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Reports from Seoul Korea, (daily newspaper Joongang Ilbo in Seoul) via the Japanese Jiji press agency, that South Korean intelligence has intercepted radio messages/communications in North Korea, which were aired last month, to civilians in the Kilju County, Northern Hamgyeong Province area of northeastern D.P.R.K., to evacuate.The source in the South Korean government said "our interpretation is that following North Korea's underground nuclear blast test, they wish to head off any escape of radiation that would be a threat to the nearby civilian population and are evacuating as such."

DNA test can detect Picts' descendants By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent (Filed: 14/08/2006) A geneticist has created a DNA test for "Scottishness" that will tell people whether they are direct descendants of the Picts. The test, expected to cost about £130, checks a sample of saliva against 27 genetic markers linked to some of the earliest inhabitants of Scotland. Dr Jim Wilson, of the public health sciences department at Edinburgh University, said: "We started this work a few years ago, looking at the Norse component, and we proved that a large proportion of people on Orkney are descended from Vikings....

FORT BELVOIR, Va. (Army News Service, Aug. 8, 2006) – The Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (REF) delivered 500 Body Ventilation Systems to heat-stressed Soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait last month. The portable, lightweight ventilation system will help reduce heat-related injuries, and will undergo one of year assessments by such Soldiers as drivers, military police and machine gunners. Another 1,700 vests will be shipped and issued to Soldiers in similar units and duty positions in upcoming months. “The BVS project is another example of how the Army culture is changing in order to provide warfighter solutions in a timely manner,” said...

MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) - North Korea launched a total of 10 missiles, the head of Russia's General Staff was quoted as saying on Wednesday, but he could not confirm how many of them were intercontinental weapons. "Our control systems can confirm that the rockets were launched," he told reporters in the town of Chita, near the Mongolian border, Interfax news agency reported. "Ten rockets were launched. According to one set of data, they were rockets of different classes. According to another set of data, they were all intercontinental. I can only say what class they were after receiving the...

U.S. officials: North Korea missile test may be near Fuel trucks, equipment reportedly have left launch pad WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fuel trucks have departed the site where a North Korean missile sits on a launching pad, indicating that a test might be near, two senior U.S. State Department officials said Tuesday. The removal of the fuel trucks and other auxiliary equipment means the North Koreans may have finished fueling the missile, said the officials, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the information. Should the North Koreans have completed the fueling "all they would need...

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2006 – The Missile Defense Agency and the Navy conducted a successful "hit to kill" missile defense test yesterday off the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The test involved the launch of a Standard Missile 3 from the Aegis-class cruiser USS Shiloh to hit a "separating" target, meaning that the target warhead separated from its booster rocket, officials said. "Hit to kill" technology uses direct collision of the interceptor missile with the target, destroying the target using only kinetic energy from the force of the collision. It was the seventh successful intercept test involving the sea-based component of...

But for most, a missile was too distant, too unlikely a threat to interrupt their daily lives. ``A better question is when's the next earthquake,'' Ernie De Matteis said as he flipped through a newspaper in San Francisco.

Upgraded Raytheon Standard Missile-3 Intercepts Separating Ballistic Missile Target PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE FACILITY, KAUAI, Hawaii, June 22, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- A Raytheon Company (Nachrichten/Aktienkurs) -produced Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) and the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) 3.6 Weapon System destroyed a ballistic missile target today outside the earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. It was the seventh successful intercept for Aegis BMD's SM-3. The flight mission, Flight Test Maritime-10, was the first to use the new Block IA version of SM-3, which Raytheon is scheduled to deliver to the Missile Defense Agency later this year. The SM-3 Block IA provides increased...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea is far along in its preparations for testing a long-range ballistic missile but the United States would not necessarily use its missile defense system to shoot it down, U.S. officials said on Thursday. After a week in which unnamed American officials had stoked alarm about activities at a missile site in eastern North Korea, the U.S. government appeared ready to ease tensions somewhat. White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said it remained uncertain if North Korea actually planned to test-fire the missile, an act which Washington has warned would be seen as a provocative...

North Korean technicians are reportedly in the final stages of fueling a long-range ballistic missile that some experts estimate can deliver a deadly payload to the United States. The last time North Korea tested such a missile, in 1998, it sent a shock wave around the world, but especially to the United States and Japan, both of which North Korea regards as archenemies. They recognized immediately that a missile of this type makes no sense as a weapon unless it is intended for delivery of a nuclear warhead. A year later North Korea agreed to a moratorium on further launches,...

Washington Wants 6-Party Talks But Pyongyang Seeks Direct Channel North Korea appears to be intentionally creating a sense of crisis in order to turn the situation to its advantage by its apparent planned launch of a long-range ballistic missile, U.S. National Security Advisor Steve Hadley said on Tuesday. The U.S. presidential advisor's remarks came as a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan said North Korea could launch the missile ``anytime.'' In a self-defense measure, the Pentagon reportedly activated its missile defense shield. Hadley said it is difficult to interpret the North's motives. But he said history tells us why Pyongyang is trying...

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea hinted Wednesday that it would halt any plans to test a long-range missile if the U.S. agreed to direct talks, as a former South Korean president scrapped plans to visit the North because of its apparent moves toward a launch. Tensions in the region have soared following intelligence reports that the North has fueled a ballistic missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory. The U.S. and Japan have said they could consider sanctions against the impoverished country if it goes ahead. On Wednesday, a spokesman for former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung cited the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is weighing responses to a possible North Korean missile test that include attempting to shoot it down in flight over the Pacific, defence officials said Tuesday. Because North Korea has made it a practice not to announce its missile tests in advance, U.S. officials say they cannot be sure of the government's intentions. Under that circumstance, the Pentagon is considering the possibility that it might need to attempt an interception, two defence officials told the Associated Press. The officials agreed to discuss the matter only on condition of anonymity because of its political sensitivity....

Rising tensions over North Korea's plans to test a long-range missile have spurred renewed interest in developing a system to protect the United States from a ballistic missile attack. On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned the North that it would face consequences if it launched a missile, calling it a "very serious matter." U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan today joined the chorus of criticism, saying, "I hope that the leaders of North Korea will listen to and hear what the world is saying. We are all worried." U.S. officials have said the missile, believed to be a Taepodong 2,...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Clouds and storms closed in on Tuesday over a site where North Korea may be preparing to test a long-range missile, potentially delaying a flight that regional powers have warned the reclusive state not to launch. A commercial satellite photo of North Korea's Nodong missile launch site taken on by a Digital Globe satellite and annotated and released by analysts at GlobalSecurity.org on May 24, 2006. The United States and Japan warned North Korea on Monday against a missile launch that experts say could reach as far as Alaska and threatened harsh action if the test flight...

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned North Korea on Monday it will face consequences if it test-fires a missile thought to be powerful enough to reach the West Coast of the United States. "It would be a very serious matter and, indeed, a provocative act should North Korea decide to launch that missile," Rice said amid indications that the North Koreans could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile at any moment. The senior U.S. diplomat said the United States would talk to other nations about action should the North go ahead, and "I can assure everyone that it would...

Repeats to fix transmission error) By Elaine Lies TOKYO, June 19 (Reuters) - The United States and Japan warned North Korea against a missile launch as officials said the secretive communist state appeared to have completed fuelling for a test flight that could possibly reach as far as Alaska. South Korean broadcaster YTN cited officials in Seoul as saying a launch could come on Monday. Speculation that Pyongyang would fire its Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile at the weekend came to nothing, and forecasts of overcast skies over North Korea and possible showers on Tuesday and Wednesday could delay it. Japan's...

Warnings that North Korea appears close to test-firing an intercontinental missile are escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea appears to have completed injecting liquid fuel into a long-range ballistic missile, the final stage before the launch, intelligence authorities in the U.S. and Korea said Sunday. That signals a turning point this week since the missile should either be fired or the fuel removed within 24 hours of fuel injection. All that remains is “the click of a button,” a Foreign Ministry official said. But bad weather near Musudanri, North Hamgyong Province where the launch pad is deployed is...

TOKYO: North Korea has directed its people to hoist the national flag and watch a state message on television on Sunday afternoon, a move possibly linked to Pyongyang's missile test, a Japanese newspaper said. The Sankei Shimbun, citing unnamed Japanese government sources, said that the country's national flag should be raised at 1030 IST (2:00 pm local time) and that people should watch the message Sunday evening. Immediate confirmation of the report was not available. The report follows a series of other reports on Pyongyang's preparations for a long-range missile test this weekend. On Sunday Japan warned North Korea it...