North Korea planning on nuke test ...

HUFF POST:

SEOUL, South Korea — Recent satellite images show North Korea is digging a new underground tunnel in what appears to be preparation for a third nuclear test, according to South Korean intelligence officials.

The excavation at North Korea's northeast Punggye-ri site, where nuclear tests were conducted in 2006 and 2009, is in its final stages, according to a report by intelligence officials that was shared Monday with The Associated Press.

Its release comes as North Korea prepares to launch a long-range rocket that Washington and others say is a cover for testing missile technology that could be used to fire on the United States.

Observers fear a repeat of 2009, when international criticism of the North's last long-range rocket launch prompted Pyongyang to walk away from nuclear disarmament negotiations and, weeks later, conduct its second nuclear test. A year later, 50 South Korean were killed in attacks blamed on the North.

"North Korea is covertly preparing for a third nuclear test, which would be another grave provocation," said the report, which cited U.S. commercial satellite photos taken April 1. "North Korea is digging up a new underground tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, in addition to its existing two underground tunnels, and it has been confirmed that the excavation works are in the final stages."

Dirt believed to have been brought from other areas is piled at the tunnel entrance, the report said, something experts say is needed to fill up tunnels before a nuclear test. The dirt indicates a "high possibility" North Korea will stage a nuclear test, the report said, as plugging tunnels was the final step taken during its two previous underground nuclear tests.

North Korea announced plans last month to launch an observation satellite using a three-stage rocket during mid-April celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.

The U.S., Japan, Britain and other nations have urged North Korea to cancel the launch, warning that firing the long-range rocket would violate U.N. resolutions and North Korea's promise to refrain from engaging in nuclear and missile activity.

Terror warning issued for Nigeria over Easter holiday.

LAGOS, Nigeria – The United Kingdom is warning its citizens of a "high threat" of a terrorist attack in Nigeria around the Easter holiday.

The Foreign Office issued the updated travel warning Thursday, noting that a radical Islamist sect in Nigeria known as Boko Haram carried out attacks on Christmas Day. A sect-claimed car bombing at a Catholic church outside of Nigeria's capital that day killed at least 44 people.

The Foreign Office warning also advised against travel to seven states in Nigeria's Muslim north.

It offered no further details about the Easter threat.
Boko Haram is waging an increasingly bloody fight against Nigeria's weak central government. The sect's demands include implementation of strict Shariah law and the release of all its detained members.

CNN: Navy jet crashes into apartments- 3 injured

(CNN) -- A Navy jet crashed Friday into some apartments near Virginia Beach, Virginia, sending flames and thick black smoke into the air, a military spokesman and a witness said.

At least two people were hurt, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The pilot and a person who was on the ground were being treated for injuries, but the nature and extent of those injuries were not immediately clear, the spokeswoman said.
Retired rescue squad member Pat Kavanaugh said he and others found one of the two plane crew members who ejected.

Kavanaugh was on his couch when he heard a loud boom.
"I saw a pilot on the ground with a parachute hanging from the building, with facial lacerations," Kavanaugh said.

Witness watches as Navy jet crashes
"He was in shock and still strapped to his seat," Kavanaugh told CNN affiliate WTKR.
The jet hit the Mayfair Mews Apartment complex in Virginia Beach, according to U.S.

Rep. Scott Rigell's office, whose district includes Virginia Beach.
The jet was from a training squadron at the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, the Navy and Federal Aviation Administration said.

The crew of the two-seater F/A-18 ejected, but their condition wasn't known, a Navy spokesman said.
Virginia Beach Fire Department Battalion Chief Tim Riley said five buildings were heavily damaged, and first responders are going to have to do a detailed search of those buildings for people.
No residents were reported missing early Friday afternoon, Riley said.
But he added: "We're going to assume that there are people missing, and we're going to do a detailed search.

"It's going to take a while to get through there to see the details," Riley told CNN.
The two pilots were taken to the hospital, Riley said.
One resident, Keith Gutkowski, said one of the plane's ejection seats ripped through an oak tree and crashed into his condo fence, and the other crashed into a home next to him.

The plane crash site is 75 yards from his home, and his wife saw the plane "almost fall out of the sky," he said.
"What they're saying about ejecting very late is definitely true," Gutkowski said about reports that the pilots apparently ejected at a low altitude.
"Both ejection seats are right here, and the parachute is right by the crash site," Gutkowski told CNN.

George Pilkington, a witness, said he saw the plane flying low, with its nose up and tail down, ejecting fuel -- which struck him as unusual. The engine was straining, he said.
"It came over the top of my truck emptying fuel," Pilkington said.
"That it didn't cause more damage to the apartment buildings was a blessing," he said.

The plane crashed in an area of apartment complexes and homes a half-mile from the waterfront, Pilkington said.

Black smoke and flames rose from the crash site.
At least one building was damaged, according to video footage from CNN affiliate WTKR. A charred section of the jet wreckage was on the ground nearby.
Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars filled the area as smoke drifted overhead.
Another witness, Zack Zapatero, said the plane crashed into a building occupied by senior citizens. He took photos of the scene.

"There's these large fire balls coming up," Zapatero said. "I was told there was a bunch of senior citizens that live in that building, which worries me a lot.
"Buildings were starting to collapse," he said of the wreckage scene.
"Through the smoke, you could see the end of the plane sitting in the courtyard," Zapatero said

FA-18D crashes at Virginia, Beach VA

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - The Navy confirms that a two seat F/A 18D jet has crashed in Virgnia Beach Friday afternoon.

Grazia Moyers, spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Police Department, said just before 12:30 p.m. what police believe is a military aircraft has gone down.

Commander Rosi with the Navy saID the plane was an F18 Strike fighter VFA 106.


Police are responding to the scene at this time and will assist the military and the State Police, Moyer added.

Virginia Department of Transportation traffic cameras show thick, black smoke rising from the Birdneck Road area Friday afternoon around 12:30 p.m.

LISTEN TO LIVE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE SCENE HERE

LIVE VIDEO (DOT) CAM HERE

LINK TO PHOTO STREAM HERE

UPDATE: Communications from the scene indicate that an ambulance is transporting the crew "priority one" to a nearby hospital. Their condition is not known. Large structure fire reported at crash scene."

Photo courtesy WAVY:

Al-Qaeda forums downed in cyberattack

By Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick

Al-Qaeda’s main Internet forums have been offline for more than a week in what experts say is the longest sustained outage of the Web sites since they began operating eight years ago.

No one has publicly asserted responsibility for disabling the sites, but the breadth and the duration of the outages have prompted some experts to conclude that the forums have been taken down in a cyberattack — launched perhaps by a government, a government-backed organization or a hackers’ group.

The first Web site, Shumukh al-Islam, a primary source for al-Qaeda videos and messages, went down March 22, and since then four others have gone dark. Shumukh reappeared briefly Monday before going down again. A message claiming to be from the site’s administrators said that it would be back up “as soon as possible.”

The administrator of a second-tier al-Qaeda site recently posted a message on an online forum saying that “the media arena is witnessing a vicious attack by the cross and its helpers on the jihadi media castles.”

Officials in the United States and elsewhere have long been concerned about sites associated with al-Qaeda. Those sites have been used to call for violence against Western targets and to try to recruit Islamist extremists to carry out attacks.

There is still some uncertainty about whether a cyberattack caused the recent outages, and skeptics note that some prominent al-Qaeda forums remain online. U.S. government agencies, including U.S. Cyber Command, had no role in the outages, according to officials who would speak about the issue only on the condition of anonymity.

Still, Will McCants, a former State Department counterterrorism official who is a senior fellow at the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, said that, given the number of sites affected and the duration of the outages, “it sure looks like a takedown.”

If it is a technical problem being addressed by site administrators, “usually they will get on another site and say we’ve got administrative problems,” McCants said

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON POST