North Korea says it has missiles that can hit the US mainland, in a statement two days after South Korea unveiled a missile deal with the US.
The statement said US bases in "Japan, Guam and the US mainland" were within its "scope of strike".
It follows Seoul's announcement on Sunday that it would almost triple the range of its own missile system.
Pyongyang is thought to be working on a long-range missile, but two recent rocket tests ended in failure.
North Korea's neighbours said the failed rocket launches - in April 2009 and April 2012 - were tests related to the development of the long-range Taepodong-2 missile system.
The system, which analysts believe is intended to put the US mainland within striking range, has not yet been tested successfully.
North Korea routinely issues strong rhetoric against Seoul and Washington.
But the Communist state does possess an array of short- and medium-range missiles, as well as artillery pointed towards South Korea, says the BBC's Kevin Kim in Seoul.
The statement, carried by state-run KCNA news agency and attributed to North Korea's National Defence Commission, said Pyongyang would match any enemy "nuclear for nuclear, missile for missile".
It added that the missile deal between the US and South Korea was "another conspiracy of the master and the stooge to push the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the extreme... and ignite a war".
On Sunday, South Korea announced it had reached an agreement with the US on extending the range of its ballistic missiles.
Under a previous security deal with the US, it had been restricted to missiles with a range of 300km (186 miles). The new deal extends that range to 800km.
National Security Adviser Chun Yung-woo said the aim was to curb "military provocations by North Korea".
The two Koreas remain technically at war following the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice.
The US has more than 28,000 troops in South Korea and provides security guarantees for its ally.
BBC
Last night, another round of geomagnetic storms broke out as Earth passed through the wake of a CME that hit during the early hours of Oct. 8th. Reports of auroras were received from across Canada and all the northern-tier US states. This was the view from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta:
"The auroras outside of Edmonton were so bright that, for a while, it was easy to walk around in the field I was standing in," says photographer Beth Allan. "The lights moved so fast and were so crisp that it felt like I could reach out and touch them. Really astounding!"
High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the Oct. 8th CME strike
Space weather
TEL AVIV – President Bashar al-Assad of Syria held a meeting today with his regime’s army leadership to discuss the possibility of a full general military mobilization to face the prospect of war with Turkey, according to a senior Syrian official speaking to WND.
The official said no decision has been taken about whether to mobilize all branches or to call up the reserves, citing an argument at the meeting that Syria doesn’t want to be seen as taking the first major step toward war.
According to Middle East security officials, Assad’s regime may have another reason for delaying the callup of reserves. The Syrian leader, they say, fears a full-scale reserve callup may result in an embarrassingly large number of troops refusing to serve.
The officials said that while Assad can depend on Shiite, Druze and Christian reserves, there is concern of large scale refusal among the Sunni population. The majority of the Syrian military is Sunni, while most of the military leadership comes from Assad’s Alawite religious group.
Already last month, Syria called up some reserves with many reportedly failing to show up for duty.
The information came as Turkey and Syria traded artillery fire today for the sixth consecutive day.
Turkey reportedly bombarded Syrian army positions in response to what Turkish officials said was a new shell strike on a border town.
The exchanges came hours after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier today called the escalating conflict on the Syrian-Turkish “extremely dangerous” and made a strong appeal for countries to stop the flow of arms into the region.
Speaking at an international conference on democracy in Strasbourg, Ban said the escalating tensions along the Turkey-Syria border could have serious implications for the region.
He said the internal situation in Syria had “dramatically worsened” and was causing “serious risks to the stability of Syria’s neighbors and the entire region.”
WND
September, 1984
Late one night, I could not sleep, The children were sleeping on the luggage. My wife and daughter were crying, I went outside and walked around. I didn't want them to see me cry. I walked around the building, crying and saying, "God! Why did you punish me? Why did you bring me into this country? I can't understand anybody. If I try to ask anybody anything, all I hear is, "I don't know."
I stopped in front of the apartment and sat on a large rock. Suddenly a bright light came toward me. I jumped to my feet because it looked as if a car was coming directly at me, attempting to run me down! I thought the Romanian Secret Police had tracked me to America, and now they were trying to kill me. But it wasn't a car at all. As the light approached, it surrounded me. From the light I heard the same voice that I had heard so many times in prison.
He said "Dumitru, why are you so despaired?" I said, "Why did you punish me? Why did you bring me to this country? I have nowhere to lay my head down. I can't understand anybody." He said, "Dumitru, didn't I tell you I am here with you, also? I brought you to this country because this country will burn." I said, 'then why did you bring me here to burn? Why didn't you let me die in my own country? You should have let me die in jail in Romania! He said, "Dumitru, have patience so I can tell you. Get on this." I got on something next to him. I don't know what it was. I also know that I was not asleep. It was not a dream. It was not a vision. I was awake just as I am now.
He showed me all of California and said, "This is Sodom and Gomorrah! All of this, in one day it will burn! It's sin has reached the Holy One." Then he took me to Las Vegas. "This is Sodom and Gomorrah. In one day it will burn." Then he showed me the state of New York. "Do you know what this is?" he asked. I said, "No." He said "This is New York. This is Sodom and Gomorrah! In one day it will burn." Then he showed me all of Florida, "This is Florida." he said. "This is Sodom and Gomorrah! In one day it will burn."
Then he took me back home to the rock where we had begun. "IN ONE DAY IT WILL BURN! All of this I have shown you" - I said, "How will it burn?" He said, "Remember what I am telling you, because you will go on television, on the radio and in churches. You must yell with a loud voice. Do not be afraid, because I will be with you." I said, "How will I be able to go? Who knows me here in America? I don't know anybody here." He said, "Don't worry yourself. I will go before you. I will do a lot of healing in the American churches and I will open the doors for you. But do not say anything else besides what I tell you. This country will burn!"
I said, "What will you do with the church?" He said, "I want to save the church, but the churches have forsaken me." I said, "How did they forsake you?" He said, "The people praise themselves. The honor that the people are supposed to give Jesus Christ, they take upon themselves. In the churches there are divorces. There is adultery in the churches. There are homosexuals in the churches. There is abortion in the churches and all other sins that are possible.
Because of all the sin, I have left some of the churches. You must yell in a loud voice that they must put an end to their sinning. They must turn toward the Lord. The Lord never gets tired of forgiving. They must draw close to the Lord, and live a clean life. If they have sinned until now, they must put an end to it, and start a new life as the Bible tells them to live."
I said, "How will America burn?" America is the most powerful country in this world. Why did you bring us here to burn? Why didn't you at least let us die where ALL the Dudumans have died?"
He said, "Remember this, Dumitru. The Russian spies have discovered where the nuclear warehouses are in America. When the Americans will think that it is peace and safety - from the middle of the country, some of the people will start fighting against the government. The government will be busy with internal problems. Then from the ocean, from Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico,,.." (He told me two other countries, but I didn't remember what they were.) "...they will bomb the nuclear warehouses. When they explode, America will burn!"
"What will you do with the Church of the Lord? How will you save the ones that will turn toward you?" I asked. He said, "Tell them this: how I saved the three young ones from the furnace of fire, and how I saved Daniel in the lions den, is the same way I will save them."
The angel of the Lord also told me, "I have blessed this country because of the Jewish people who are in this country. I have seven million Jews in this country, but they do not want to recognize the Lord. They didn't want to thank God for the blessing they received in this country. Israel doesn't want to recognize Jesus Christ. They put their faith in the Jewish people in America. But, when America burns, the Lord will raise China, Japan, and other nations to go against the Russians. They will beat the Russians and push them all the way to the gates of Paris.
Over there they will make a treaty, and appoint the Russians as their leaders. They will then unite against Israel. When Israel realizes she does not have the strength of America behind her, she will be frightened. That's when she will turn to the Messiah for deliverance. That's when the Messiah will come. Then, the church will meet Jesus in the air, and he will bring them back with Him to the Mount of Olives. At that time, the battle of Armageddon will be fought."
When I heard all of this I said, "if you are truly the angel of the Lord, and everything you have told me is true, then all you have said must be written in the Bible." He said, "Tell everyone to read from Jeremiah 51:8-15, Revelation chapter 18, and Zechariah chapter 14, where Christ fights against those who possess the earth. After His victory," the angel said, "there will be one flock and one Shepherd. There will be no need for light. The Lamb of God will be the Light. There will be no sickness, no tears, and no deaths. There will only be eternal joy and God will be the ruler. There will be only one language. Only one song. And no need for a translator! ... And, Dumitru," he continued, "a word of warning. If you keep anything from the American people that you are told, I will punish you severely." "How will I know that this is for real -that it will really happen?" I asked. "As a sign that I have spoken to you, tomorrow before you wake, I will send someone to bring you a bed, and at noon I will send you a car and a bucket of honey. After which I will send someone to pay your rent." The next day someone brought Dumitru a bed, and at noon a car arrived with the bucket of honey. His rent was also paid, as God had promised him. (See chapter 10, "THROUGH THE FIRE WITHOUT BURNING.") Then the angel left.
Excepted from:
Dreams and Visions From God
(Reuters) - The discovery by NASA rover Curiosity of evidence that water once flowed on Mars - the most Earth-like planet in the solar system - should intensify interest in what the future could hold for mankind.
The only thing stopping Earth having a lifeless environment like Mars is the magnetic field that shields us from deadly solar radiation and helps some animals migrate, and it may be a lot more fragile and febrile than one might think.
Scientists say earth's magnetic field is weakening and could all but disappear in as little as 500 years as a precursor to flipping upside down.
It has happened before - the geological record suggests the magnetic field has reversed every 250,000 years, meaning that, with the last event 800,000 years ago, another would seem to be overdue.
"Magnetic north has migrated more than 1,500 kilometres over the past century," said Conall Mac Niocaill, an earth scientist at Oxford University. "In the past 150 years, the strength of the magnetic field has lessened by 10 percent, which could indicate a reversal is on the cards."
While the effects are hard to predict, the consequences may be enormous. The loss of the magnetic field on Mars billions of years ago put paid to life on the planet if there ever was any, scientists say.
Mac Niocaill said Mars probably lost its magnetic field 3.5-4.0 billion years ago, based on observations that rocks in the planet's southern hemisphere have magnetisation.
The northern half of Mars looks younger because it has fewer impact craters, and has no magnetic structure to speak of, so the field must have shut down before the rocks there were formed, which would have been about 3.8 billion years ago.
"With the field dying away, the solar wind was then able to strip the atmosphere away, and you would also have an increase in the cosmic radiation making it to the surface," he said.
"Both of these things would be bad news for any life that might have formed on the surface - either wiping it out, or forcing it to migrate into the interior of the planet."
RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW
Earth's magnetic field has always restored itself but, as it continues to shift and weaken, it will present challenges - satellites could be more exposed to solar wind and the oil industry uses readings from the field to guide drills.
In nature, animals which use the field could be mightily confused - birds, bees, and some fish all use the field for navigation. So do sea turtles whose long lives, which can easily exceed a hundred years, means a single generation could feel the effects.
Birds may be able to cope because studies have shown they have back-up systems that rely on stars and landmarks, including roads and power lines, to find their way around.
The European Space Agency is taking the issue seriously. In November, it plans to launch three satellites to improve our fairly blurry understanding of the magnetosphere.
The project - Swarm - will send two satellites into a 450 kilometre high polar orbit to measure changes in the magnetic field, while a third satellite 530 kilometres high will look at the influence of the sun.
DESCENT INTO CHAOS
Scientists, who have known for some time the magnetic field has a tendency to flip, have made advances in recent years in understanding why and how it happens.
The field is generated by convection currents that churn in the molten iron of the planet's outer core. Other factors, such as ocean currents and magnetic rocks in the earth's crust also contribute.
The Swarm mission will pull all these elements together to improve computer models used to predict how the magnetic field will move and how fast it could weaken.
Ciaran Beggan, a geomagnetic specialist at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, said studies have also refined our understanding of how the field reverses.
They have focused on lava flows. When these cool and form crystals the atoms in iron-rich molten rock align under the influence of the magnetic field, providing a geological memory of the earth's field.
But that memory looks different in various locations around the world, suggesting the reversal could be a chaotic and fairly random process.
"Rather than having strong north and south poles, you get lots of poles around the planet. So, a compass would not do you much good," said Beggan.
While the whole process takes 3,000-5,000 years, latest research suggests the descent into a chaotic state could take as little as 500 years, although there are significant holes in scientific understanding.
"Although electricity grids and GPS systems would be more vulnerable, we are not really sure how all the complex things that are linked together would react," Beggan said.
Reuters
