North Korea"s latest threat: "new kind of nuclear test"

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened on Sunday to conduct what it called “a new form of nuclear test,” raising the level of rhetoric after members of the United Nations Security Council condemned the North’s recent ballistic missile launch.

“It is absolutely intolerable that the UN Security Council, turning a blind eye to the US madcap nuclear war exercises, ‘denounced’ the Korean People’s Army (KPA)’s self-defensive rocket launching drills and called them a ‘violation of resolutions’ and a ‘threat to international peace and security’ and is set to take an ‘appropriate step’,” the North’s foreign ministry said in a statement on the official KCNA news agency.

The statement said KPA drills to counter the US will involve “more diversified nuclear deterrence” that will be used for hitting medium- and long-range targets “with a variety of striking power.”

“We would not rule out a new form of nuclear test for bolstering up our nuclear deterrence,” the North’s statement said, without giving any indication of what that might entail.

After Pyongyang fired two medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula on Wednesday, the 15-member Security Council on Thursday condemned the launches violating UN resolutions.

North Korea’s first firing in four years of mid-range missiles that can reach Japan followed a series of short-range rocket launches over the past two months.

In defiance of UN resolutions, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test in February 2013 and declared it had made progress in securing a functioning atomic arsenal.

It is widely believed the North does not have the capacity to deliver a nuclear strike on the mainland United States.

(Reporting by Narae Kim; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/north-korea/140330/new-nuclear-test

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North Korea"s latest threat: "new kind of nuclear test"

Billy Joel kind of hates “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: “One of the worst melodies I ever wrote”

Joel messes up then comes clear that he isn’t the biggest fan of one of his most famous tunes

Salon.com

Billy Joel kind of hates “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: “One of the worst melodies I ever wrote”

#SnowAngels: 7 kind acts that warmed our hearts

HLN – by Amanda Sloane

When freezing temperatures hit, it’s easy to bundle up, keep your head down and brave the cold on your own. But the wintry weather can be so tough on many, including animals, the homeless and the elderly.

These seven #SnowAngels have gone above and beyond to warm our hearts with stories of amazing kindness. If you have a story about a #SnowAngel you’d like to share, let us know at Facebook.com/HLN or tweet us @HLNtv!  

Pizza shop owner in Pennsylvania delivers prescriptions

Tom Wynkoop, the owner of Fox’s Pizza Den in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, didn’t want people with medical problems to have to brave the frigid weather to get their basic needs met. So he offered on the restaurant’s Facebook page to deliver food, medications, etc. to anyone in need — no food order required!

“I know it’s hard for elderly people to get out and we live in an elderly community, and we’re small,” Wynkoop told HLN affiliate WPXI. “You have to be there for your residents.”

Illinois man offers free jumpstarts to stranded drivers

Brad McKorical was shocked by the number of responses he received after posting a simple message on Facebook: He offered a free jumpstart to any drivers stranded in the cold. The calls and messages started pouring in, and McKorical, who works at a car dealership, made several home visits where he offered his services for free.

“That’s what struck me right there, that he was willing to do that to give back to the community,” Robin Carden, a nurse who needed to get to her patients, told HLN affiliate WQAD. “So, I think it’s a great thing he’s doing especially in this weather.”

Stranger offers ride to man waiting at West Virginia bus stop

Eddie Hubbard had just finished his first day of work at a Cracker Barrel in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, and was waiting for a bus home. He said he could barely feel his hands when a man named J.W. Brown pulled up and offered to give him a ride.

“He said nobody deserves to sit out in this cold the way I was sitting out in the cold,” Hubbard told HLN affiliate WOWK.

When Hubbard arrived at his destination, he said he was surprised again when Brown handed him a $ 20 bill.

“He’s an angel… just really blessed me because my hands were so cold, I could barely hold the cell phone. That’s how cold it was.”

Free blankets given to Texans stuck in the cold weather

His name is Eric Love and he normally drives around in an Elvis-themed convertible handing out free cash to people in need. But when temperatures start to dip he also likes to hand out food, water, blankets and coats.

“I don’t care what it is; if they’re cold, I want to help them,” Love told HLN affiliate KDFW.

Michigan ‘Mower Gang’ helps blow snow from driveways

In the summer time, a “mower gang” in Detroit, Michigan, likes to keep the grass cut at local parks so kids have a safe place to play. But now that the freezing weather has hit, they’ve taken to clearing snow from sidewalks and the driveways of those with mobility issues.

“It’s just a good feeling,” one of the mower gang members, Tom Nardone, told HLN affiliate KPLC. “I have this awesome snow blower and it takes me five minutes to do my walkway and driveway, and I can do my neighbors’ but they’ve got snow blowers, too… We’re just trying to help people who can’t help themselves.” Read HLN’s interview with the Mower Gang

Two men rescue dog from freezing water in Indiana

When vets got their hands on an injured dog in Osgood, Indiana, they noticed that his mouth was actually frozen shut. Two men have been credited with saving the dog after finding him in a ditch of freezing water.

“I put his mouth in my hands and just tried to get it warm and he just laid his head down, like, ‘Oh thank you,’” Janet Orr, the day shift manager at the Ripley County Humane Society, told HLN affiliate WLWT.

The pooch is doing better and both of his rescuers say they’re flipping a coin to see who gets a chance to adopt him once he’s ready to go home.

Elderly woman buried in Wisconsin snow saved by newspaper delivery man

Ralph Sustaita has been delivering newspapers for the Kenosha News in Wisconsin for four years. While making his route one morning, he heard something unusual: a woman screaming for help.

“It was the grace of God, definitely the grace of God, that put me in the right place at the right time to save this woman,” Sustaita told HLN affiliate WISN.

He found the woman, who he believes wandered away from home, partially buried beneath the snow. He immediately took off his jacket, wrapped it around her, and put his hat over her hands. Rescuers who arrived on the scene said he probably saved her life.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2014/01/08/snow-angels-good-samaritans-polar-vortex

#SnowAngels: 7 kind acts that warmed our hearts

What kind of Satanic Government do we have?

Published on Oct 4, 2013

Money for Death but not for Life. What kind of Satanic government do we have here?
Obamacare deception http://www.rys2sense.com/anti-neocons…

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WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

What kind of Satanic Government do we have?

Taliban now kind? Not so fast

AP

Rarely photographed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is reportedly seen in this undated photo.

By Jamieson Lesko, Producer, NBC News

News analysis

KABUL, Afghanistan — You might be forgiven for thinking that Taliban leader Mullah Omar has had an abrupt change of heart and turned into some kind of progressive liberal – in Afghan terms at least.

After all, in a recent statement he talked about his fondness for “modern” education, respect for religious minorities and how he just wanted to get along with the rest of the world.

So, has the Taliban – known for harboring Osama bin Laden before and after 9/11, blowing up schools, boiling people alive, shooting Pakistani schoolgirls and killing polio workers – really evolved into a kinder, gentler movement?

The consensus from analysts and Afghans is a resounding “no.” Their advice: Don’t fall for the Taliban-lite propaganda, it is merely a PR stunt designed by militants responsible for the majority of civilian deaths in the country.

According to a United Nations report, 74 percent of the 1,319 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year were caused by “anti-government elements.”

Evan Kohlmann, NBC News terrorism analyst and founder of Flashpoint Global Partners, said Omar’s statement was simply “PR theatrics” designed to appeal to Americans who support an immediate drawdown of U.S. forces. The decision to publish the message in English underscored that view.

“They’re playing to the world stage here. There are a lot of people looking for reasons that would justify the U.S. withdrawing and they’re very smartly putting on campaign designed to play on that,” he said.

Kohlmann said the Taliban’s goal was “to present a picture that doesn’t seem so terrible, [so it] doesn’t seem so bad if they were in power.”

Omar Sobhani / Reuters

Children flee after an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 24.

“And they’re willing to say whatever they need to in order to convince people to let them back in the door,” he said.

Kohlmann warned not to forget the Taliban regime’s time in power in Afghanistan, from about 1996 when they took Kabul to 2001 when they were ousted by opposition forces backed by the air power of a U.S.-led international coalition.

Then they showed “no respect for women’s rights” and were responsible for “gross human rights violations” against a variety of ethnic and religious minorities, Kohlmann said.

“Don’t forget in Mazar-e-Sharif in 1997, people were boiled alive in pots, [and] the soccer stadium in Kabul was turned into an execution stand. When you judge the Taliban’s claims now, you have to put them into that context,” he said.

However, Xenia Dormany, former director for South Asia at the National Security Council, said she thought Omar was more likely to have the domestic audience, rather than an American one, in mind.

She said the U.S. had talked about the need to win the “battle of hearts and minds” in Afghanistan.

“This to me shows that Mullah Omar and the senior leadership of the Taliban think similarly,” said Dormandy, now director of the U.S. program at U.K.-based think tank Chatham House.

“This is nothing if not an effort to change hearts and minds [of Afghans], which seems to me to be a fairly smart strategy.”

Shah Marai / AFP – Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Like Kohlmann, she said Omar’s words should be compared with the deeds of his followers.

“If you look at the Taliban’s actions — the number of innocent civilians killed, the apparent lack of targeting, the willingness to sacrifice others’ lives for their own cause – I see no reason to think their attitudes and the attitudes of their leader have changed,” Dormandy said.

“They are bombing schools, not building schools.”

Many ordinary Afghans need little reminding.

Security guard Mohammad Arif, 35, said his cousin was killed by the Taliban and remembered their reign with bitterness.

“They betrayed our people,” he said. “If they wanted to bring unity, they would have brought that to the people when they were ruling instead of killing them.”

Kabul University student Jamshid Niazi, 23, is treasuring her current opportunity to get an education and fears the Taliban will only do harm to her fellow countrymen and women.

“They have already wasted their chance. They came into power but they misused it, instead killing their own sisters, mothers and brothers,” she said.

“If they come to power again, they will only cause a flood of blood.”

NBC News’ Khyber Shinwari and Ian Johnston contributed to this report.

Related:

• Taliban spin? Mullah Omar supports education, respects other religions


• Pakistan aid workers pay the ultimate price for the killing of Osama bin Laden


• Taliban commander: I wish Malala Yousafzai shooting had ‘never happened’

Taliban now kind? Not so fast

9-11 Cop Who Arrested Dancing Israelis Speaks