(Reuters) - Five members of a California family were killed in Nevada when their van was struck from behind by a teenage driver who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, authorities said on Sunday.
Those killed were among seven family members in the van when it was hit early on Saturday, authorities said. The other two ? a 15-year-old boy and the 40-year-old female driver ? were hospitalized in Las Vegas, said Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Sergeant Kevin Honea said.
The 18-year-old California driver who struck the van was treated and released at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, the spokesman said. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of driving under the influence.
The crash happened on Interstate 15 about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The 18-year-old's Dodge Durango struck the van from behind and both vehicles spun off the road and rolled.
Five of the occupants of the van were ejected. A 23-year-old passenger in the Durango was treated at the hospital and released.
Those killed were three men ages 49, 45 and 41, a teenage girl and an adult woman.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson. Editing by Corrie MacLaggan.)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/five-family-members-die-nevada-crash-teen-charged-163341343.html
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea warned Seoul on Saturday that the Korean Peninsula was entering "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely, noting that the Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war for 60 years. But the North's continued threats toward Seoul and Washington, including a vow to launch a nuclear strike, have raised worries that a misjudgment between the sides could lead to a clash.
North Korea's threats are seen as efforts to provoke the new government in Seoul, led by President Park Geun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang, and to win diplomatic talks with Washington that could get it more aid. North Korea's moves are also seen as ways to build domestic unity as young leader Kim Jong Un strengthens his military credentials.
On Thursday, U.S. military officials revealed that two B-2 stealth bombers dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island as part of annual defense drills that Pyongyang sees as rehearsals for invasion. Hours later, Kim ordered his generals to put rockets on standby and threatened to strike American targets if provoked.
North Korea said in a statement Saturday that it would deal with South Korea according to "wartime regulations" and would retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without notice.
"Now that the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK have entered into an actual military action, the inter-Korean relations have naturally entered the state of war," said the statement, which was carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Provocations "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war," the statement said.
Hours after the statement, Pyongyang threatened to shut down the jointly run Kaesong industrial park, expressing anger over media reports suggesting the complex remained open because it was a source of hard currency for the impoverished North.
"If the puppet group seeks to tarnish the image of the DPRK even a bit, while speaking of the zone whose operation has been barely maintained, we will shut down the zone without mercy," an identified spokesman for the North's office controlling Kaesong said in comments carried by KCNA.
South Korea's Unification Ministry responded by calling the North Korean threat "unhelpful" to the countries' already frayed relations and vowed to ensure the safety of hundreds of South Korean managers who cross the border to their jobs in Kaesong. It did not elaborate.
South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said the country's military remains mindful of the possibility that increasing North Korean drills near the border could lead to an actual provocation.
"The series of North Korean threats ? announcing all-out war, scrapping the cease-fire agreement and the non-aggression agreement between the South and the North, cutting the military hotline, entering into combat posture No. 1 and entering a 'state of war' ? are unacceptable and harm the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula," Kim said.
"We are maintaining full military readiness in order to protect our people's lives and security," he told reporters Saturday.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Naval skirmishes in the disputed waters off the Korean coast have led to bloody battles several times over the years.
But on the streets of Seoul on Saturday, South Koreans said they were not worried about an attack from North Korea.
"From other countries' point of view, it may seem like an extremely urgent situation," said Kang Tae-hwan, a private tutor. "But South Koreans don't seem to be that nervous because we've heard these threats from the North before."
The Kaesong industrial park, which is run with North Korean labor and South Korean know-how, has been operating normally, despite Pyongyang shutting down a communications channel typically used to coordinate travel by South Korean workers to and from the park just across the border in North Korea. The rivals are now coordinating the travel indirectly, through an office at Kaesong that has outside lines to South Korea.
North Korea has previously made such threats about Kaesong without acting on them, and recent weeks have seen a torrent of bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang. North Korea is angry about the South Korea-U.S. military drills and new U.N. sanctions over its nuclear test last month.
Dozens of South Korean firms run factories in the border town of Kaesong. Using North Korea's cheap, efficient labor, the Kaesong complex produced $470 million worth of goods last year.
___
Follow Sam Kim at www.twitter.com/samkim_ap.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-warns-state-war-south-125535455.html
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FRIDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) ? The first in a new class of type 2 diabetes drugs was approved Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Invokana (canaglifozin) tablets are to be taken, in tandem with a healthy diet and exercise, to improve blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Invokana belongs to a class of drugs called sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. It works by blocking the reabsorption of glucose (sugar) by the kidney and increasing glucose excretions in urine, the FDA said in a news release.
?We continue to advance innovation with the approval of new drug classes that provide additional treatment options for chronic conditions that impact public health,? Dr. Mary Parks, director of the division of metabolism and endocrinology products in the FDA?s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in the news release.
About 24 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, and it accounts for more than 90 percent of diabetes cases diagnosed in the United States, the FDA said. If blood sugar levels are not carefully controlled, there is an increased risk for serious complications, including heart disease, blindness, and nerve and kidney damage, the agency added.
The FDA approval is based on the findings of nine clinical trials involving more than 10,000 patients. Patients who took the drug showed improvement in hemoglobin A1c levels (a measure of blood sugar control) and fasting blood sugar levels.
Invokana should not be used by people with type 1 diabetes or people with type 2 diabetes who have increased ketones in their blood or urine (diabetic ketoacidosis), severe kidney disease, kidney failure or who are on dialysis, the FDA said.
The agency told drug maker Janssen Pharmaceuticals that it must conduct five post-approval studies of the drug to determine the risk of problems such as heart disease, cancer, pancreatitis, liver abnormalities and pregnancy complications.
The most common side effects of Invokana are vaginal yeast infections and urinary tract infections. It may also cause dizziness and fainting.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about type 2 diabetes.
Source: http://news.health.com/2013/03/29/fda-approves-1st-in-new-class-of-type-2-diabetes-drugs/
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Location: 1783 43rd Avenue, Outer Sunset
Size: 3-bed, 2-bath, single-family home
Price: $699,000
Pitch: "Wow. If you want a light-filled tastefully remodeled home (even the unwarranted bathroom downstairs is appealing) in a fantastic Sunset location (an easy couple of blocks away from some great shops, cafes, restaurants and public transit on Noriega) welcome home! HR Wellington pest report (includes test holes in stucco) of only $165."
Open House: Sunday, 2 to 4pm
Location: 505 Anderson Street, Bernal Heights
Size: 2-bed, 1-bath, 756 sq. ft. single-family home
Price: $499,000
Pitch: "Short walk to Holly Park, Good Life Grocery, shops and restaurants of Cortland Ave. Private patio leads into charming interior with new bamboo flooring. Sunny backyard has patio, mature garden of lilac, rosemary, and bamboo, orange and ficus trees. New in 2010: Freshly painted interior, bamboo floors in living/dining room area & kitchen, kitchen stove, dishwasher & granite countertop, energy-efficient central heating, on-demand water heater. In fall of 2012, new rear windows and siding. Washer/dryer combo. Easy MUNI and freeway access."
Open House: Saturday, 2 to 4pm
Location: 1941 Silver Street, Silver Terrace
Size: 2-bed, 1-bath, 1,075 sq. ft. single-family home
Price: $599,000
Pitch: "This attractive two bedroom, one and a half bath home has been fully renovated. Featuring three sky lights on the upper level, welcoming in abundant amounts of sunshine. The large family room on the lower level includes a half bath and is non conforming and opens to a large, newly landscaped back yard. The extensive renovation includes new light fixtures, paint inside and out, new appliances, refinished hardwood floors, new carpet in the lower level, bolted foundation, and new bitumen roof. The private backyard has been fully landscaped with new sprinkler system and new wooden fence. Oversized two car garage with extra room for storage."
Open House: Sunday, 2 to 4pm
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Scientists at the University of Padua in Italy have used infrared light and spectroscopy (the study of a physical object's interaction with electromagnetic radiation) to examine the shroud and found that it's actually much older than a previous study found.
Williams Jones, Shenadoah, Pa., shows some of the points of interest in the Shroud of Turin replica on display in front of the altar after the Divine Liturgy during the Shroud of Turin exhibit at St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Shenandoah, Pa., in Feb.
Jacqueline Dormer/The Republican-Herald/AP
EnlargeThe Shroud of Turin, an icon of faith and controversy among Christians, is back in the news.
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The linen cloth, allegedly the burial shroud of Jesus, was closely examined in 1988 in laboratories in Switzerland, England and the United States using carbon-14 dating techniques, the?Telegraph?reports.
Those examinations of the shroud ? which bears the image of a man's face and torso ? dated the cloth from 1260 to 1390, supporting claims that it's merely an elaborate medieval hoax, as Jesus' life is thought to have come to an end in A.D. 33.
Some believers, however, insisted that the linen fibers used in the 1988 examinations were not from the original shroud, but rather from a portion of the cloth that had been repaired after suffering fire damage in the Middle Ages.
Now, scientists at the University of Padua in Italy have used infrared light and spectroscopy (the study of a physical object's interaction with electromagnetic radiation) to examine the shroud and found that it's actually much older, the Telegraph reports.?
In his recent book, "Il Mistero della Sindone," translated as "The Mystery of the Shroud," (Rizzoli, 2013), Giulio Fanti, a professor of mechanical engineering at Padua University, said his analysis proves the shroud dates from 280 B.C. to A.D. 220 ? meaning it existed during Jesus' lifetime, the?Guardian?reports. [Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus]
The Shroud of Turin is said to be the cloth that covered Jesus' body after the crucifiction. Previous examinations that dated the shroud to the Middle Ages mesh with historical records, which don't start mentioning the cloth until that time. But some researchers believe the shroud is older. Thomas de Wesselow, author of "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection" (Dutton Adult, 2012), argues that medieval artists did not paint in photorealistic style, and that a forged shroud created in the Middle Ages would be an anachronism.?
That doesn't mean the shroud is evidence of a miracle, however, de Wesselow told LiveScience last year. He believes natural chemical reactions caused by a decomposing body and annoiting oils could have created the body imprint on the shroud, which may have then been?used as evidence of Christ's resurrection.?
For the first time in 30 years, the shroud will be shown on television this Saturday (March 30), the Guardian reports. Before leaving the papacy,?Benedict XVI?approved a special broadcast of the shroud to be held at the Turin Cathedral, where the cloth is preserved in a climate-controlled case.
And for those who want an even more intimate examination of the cloth, a new mobile app, Shroud 2.0, was just released on Good Friday (March 29),?Zenit.org?reports.
Designed in collaboration with the Museum of the Holy Shroud and the Archdiocese of Turin, Shroud 2.0 synthesizes 1,649 high-definition photographs into a single 12-billion-pixel image. An Android version is also being developed, Zenit reports.
Follow Marc Lallanilla on?Twitter?and?Google+. Follow us?@livescience,?Facebook?&?Google+. Original article onLiveScience.com.
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MADRID (AP) ? A former leader of armed Basque separatist group ETA died Saturday in a French hospital where he was receiving treatment while serving a prison sentence, officials said.
The 54-year-old Francisco Xabier Lopez Pena, alias Thierry, was taken from prison to a hospital on March 11, with heart trouble, and he died early Saturday from a stroke, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to give his name.
The French Justice Ministry confirmed that Lopez had died, without elaborating.
Lopez was arrested in the southern French city of Bordeaux in 2008, and documents seized during his capture led to dozens of arrests of other active ETA members.
ETA has killed more than 825 people since the late 1960s in its violent campaign for an independent state, but announced a permanent cease-fire in January 2011 following waves of arrests.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-leader-basque-group-eta-dies-france-190951936.html
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Drive in a limousine is immersion in the world of leisure. For corporate limo party there are models of upscale road transport that accommodate different numbers of people. The reason could be any to hire this service but the end is one and it is the comfort of the riders and their exposure to ultimate luxury. It is very common now to have such corporate events in order to celebrate success of a company or an organization. Sense of participation is given to the employees and they become more responsible in their work towards the company. The ride to the venue is very short but it has a significant importance and makes the day.
The best possible transport of the road is available now in state of US. It is a luxurious service that is for the executive class. During the ride they enjoy the features of the vehicles and the expertise of the chauffeurs. Sometimes they are entertained with the complimentary drink on the way to the destination. The riders enjoy the skills of the drivers and the luxury of the cars. They get to the venue of party or meeting in a style and in a fresh mood. Stretched limo and normal limo are present their in the catalogue of the limo service providers. The customers have the liberty to select the car of their choice for the purpose of transportation. The service is used for many other objectives and the customers feel pride to hire it.
The service is a blessing to enjoy the high class that a vehicle could offer in the road transport. The variety of the vehicles and their maintenance is compulsory to attract the customers. In addition to the availability of the resources the dealing of the booking staff and that of the chauffeurs with the guests also play a vital role. The mode of the party sets the theme of the ride and the service providers strictly follow it. For a meeting or a conference a corporate limo service is rather sophisticated and serious in outlook as compare tot that of the celebration of the success.
The interior and exterior of the vehicles are very well maintained to give one hundred percent to the clients and never let them down with the service quality. The drivers are also well aware of the needs of the customers so they act accordingly. The vehicles in the lot have different per hour charges and that are mentioned on the websites of the service providers. The customers can ask for the charges of a particular limo on a specific day and time on the website as well as on the phone.
About the Author:
Ronald Arny is the Junior marketing executive at Washington DC Limo Services. You can find more information or ask him any question about Corporate Limo Party or Washington DC Limo Services
Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com
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I?d like to share some of the problems that prevented me making any money whatsoever for around 7-8 months after I began online almost exactly 3 years ago. I?ll also explain how I overcame them by giving some recommendations for each.
It?s quite interesting for me to see how my thinking and understanding of how to start and build a successful web business has changed over time.
But more importantly I hope you?ll be able to get a lot out of this because from talking to others I?ve learned that most people face the same challenges that I?ve experienced.
Let?s dive in with 7 things I was baffled by when I started out:?
Like all of us I visited lots of different websites on a daily basis but I really didn?t understand how to replicate them. Do you have to learn web design and HTML and get involved in the technical side of things?
Luckily, I was introduced to WordPress pretty early on. Although I have built a few pages in other systems (such as the free HTML editor Kompozer) I really never looked back.
What began as a blogging platform has now developed into a fully fledged content management system (CMS) for websites and for running a home business, there are very few cases when it makes sense to not use WordPress.
My Recommendation: If you don?t know WordPress. Learn it. Just create a simple personal blog and get acquainted. It?s time very well spent.
I thought the only options were SEO (ranking your web pages high in Google) or Adwords (Google Paid ads).
Like most newcomers I didn?t want to risk any money so I went down the SEO path.
The trouble was by 2010 SEO was already becoming harder, more long term and increasingly uncertain. This didn?t stop me spending a small fortune on SEO software and training courses which resulted in virtually no revenue whatsoever.
My Recommendation: Traffic is a KEY element in your online success. So invest some time in learning about it. There are countless ways to promote your websites and many of them have been discussed on this blog (here and here?for example). Also, although I wouldn?t completely ignore SEO, I also highly recommend you don?t rely on it. Less than 10% of my traffic comes from SEO ? quite honestly I wouldn?t bother with it much at all!
During my ?SEO phase? I followed several ?gurus? who were very keen to tell me (and sell me) strategies which could rank my websites high in Google. Most of these involved setting up blogs, choosing the keywords, meta tags, headlines, H1 tags correctly and building backlinks to my site.
So how come when I visited these gurus? sites they had none of these things? I remember checking the backlinks and wondering why there weren?t any? How could they be making money if they didn?t seem to do the things they were telling me to do?
Also, a lot of their websites just had places for your name and email address (what I later learnt were called ?squeeze pages?) and had no content on them at all. Google wouldn?t rank these surely so I was baffled.
I was very na?ve really. But it just goes to show if you don?t know something then you just don?t know.
Of course, the reality was the the gurus were using joint ventures (JVs), affiliates and paid traffic to promote their websites. As silly as it might sound it really took me about 10 months to fully recognize this.
My Recommendation: Always ask yourself, ?Are the strategies that this person is teaching me what they actually use to make money themselves??. You can?t always be sure but being aware of this question really helps!
A biggy.
As with any business ? online or offline ? there are scams and people who just want your money. In the internet marketing area there are definitely these kinds of people but also many very genuine businesses and marketers who provide solid products and services which can help you.
My Recommendation: Rather than expand on this here I will refer to a previous post where we covered this issue in detail.
Again, usually a problem most of us have, especially at the early stage of our business.
This is partly related to ?I?m not an expert in anything? thinking but also because there are literally SO many different niches that it can become difficult to decide!
What I did was go into lots of niches. I don?t recommend this because you end up juggling so many balls that you can?t give the attention each niche deserves.
My Recommendation: Brainstorm niches you are interested in, check for sufficient audience size and profitability. Then pick one and go with it. Later on you can (as I have done) expand it more than one niche but that?s when you?ll have the experience of setting them up and promoting them. Also, understand you don?t need to be an expert: 1) You can learn, 2) You can get another expert to help (e.g., by interviewing them), 3) Many products (e.g., software) don?t rely on you being an expert at all.
Yes, the old information overload problem here!
What I specifically referring to though is the emails that I received as a result of signing up to people?s lists.
This distraction can manifest in at least 2 ways: 1) You are reading emails instead of implementing and taking action, 2) You get mixed messages and conflicting information which stops you taking action on your current plans by introducing doubt and shiny object syndrome.
My Recommendation: Unsubscribe from any list which just promotes things all the time. Follow the people you trust (or at worst think you trust!) ? see above for tips on this. Pick one project and stick with it, emotionally detach (as best you can) and work on your business (imagine you are consulting on someone else?s business which helps) instead of in your business.
Again I?m admitting naivety here but after coming online I really didn?t understand the importance of having a funnel or even what one was!
Basically, the sales funnel is process people go through after they go up the ?on ramp? into your business.
For example, they might sign up at for your squeeze page, get offered a promotion on the thank you page, receive email follow ups which offer free content and promotions which increase in price and value.
My recommendation: Be aware all the time of sales funnels and every time you purchase something or sign up for something watch what happens and take notes. I actually have a Word files called ?Other Marketers Swipe? which I take notes on what I see from my journeys around the internet in different niches.
Overall, If I could go back in time and speak to myself when I started out I?d give this advice:
If you can relate to any of my experiences I?ve described in this post then this is the same advice I?d give to you. Regardless of your history and where you are right now with your business the PERFECT time is NOW!
What things have baffled you in terms on setting up a successful web business? Please LIKE/TWEET if you enjoyed this and start some discussion by dropping a comment below. 
Cheers, Rob.
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Source: http://www.gainhigherground.com/7-things-i-was-baffled-by-when-i-started-online/
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Aaron Batalion, the co-founder and CTO of daily deals site LivingSocial, is leaving the company. He announced his departure in a post on his personal blog published Friday afternoon. We've reached out to Batalion for more details on his exit and his plans for the future, and will update with anything we hear. For now, here is the full text of his blog post:Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/U1I2YqP8dNA/
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A visitor looks at North Korean territory at the unification observation post near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 30, 2013. North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A visitor looks at North Korean territory at the unification observation post near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 30, 2013. North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors look at a giant relief map of Korean Peninsular at the unification observation post near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 30, 2013. North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors use binoculars to watch North Korean territory at the unification observation post near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 30, 2013. North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors take pictures North Korean territory at the unification observation post near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 30, 2013. North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A man uses binocular to watch North Korean territory at the unification observation post near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 30, 2013. North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea warned Seoul on Saturday that the Korean Peninsula had entered "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely, noting that the Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war for 60 years. But the North's continued threats toward Seoul and Washington, including a vow to launch a nuclear strike, have raised worries that a misjudgment between the sides could lead to a clash.
In Washington, the White House said Saturday that the United States is taking seriously the new threats by North Korea but also noted Pyongyang's history of "bellicose rhetoric."
North Korea's threats are seen as efforts to provoke the new government in Seoul, led by President Park Geun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang, and to win diplomatic talks with Washington that could get it more aid. North Korea's moves are also seen as ways to build domestic unity as young leader Kim Jong Un strengthens his military credentials.
On Thursday, U.S. military officials revealed that two B-2 stealth bombers dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island as part of annual defense drills that Pyongyang sees as rehearsals for invasion. Hours later, Kim ordered his generals to put rockets on standby and threatened to strike American targets if provoked.
North Korea said in a statement Saturday that it would deal with South Korea according to "wartime regulations" and would retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without notice.
"Now that the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK have entered into an actual military action, the inter-Korean relations have naturally entered the state of war," said the statement, which was carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Provocations "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war," the statement said.
Hours after the statement, Pyongyang threatened to shut down the jointly run Kaesong industrial park, expressing anger over media reports suggesting the complex remained open because it was a source of hard currency for the impoverished North.
"If the puppet group seeks to tarnish the image of the DPRK even a bit, while speaking of the zone whose operation has been barely maintained, we will shut down the zone without mercy," an identified spokesman for the North's office controlling Kaesong said in comments carried by KCNA.
South Korea's Unification Ministry responded by calling the North Korean threat "unhelpful" to the countries' already frayed relations and vowed to ensure the safety of hundreds of South Korean managers who cross the border to their jobs in Kaesong. It did not elaborate.
South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said the country's military remains mindful of the possibility that increasing North Korean drills near the border could lead to an actual provocation.
"The series of North Korean threats ? announcing all-out war, scrapping the cease-fire agreement and the non-aggression agreement between the South and the North, cutting the military hotline, entering into combat posture No. 1 and entering a 'state of war' ? are unacceptable and harm the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula," Kim said.
"We are maintaining full military readiness in order to protect our people's lives and security," he told reporters Saturday.
In Washington, Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, noted the "reports of a new and unconstructive statement from North Korea."
"We take these threats seriously and remain in close contact with our South Korean allies," Hayden said. "But, we would also note that North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats, and today's announcement follows that familiar pattern."
The White House has stressed the U.S. government's capability and willingness to defend itself and its allies and interests in the region, if necessary.
"We remain fully prepared and capable of defending and protecting the United States and our allies," Hayden said.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Naval skirmishes in the disputed waters off the Korean coast have led to bloody battles several times over the years.
But on the streets of Seoul on Saturday, South Koreans said they were not worried about an attack from North Korea.
"From other countries' point of view, it may seem like an extremely urgent situation," said Kang Tae-hwan, a private tutor. "But South Koreans don't seem to be that nervous because we've heard these threats from the North before."
The Kaesong industrial park, which is run with North Korean labor and South Korean know-how, has been operating normally, despite Pyongyang shutting down a communications channel typically used to coordinate travel by South Korean workers to and from the park just across the border in North Korea. The rivals are now coordinating the travel indirectly, through an office at Kaesong that has outside lines to South Korea.
North Korea has previously made such threats about Kaesong without acting on them, and recent weeks have seen a torrent of bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang. North Korea is angry about the South Korea-U.S. military drills and new U.N. sanctions over its nuclear test last month.
Dozens of South Korean firms run factories in the border town of Kaesong. Using North Korea's cheap, efficient labor, the Kaesong complex produced $470 million worth of goods last year.
___
Associated Press White House reporter Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
___
Follow Sam Kim at www.twitter.com/samkim_ap.
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Maybe it's that $169 price, or maybe it's the inclusion of an honest-to-goodness memory card reader, but we know some of you can't wait to get your mitts on HP's new Slate 7 Android tablet. Back when it was first announced, the company indicated it'd be available by April, but it would seem that plan has changed: the product page on HP's site is now saying the Slate won't arrive until sometime in June. We're not sure why there's a delay (we're asking for comment), but we do know this can't be good news for HP. By June, after all, Google I/O will have come and gone, and the next-gen Nexus 7 might already be on sale.
[Thanks, jmartj]
Update: HP has confirmed that it made a mistake in listing a June 2013 arrival date on the Slate 7's product page. In fact, the tablet is still slated (har) to arrive in April. Carry on.
Source: HP
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/v7-gb9yV0Qo/
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