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North Korea has passed a new law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state in a move leader Kim Jong Un says is "irreversible." The new law also enshrines Pyongyang's right to use preemptive nuclear strikes to protect itself -- updating a previous stance under which it had said it would keep its weapons only until other countries denuclearized and would not use them preemptively against non-nuclear states. At the same time, the US has become increasingly concerned that North Korea may be preparing to carry out its first underground nuclear test in years

Urban teens are increasingly losing their virginity before they can legally drive. A new survey shows four out of 10 city kids say they have had intercourse before age 14, and have engaged in oral and even anal sex by 17. "This study makes clear that urban young adults engage in a variety of sexual behavior beyond vaginal intercourse," said Dr. Danielle Ompad, who authored the survey for The New York Academy of Medicine. Ompad said the findings raise concerns about the possibility of a boom in sexually transmitted diseases among teens who don't know about safe sex. "Sex education...

East Asia allies doubt U.S. could win war with China The overwhelming assessment by Asian officials, diplomats and analysts is that the U.S. military simply cannot defeat China. It has been an assessment relayed to U.S. government officials over the past few months by countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea. This comes as President Bush wraps up a visit to Asia, in which he sought to strengthen U.S. ties with key allies in the region. Most Asian officials have expressed their views privately. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has gone public, warning that the United States would lose any...

LAGRANGE — The boys looked like the worst trouble they could be facing was stealing ice cream bars or maybe breaking a window. Instead, the two fresh-faced 10-year-olds stood before a Juvenile Court judge Thursday, accused of forcing a 7-year-old neighbor into some bushes and forcefully sodomizing her. The testimony from a police officer was disturbing, causing one boy's grandmother to choke back sobs. She wore sunglasses to hide her tears, as did the other boy's mother. The two boys who were charged "approached her and asked her to perform some sort of sexual acts," LaGrange police Detective Robert Kirby...

An airline ticket agent who checked in hijacker Mohamed Atta the morning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks says he had a feeling he was looking at an Arab terrorist but gave in to political correctness and let him through. Michael Tuohey, who works for U.S. Airways in Portland, Maine, told his story recently to Michael Smerconish, Philadelphia Daily News columnist and author of "Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post-9/11." Touhey now kicks himself for not acting, but Smerconish says if he had, the federal government probably would have punished him, noting three major airlines...

PARK CITY, Utah An 11-year-old boy spreads his semen over school lockers and repeats his father's filthy epithets when he blows a shot at tennis; a 16-year-old girl hangs her blood-stained sheet on the clothes line to let her father know she's lost her virginity; a 6- or 7-year-old boy proposes an exchange of bodily fluids in an Internet dialogue that might have given the characters in "Closer" pause; a 15-year-old stud becomes the heartthrob of a community's older women; a 14-year-old girl drugs and binds a man twice her age with the intention of castrating him. These are just...

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