symbol of government highhandedness and they joined the family Tuesday in accusing the government of violating his rights.

Brito’s family announced his death Monday night, saying his “body stopped carrying out vital functions.” His daughter Angela said “fundamental human rights were violated in my father’s case…They held him in the military hospital against his will for nearly nine months. They didn’t give access to doctors he trusted, even though he requested it.”

Venezuelan officials say they took Brito to the hospital trying to safeguard his life, and have accused Chavez opponents of using him for political purposes.

Mom jailed for slay of 2 sons
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – An Australian mother twice convicted of killing her two young sons was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Wednesday for what the judge called “the greatest act of betrayal.”

Donna Fitchett was first convicted in 2008 of murdering her sons in 2005 and sentenced to 24 years prison. She appealed her conviction and was granted a retrial in May, but a jury again found her guilty after she admitted drugging her sons and then strangling one and smothering the other.
The boys were 11 and 9 years old.

“You were their mother. Your responsibility was to nurture, care for, love and protect them and over the years you did  that,” Justice Elizabeth Curtain said in sentencing Fitchett. “But in the greatest act of betrayal and in a profound breach of (trust) you robbed each of them of their precious lives... in an act of unfathomable selfishness.”

Fitchett claimed she was not guilty by reason of mental impairment but Curtain called the murder premeditated, citing a letter Fitchett had written before the murders. Fitchett’s lawyer, Patrick Tehan, told the court that the mother was depressed and suicidal when she killed her children.

Lennon's toilet sells for $14,740
LONDON (Reuters) - A toilet that belonged to late Beatle John Lennon fetched 9,500 pounds ($14,740) at auction on Saturday, around 10 times  its estimate, the sale organizers said.

Lennon, who was murdered in New York in 1980, had the porcelain lavatory removed from Tittenhurst Park in Berkshire, southern England, where he lived from 1969 to 1971, and replaced with a new one.