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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 4/18/2017 10:59:08 AM
	Russia warns US against ‘Syria-style’ actions in N. Korea Published time: 17 Apr, 2017 13:26Edited time: 17 Apr, 2017 14:29 FILE PHOTO: The guided-missile destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88) © Woody Paschall / U.S. Navy photo Mike Pence’s statement on the US running out of “strategic patience” towards Pyongyang does not contribute to resolving the crisis, Sergey Lavrov said, voicing hopes there will be no repeat of the US strike on Syria in North Korea. “I hope that there won’t be any unilateral actions like we recently saw in Syria and that the US will follow the policies Trump repeatedly declared during his election campaign,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, regarding the statement made by US Vice President Mike Pence on Monday during his visit to South Korea. Read more ‘Era of strategic patience’ by US towards N. Korea is over – Pence The world has witnessed the “strength and resolve of [President Trump] in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan,” according to Pence, who threatened North Korea “not to test” this resolve or“or the strength of the armed forces of the United States.” The Russian foreign minister warned not to take any military actions and stressed that the “risky nuclear and missile endeavors of Pyongyang” violating UNSC resolutions could not be used as an excuse for violating international law and the UN Charter “in the same fashion” as in Syria. The period of US policy before the current escalation could be hardly described as an “era of strategic patience,” Lavrov added. “I cannot call the Obama administration’s period an ‘era of strategic patience,’ as the US has been quite harshly limiting North Korea’s capabilities to develop economy sectors related to nuclear or energy areas,” Lavrov said, referring to past US initiatives, many of them backed by the UN Security Council. Harsh statements do not contribute to peace and stability in the region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said, while commenting on South Korean President Hwang Kyo-ahn’s promise to “implement intensive punitive measures” on Pyongyang in case of any “provocations.” “Our position is well known and consistent. We call on all sides to avoid any actions which might be perceived as a provocation. And we stand for the continuation of coordinated international efforts in existing formats to resolve the North Korean problem,” Peskov said. READ MORE: ‘Intensive punitive measures’: Regional allies react to US ‘end of patience’ on N. Korea Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are reaching boiling point again, after Pyongyang conducted a missile test amid joint US-South Korea drills in March. On April 10, the USS Carl Vinson was part of a strike group that reportedly headed to the peninsula as a show of force and to demonstrate readiness for “various scenarios.” North Korea has urged the US to stop its “military hysteria” and “come to its senses” – or face a merciless response if “provocations continue.” On Saturday, Pyongyang allegedly conducted yet another missile test, although it was reportedly unsuccessful. (RT)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 4/18/2017 11:14:58 AM
	Pentagon announces review of nuclear posture amid North Korea tensions By Lucas Tomlinson Published April 17, 2017 FoxNews.com Watch video The Pentagon announced Monday it will begin a new review of its nuclear posture at the direction of President Trump, amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula over Pyongyang’s missile firings and potentially a sixth nuclear test. Pentagon chief spokesperson Dana W. White said in a statement that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will ensure the U.S. military’s nuclear force is “safe, secure, effective, reliable and appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure our allies.” The U.S. military has roughly 450 long-range nuclear missiles in underground silos at various bases in the Midwest. It also maintains a fleet of ballistic missile submarines as well as long range B-2 and B-52 bombers also capable of launching nuclear weapons. Smaller nuclear weapons can be carried by U.S. Air Force fighter jets. According to the latest Pentagon statement, “Secretary Mattis directed the commencement of the review, which will be led by the deputy secretary of defense and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and include interagency partners. The process will culminate in a final report to the president by the end of the year." The Pentagon’s posture review comes two days after North Korea failed to launch a new type of ballistic missile, which exploded four seconds after launch. U.S. officials told Fox News the North Korean missile was a KN-17, a new type of Scud, which could be used to target ships similar to the one launched earlier this month days before Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. “The only way a Scud gets a new designation is if it is substantially different,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a scholar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. The KN-17 is a single-stage, liquid-fueled missile -- not the three-stage, solid-fuel missile that North Korea successfully tested back in February, which caused more concern among Pentagon officials. The latest failed test over the weekend occurred hours before Vice President Pence touched down in Seoul. On Monday, he visited the Demilitarized Zone on the border between North and South and warned the rogue communist regime against conducting further tests. "There was a period of strategic patience. But the era of strategic patience is over. President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out, and we want to see change,'' Pence said. Aside from the rumblings out of North Korea, Russia recently deployed a ground-based, nuclear-capable cruise missile in violation of a decades-long arms treaty between Washington and Moscow, drawing condemnation from Capitol Hill lawmakers. The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and the then-Soviet Union required complete “destruction” of ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 310 and 3,418 miles and support equipment by 1990. On Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Deputy National Security Adviser KT McFarland on “Fox News Sunday” if the U.S. played a role in North Korea’s failed test launch over the weekend. “You know we can't talk about secret intelligence and things that might have been done, covert operations that might have happened. So, I really have no comment on that, and nor should I,” McFarland said. She added, “I do think we are entering a whole new era, not just with North Korea, but with everybody, with any country, major country, we are entering a cyber platform, a cyber battlefield.” The USS Carl Vinson strike group remains off the coast of Australia and will not begin the voyage north for another couple of days following a training exercise, according to officials. Vinson will arrive in the Sea of Japan around April 24, officials tell Fox. Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews (foxnews.com)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 4/18/2017 2:42:08 PM
	A ‘Cuban Missile Crisis in Slow Motion’ in North Korea 点击查看本文中文版 By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROADAPRIL 16, 2017 Continue reading the main storyShare This Page Share Tweet Email More Save At a recent military parade, North Korea displayed several missiles at a time of heightened tensions with the United States. Here's a closer look at what some of them are designed to do. By MARK SCHEFFLER and DAPHNE RUSTOW on April 16, 2017. Photo by Wong Maye-E/Associated Press. Watch in Times Video » WASHINGTON — All the elements of the North Korean nuclear crisis — the relentless drive by Kim Jong-un to assemble an arsenal, the propaganda and deception swirling around his progress, the hints of a covert war by the United States to undermine the effort, rather than be forced into open confrontation — were on vivid display this weekend. There was the parade in Pyongyang’s main square, with wave after wave of missiles atop mobile launchers, intended to convey a sense that Mr. Kim’s program is unstoppable. Then came another embarrassing setback, amissile test that failed seconds after liftoff, the same pattern seen in a surprising number of launches since President Barack Obama ordered stepped-up cyber- and electronic-warfare attacks in early 2014. Finally, there was the test that did not happen, at least yet — a sixth nuclear explosion. It is primed and ready to go, satellite images show. What is playing out, said Robert Litwak of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who tracks this potentially deadly interplay, is “the Cuban missile crisis in slow motion.” But the slow-motion part appears to be speeding up, as President Trump and his aides have made it clear that the United States will no longer tolerate the incremental advances that have moved Mr. Kim so close to his goals. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has said repeatedly that “our policy of strategic patience has ended,” hardening the American position as Mr. Kim makes steady progress toward two primary goals: shrinking a nuclear weapon to a size that can fit atop a long-range missile, and developing a hydrogen bomb, with up to a thousand times the power of the Hiroshima-style weapons he has built so far. While all historical analogies are necessarily imprecise — for starters, President John F. Kennedy dealt with the Soviets and Fidel Castro in a perilous 13 days in 1962, while the roots of the Korean crisis go back a quarter-century — one parallel shines through. When national ambitions, personal ego and deadly weapons are all in the mix, the opportunities for miscalculation are many. So far, Mr. Trump has played his hand — militarily, at least — as cautiously as his predecessors: A series of Situation Room meetings has come to the predictable conclusion that while the United States can be more aggressive, it should stop just short of confronting the North so frontally that it risks rekindling the Korean War, nearly 64 years after it came to an uneasy armistice. Still, the current standoff has grown only more volatile. It pits a new president’s vow never to allow North Korea to put American cities at risk — “It won’t happen!” he said on Twitter on Jan. 2 — against a young, insecure North Korean leader who sees that capability as his only guarantee of survival. Mr. Trump is clearly new to this kind of dynamic, as he implicitly acknowledged when he volunteered that Xi Jinping, China’s president, had given him what amounted to a compressed seminar in Chinese-North Korean relations. He emerged surprised that Beijing did not have the kind of absolute control over its impoverished neighbor that he insisted it did last year. “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy,” he said. “It’s not what you would think.” Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, gave voice to the difficult balancing act on North Korea on Sunday. General McMaster, himself a military historian, said on ABC’s “This Week” that while the president had not ruled out any option, it was time for the United States “to take action, short of armed conflict, so we can avoid the worst” in dealing with “this unpredictable regime.” Translation: Pre-emptive strikes are off the table, at least for now. The fact that Mr. Kim did not conduct a nuclear test over the weekend, timed to the anniversary of the birth of his grandfather, the founder of the country and its nuclear program, may indicate that Mr. Xi has given him pause. In the White House’s telling, Mr. Xi is responding to pressure by Mr. Trump to threaten a cutoff of the North’s financial links and energy supplies — its twin lifelines as a state. Ballistic missiles were paraded through Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, on Saturday as part of the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country’s founder. CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images “Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?” Mr. Trump asked in a Twitter poston Sunday morning, making it clear that everything, including the trade issues he vowed to solve as a candidate, could be a bargaining chip when it comes to defanging the North. The North is trying to create the sense that it is too late for any such defanging — that it has reached a tipping point in its nuclear push. That is why Mr. Kim stood for hours as so many missiles rolled by on Saturday, carried on portable launch vehicles that can be hidden in hundreds of tunnels bored into North Korean mountains. For all the talk of an eventual intercontinental missile that can reach the United States, one of the stars of the show was a missile of lesser range — the Pukguksong-2, also known as the KN-15. It is a solid-fuel rocket that can be launched in minutes, unlike liquid-fueled missiles, which take hours of preparation. That means they are far less vulnerable to a pre-emptive strike from an American missile launched from a base in Japan or from a carrier strike group like the one Mr. Trump has put off the Korean coast. The KN-15 was successfully tested in February. On Saturday, it was paraded in public for the first time, like a conquering hero fresh from a moon landing. “The big takeaway is that they’re taking this seriously,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a North Korea specialist at theMiddlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey, in California. “They’re trying to develop operational systems that might actually survive on the ground,” perhaps even enduring blows meant to leave them crippled or destroyed. But Mr. Kim’s otherwise triumphant day took a bad turn when the missile test failed. North Korea used to be pretty successful at launching missiles, so much so that its missiles were sold around the world. Then its launches started failing, suggesting the presence of a hidden Washington hand. Its big setbacks have revolved around the most threatening missile it has so far flight-tested, known as the Musudan. Last year, it had a failure rate of 88 percent. Mr. Kim was reported to have ordered an investigation into the possibility of foreign sabotage, and the missile has remained unseen since. Asked on Fox News on Sunday whether the United States had played any role in the latest missile failure, K. T. McFarland, General McMaster’s departing deputy, said, “You know we can’t talk about that.” Most likely, no one knows for sure, but the ambiguity feeds North Korea’s paranoia, intelligence experts say. But such programs buy time; they are not solutions. Equally worrisome to Washington officials and private analysts is the North’s steady progress over a decade in developing nuclear warheads that are small enough to fit atop long-range missiles. By definition, the atomic work appears to be far less open to prying eyes and foreign sabotage. The explosive nuclear tests take place in tunnels dug deep beneath a rugged mountain. “They’ve done five tests in 10 years,” said Siegfried S. Hecker, a Stanford professor who once directed the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in New Mexico, a birthplace of the atomic bomb. “You can learn a lot in that time.” Tempting as the analogies to Cuba may be, Mr. Kim is probably thinking of another nuclear negotiation — with Libya, in 2003. Its leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, agreed to give up his nascent nuclear program in return for promises from the West of economic integration and acceptance. It never really happened, and as soon as Libya’s populace turned against the dictator during the Arab Spring, the United States and its European and Arab allies drove him from power. Ultimately, he was pulled out of a ditch and shot. Periodically, the North Koreans write about that experience, noting what a sap Colonel Qaddafi was to give up the nuclear program that might have saved him. Mr. Kim, it appears, is not planning to make the same mistake. David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and William J. Broad from New York. A version of this news analysis appears in print on April 17, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Faces ‘Cuban Missile Crisis in Slow Motion’.
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 4/18/2017 3:19:20 PM
	‘We have no choice’: Trump justifies US strikes, military buildup & posturing Published time: 17 Apr, 2017 03:10 Edited time: 17 Apr, 2017 10:02 US President Donald Trump in Hampton, Virginia © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters The US has “no choice” but to continue boosting its military power, Donald Trump has said, after Washington’s war machine showcased its latest weapons over the past week and demonstrated its willingness to use them. Trump authorized the unilateral cruise missile strikes on Syria and followed up by dropping the “Mother of all Bombs” on Afghanistan. Follow Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice! 8:41 AM - 16 Apr 2017 20,115 Retweets 99,980 likes “Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before,” the US President tweeted Sunday.”Frankly, we have no choice!” READ MORE: Trump dumps campaign pledges, goes ballistic in Syria & Afghanistan Trump’s statement came after the Pentagon expanded its global reach and showcased its use force in recent weeks. Read more Death toll from ‘mother of all bombs’ in Afghanistan rises to over 90 militants - Afghan officials On April 7, in an unprecedented unilateral show of force, the US launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea targeting the Syria's Shayrat Air Base. Trump ordered the strike in response to the chemical weapons attack in Khan Shaykhun on April 4, which Washington blamed on Damascus before any investigation into the incident has even been launched. The strike on Syria which happened without the approval of the UN Security Council has been widely deemed as an act of aggression, although Washington’s NATO allies chose to look the other way in this clear violation of the international law, while voicing their support. Trump also authorized the combat test of the so called 'mother of all bombs' in Afghanistan. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) was unleashed in battle for the first time on Thursday. The 21,000-pound (9,525 kg) bomb was dropped on a tunnel complex in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. The area is said to be used by militants of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) affiliates, over 90 of whom were reported to have been killed in the colossal blast. READ MORE: US drops largest non-nuclear bomb on Afghanistan, first time used in combat Furthermore, Washington this month ordered a carrier-led strike group to provide a physical presence near the Korean Peninsula after Trump vowed to “take care” of the North Korean nuclear problem. Follow RT ✔@RT_com ‘We are sending an armada’: Trump ready to eliminate N. Korean ‘menace’ with or without China https://on.rt.com/88q2 9:01 PM - 12 Apr 2017 ‘We are sending an armada’: Trump ready to eliminate N. Korean ‘menace’ with or without China — RT... The US is looking forward to working with China to solve the North Korean nuclear threat. But while Washington is mustering its forces in the Korean peninsula, Beijing insists on finding a peaceful... rt.com 237 Retweets 173 likes In addition a fleet of F-35 stealth fighter jets arrived in Europe for the first time over the weekend as part of a planned NATO exercise aimed at “deterring” Russia. In March, Trump asked US lawmakers to increase the Pentagon’s budget by $54 billion, as part of a push to rebuild America’s “depleted military.” Follow RT ✔@RT_com A shift: Trump’s budget requests $54 bn defense increase, while slashing other departments https://on.rt.com/860w 5:16 PM - 16 Mar 2017 Trump’s budget requests $54 bn defense increase, while slashing other departments — RT America President Donald Trump revealed his 2018 budget proposal on Thursday seeking approval from Congress to bolster military spending at the expense of environmental and foreign aid programs, and to begin... rt.com 42 Retweets 38 likes In an address in Tampa, Florida, prior to submitting the new budget proposal, Trump promised the US Central Command new weapons for the US military. “You’ve been lacking a little equipment, we’re going to load it up,” Trump said, at the time. “You're going to get a lot of equipment.” (RT)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 4/18/2017 5:33:29 PM
	Police announce $50,000 reward for arrest of Facebook killer as search intensifies Published April 17, 2017 FoxNews.com Watch video Cleveland police announced a $50,000 reward has been posted by Crimestoppers Monday for information leading to the capture of the man suspected of killing a random passerby and posting the gruesome footage on Facebook Sunday. Police have issued a nationwide search for Steve Stephens, 37, and asked residents of Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, and Michigan to be on alert. View image on Twitter Follow Cleveland Police ✔@CLEpolice UPDATE Homicide suspect Steve Stephens' actual vehicle has Ohio Temp tag E363630 7:13 PM - 16 Apr 2017 11,542 Retweets 5,385 likes Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said officers searched dozens of locations for Stephens with no success. The department is working with federal, state and other local agencies to find him. “As far as we know right now, we don’t know where he’s at," Williams said at a Monday morning news conference. "The last location we had him at was the homicide.” Williams also urged Stephens to turn himself in or contact a friend, relative, or clergy. “We definitely want to get it resolved as quickly as possible. The victim’s family deserves it,” said Williams. “At this point he could be a lot of places," said Steve Anthony, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland division. "He could be nearby, he could be far away or anywhere in-between.” Police in Philadelphia said they have "no indication" Stephens is in the city despite 911 calls reporting he could be in or near Fairmount Park. Officers were sent to check the area, and police say eight elementary schools and a high school were locked down as a precaution. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Stephens early Monday. He is charged with aggravated murder in the death of Robert Godwin. Williams said detectives had spoken with Stephens via cellphone at one point, but hadn't made any other contact with him. "Early in this investigation we did have contact with him, direct contact with our detectives," Williams said. "They tried to convince him to turn himself in." Stephens had no previous criminal record, only "a lot" of traffic violations, Williams said. The video of Godwin's murder posted to Facebook purportedly shows Stephens getting out of his car and targeting Godwin, 74, who is holding a plastic shopping bag. Stephens shouted the name of a woman, whom Godwin did not recognize. "She's the reason that this is about to happen to you," Stephens told Godwin before pointing a gun at him. Godwin can be seen shielding his face with the shopping bag. The video of the killing was on the social media site for three hours before it was removed. Stephens' account also was removed. Facebook said the suspect did go live on the social media website at one point during the day, but not during the killing. Police earlier had said that Stephens had broadcast it on Facebook Live. "This is a horrific crime and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook," said a company spokesperson. "We work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety." Police said they have been talking with family and friends of Stephens, who is a case manager at Beech Brook, a behavioral health agency headquartered in Pepper Pike, near Cleveland. "We were shocked and horrified to learn of this news today," agency spokeswoman Nancy Kortemeyer said in a statement. "We are hoping that the Cleveland Police will be able to apprehend Mr. Stephens as soon as possible and before anyone else is injured." In one of the videos he posted to Facebook, Stephens can be seen holding up his Beech Brook employee identification badge. Stephens also mentioned his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, in one of his Facebook posts. The fraternity issued a statement Sunday night. "On behalf of the Supreme Council and the members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, we lift our sincere and heartfelt prayers and condolences of comfort to the families impacted by the recent shooting in Cleveland, Ohio," it said. Police said Stephens should be considered armed and dangerous. The Associated Press contributed to this report. (foxnews.com)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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