Suicide bomber kills 2 inside Somali presidential palace compound

Large arms shipment intercepted off Yemen, Iran eyed as source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Yemeni forces intercepted a ship on January 23 carrying a large cache of weapons - including surface-to-air missiles - that U.S. officials suspect were being smuggled from Iranand destined for Yemeni insurgents, officials said on Monday.

Yemen's government said the arms intercepted aboard the ship off the country's coast also included military grade explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and bomb-making equipment, according to a statement by its embassy in Washington.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the operation was coordinated with the U.S. Navy and that a Navy destroyer was nearby.

A second official told Reuters the intercepted shipment was believed to have been from Iran and destined for insurgents, likely Houthis.

"This demonstrates the ever pernicious Iranian meddling in other countries in the region," said the second U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iran denies any interference in Yemen's affairs.

Analysts and diplomats believe that the ascent of the Houthis, named after their leaders' family, has turned Yemen into a new front in a long struggle between Iran and Western powers and the Arab regimes they support.

Gulf Arab governments and Sunni clerical allies accuse Iran of backing Shi'ite communities around the region, and Sanaa has also accused Iran of trying to meddle in Yemeni affairs.

Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi snubbed a visiting Iranian envoy last year to signal "displeasure" with Tehran after Sanaa said it had uncovered an Iranian-led spy ring in the capital.

Earlier this month, the U.S. envoy to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, was quoted accusing Iran of working with southern secessionists. Yemen is also grappling with al Qaeda militants in the north.

Its location flanking top oil producer Saudi Arabia - Iran's Sunni Muslim regional adversary - and major shipping lanes have made restoring its stability an international priority.

Yemen's government said in a statement the shipment was intercepted in Yemeni waters, close to the Arabian Sea. It said Yemeni Coast Guard officials boarded the vessel, which flew multiple flags and had eight Yemeni crew members on board.

"Authorities are continuing to investigate the vessel's shipping route by analyzing navigation records found on board the ship," the statement said.

Egypt's army chief issues warning over collapse of state

CAIRO (Reuters) - The head of the Egyptian military warned political conflict could lead to the collapse of the state and said protecting the Suez Canal was one of the main objectives of the army deployment to nearby cities shaken by violence.

Protesters defied a curfew in towns along the Suez Canal overnight, attacking police stations afterPresident Mohamed Mursi imposed emergency rule to end days of clashes that have killed at least 52 people.

The remarks of General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is also defense minister, were published on the official Facebook page of the army spokesman.

He said the economic, political and social challenges facing Egypt represented "a real threat to the security of Egypt and the cohesiveness of the Egyptian state" and the army would remain "the solid and cohesive block" on which the state rests.

The army, he said, belonged to all Egyptians regardless of their sect or political affiliation.

"The continuation of the struggle of the different political forces ... over the management of state affairs could lead to the collapse of the state," he said.

"The army's deployment in Port Said and Suez provinces aims to protect the vital strategic interests of the state, at the forefront of which is the vital Suez Canal," he said, adding the army would not allow the canal to be harmed.

The military assumed power from deposed President Hosni Mubarak at the height of the uprising against him in 2011 before leading the state through an interim period that formally ended with Mursi's election in June last year.

(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Confirming NKorean N-test almost impossible

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea appears all set to detonate an atomic device, but confirming the explosion when it takes place will be virtually impossible for outsiders, specialists said Tuesday.

The best indication of a test will be seismic tremors and abnormal radiation in the air, but even that can be masked if North Korea wants to. In all likelihood the first word of the test will come from Pyongyang itself, just as it happened when the country conductednuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

Last week, North Korea warned a third nuclear test is planned to protest toughened international sanctions meant to punish it for firing a long-range rocket in December. The world sees the launch a ballistic missile test banned by the U.N. while Pyongyang says it only shot a satellite aboard the rocket into orbit as part of a peaceful space development program.

The U.S., South Korea and their allies pressed the North to scrap its nuclear test plans, saying that will only worsen the country's decades-old international isolation.

The threats have placed scientists and experts in South Korea on high alert as any test is likely to aggravate the already high tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said Tuesday it believes North Korea has nearly completed nuclear test plans, confirming satellite analysis last week by the U.S.-Korea Institute, a research group at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Its satellite images of the Punggye-ri site — where the previous two nuclear tests were conducted — reveal that the North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated.

In the event of such an underground nuclear test, earthquake monitoring stations in South Korea can detect seismic tremors accompanied by low-frequency sound waves. While earthquakes trigger seismic waves they don't produce sound waves.

But this is at best a strong indication of the test and not an absolute confirmation.

An earthquake expert at the state-run Korea Meteorological Administration said his office aims to find out the magnitude of the tremor, the time it started and the exact location on the map within 10 minutes of the explosion. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to media.

Experts also note that an artificial earthquake, such as created by a nuclear explosion, rarely triggers the same wave patterns as natural quakes.

North Korea can also try to deceive and give the impression that it exploded a nuclear device by simply exploding sophisticated conventional weapons that would trigger the same seismic waves as ones produced by a nuclear test, said Chi Heoncheol, an earthquake specialist at the government-funded Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources.

By raising tensions this way, North Korea may hope to wrest concessions or aid in return for promises to scale back its unproven nuclear capability.

"Even if they bring truckloads of high-powered conventional explosives, put them (into an underground tunnel) and explode them, they will generate the same seismic wave and sound wave," Chi said. Only difference is no radioactivity would be detected from the explosion of conventional weapons, he said.

The best course for scientists would be to collect air samples to look for increased radioactive activities but the process could take days. Even if the wind is favorable — and assuming North conducts the test at Punggye-ri in the country's northeastern corner — it will take more than one day for airborne radioactive isotopes like xenon to reach South Korea, according to an official at the government-run Nuclear Safety and Security Commission.

The official, who requested anonymity citing the sensitive nature of the subject, acknowledged it may be impossible to confirm a test if the wind doesn't blow southward or if North Korea plugs the underground tunnel so tightly that no radioactive gas escapes.

South Korea confirmed increased radiation levels following the North's 2006 nuclear test but didn't find anything in 2009.

And if North Korea decides to conduct a so-called subcritical test, there would be no release of radioactivity at all.

A sub-critical test only works on the properties of plutonium but stop short of creating a critical mass, the point at which a self-sustaining nuclear reaction occurs. Such an experiment requires a "very difficult technology" that only a few countries like the U.S., Russia and England have acquired, said nuclear expert Whang Joo-ho of Kyung Hee University.

"I believe North Korea's technology has not reached to that level," Whang said.

North Korea said its upcoming atomic explosion will be a "high-level" test and many analysts said that refers to a device made from highly enriched uranium, which gives the country a second source to manufacture bombs in addition to plutonium.

Whether North Korea detonates a uranium- or plutonium-based device, there won't be much difference in how easily scientists can detect tests. The only difference is they produce different radioactive gases, Whang said.

He also said a uranium-based test explosion means North Korea's nuclear stockpile can continue to be enlarged at a time when there is no evidence of continued production of plutonium at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex.

North Korea watchers in South Korea are speculating diverse dates for a possible nuclear test, with some predicting that could happen as early as this week and others choosing the days just before the Feb. 16 birthday of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

There is no way to find out when North Korea would conduct a nuclear test, said analyst Shim BeomChul at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul. U.S. spy satellites "can detect objects 15 centimeters (5.91 inches) in size on the ground but they cannot detect what's happening in underground."

'Charities' Funnel Millions to Climate-Change Denial

Oil billionaires like Charles Koch are funding climate-change denial, an investigation alleges.

A British newspaper claims to have discovered the convoluted way oil billionaires in the United States can funnel huge amounts of cash toward climate change-denial campaigns, while reaping tremendous tax advantages in the process.

A shadowy group called the Donors Trust is largely funded by billionaire Charles Koch and his wife Liz, according to aninvestigation by The Independent. The trust indirectly receives millions of dollars in funding from a third-party group called the Knowledge and Progress Fund, which the Koch family operates, the paper claims.

Charles Koch and his brother David are majority shareholders in Koch Industries, an immense conglomeration of oil and gas companies with a global reach — and a definite interest in denying any link between fossil-fuel use and climate change.

A recent profile in Forbes called Charles Koch "one of the 50 most powerful people in the world, one of the 20 wealthiest — and one of the dozen most vilified."

The IRS recognizes the Donors Trust as a charitable organization due to its status as a "donor-advised trust." These trusts "are individual accounts administered by tax-exempt organizations, such as community foundations and national charities," according to the Wall Street Journal.

Because the IRS considers these organizations charitable groups, money donated to them is tax-deductible, and the popularity of such trusts is growing quickly. Contributions to donor-advised trust funds increased 10.6 percent in 2011 over 2010, the Journal reports. [The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted]

"It's becoming the vehicle of choice," said Robert Brulle, a sociologist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, referring to the donor-advised trust. "It's an attractive conduit of funding to theseconservative think tanks," Brulle told LiveScience.

But what do the recipients of the estimated $500 million in donor funding since 2003 actually do with the money? "A lot of it is just unknown," said Brulle. "It goes into the black box of Donors Trust" where the money is, for the most part, untraceable.

The website for Donors Trust provides some clues to their interests: "The current environment on university campuses values Diversitas over Veritas — but cultural diversity is a poor substitute for truth, which must be the prevailing aim of the university. And discovering truth is impossible without a commitment to freedom of inquiry and the broadest possible range of viewpoints — what we call intellectual pluralism.

"Typically, we provide top-notch professors with substantial seed capital, spread over three years. After these professors have demonstrated progress with their 'centers,' we assist them in identifying other funding sources — alumni, institutional or foundations — to sustain their efforts."

According to the Independent's investigation, Donors Trust has given significant funding to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank. Climatologist Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University has sued that group, claiming it accused him of scientific fraud and compared him to a child molester. (Nine investigations of Mann's climate research, including one by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and another by the National Science Foundation, have found no evidence of academic fraud. The CEI removed the harsh claims several days after publication.)

Mann, however, remains committed to promoting a science-based approach to climate change. "I like to think we're turning the corner on this issue. The damaging impacts that climate change is already having on us here in the U.S. … are increasingly clear to the person on the street," Mann told LiveScience in an email interview.

"Climate-change denial, despite the great degree of funding and organization behind it, is simply no longer credible to the vast majority of the public," Mann said. "It is my hope — and my expectation — that we will soon transition from the unworthy debate about whether the problem even exists to the worthy debate to be had about what to do about it."