North Korea claims it could wipe out Manhattan with a hydrogen bomb

SEOUL — North Korea claimed Sunday that it could wipe out Manhattan by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile to the heart of New York, the latest in a string of brazen threats.

Although there are many reasons to believe that Kim Jong Un’s regime is exaggerating its technical capabilities, the near-daily drumbeat of boasts and warnings from Pyongyang underlines the regime’s anger at efforts to thwart its ambitions.

“Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” DPRK Today, a state-run outlet that uses the official acronym for North Korea, reported Sunday.

“If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an inter-continental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes,” the report said, citing a nuclear scientist named Cho Hyong Il.

The website is a strange choice for issuing such a proclamation, given that it also carried reports about rabbit farming and domestically made school backpacks.

North Korea’s newly developed hydrogen bomb “surpasses our imagination,” Cho is quoted as saying, because it is many times as powerful as anything the Soviet Union had.

“The H-bomb developed by the Soviet Union in the past was able to smash windows of buildings 1,000 kms away and the heat was strong enough to cause third-degree burns 100 kms away,” the report continued.

Kim in January ordered North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and claimed that it was a hydrogen bomb, not a simple atomic one. But most experts are skeptical of the claim, saying the seismic waves caused by the blast were similar to those caused by the North’s three previous tests.

Then in February, Kim oversaw the launch of what North Korea said was a rocket that put a satellite into orbit but that is widely considered part of a long-range ballistic missile program.

North Korea has made advances in its inter-continental ballistic missile program, and experts generally conclude that the United States’ West Coast might now be in reach but that there has been no suggestion that the North would be able to hit the East Coast.

Many experts are also skeptical of the “miniaturized warhead” that Kim showed off last week during a visit to a nuclear weapons plant, saying it doesn’t look right.

But Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, warned against dismissing it too soon.

“It does not look like US devices, to be sure, but it is hard to know if aspects of the model are truly implausible or simply that North Korean nuclear weapons look different than their Soviet and American cousins,” Lewis wrote in an analysis for 38 North, a website devoted to North Korea. “The size, however, is consistent with my expectations for North Korea.”

Tightening the grip: Turkey's media takeover

In the latest crackdown on Turkey's media, authorities this week raided and seized control of the largest daily newspaper: Zaman, its sister publication, Today's Zaman, and the Cihan news agency.

The takeover, which was backed by the country's courts, was the latest blow in a long-running and deeply personal saga between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen, a 74-year-old Islamic leader based in the US, has been a vocal critic and political opponent of Erdogan and is closely affiliated with the anti-Erdogan Zaman newspaper.

Erdogan has repeatedly accused Gulen of trying to overthrow the government, but Gulen has denied the allegations.

The crackdown comes at an already worrying time for press freedom with several media outlets in Turkey also being targeted. Last year, two editors from the Cumhuriyet newspaperwere accused of treason over their story which alleged that Turkey was arming rebel fighters in Syria. When the country's highest court ordered their release from jail, Erdogan announced that he would not respect the ruling, setting the stage for a showdown between the government, the courts and the media.

Talking us through the story are: Sevgi Akarcesme, editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman; Banu Guven, a TV anchor for IMC; Jane Kandur, a columnist with Daily Saba; and Asli Tunc, a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University.

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Other media stories on our radar this week: Hassan Hanafi, once a respected broadcaster in Somalia was sentenced to death for colluding with al-Shabab in the murder of six fellow journalists; the Thai government has dropped a legal case against a photojournalist who was arrested last year for carrying a flak jacket and a helmet through the airport in Bangkok; and in the US, the Washington Post has been criticised over its coverage of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

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On President Erdogan's radar: An interview with Can Dundar

Ten months ago, Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper published a story about Turkish intelligence trucks allegedly carrying weapons to rebels in Syria.

The story didn't go down well with the government and Can Dündar, the Cumhuriyet's editor-in-chief and his Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul, were charged with espionage, revealing classified information and membership in a terrorist organisation.

The two men spent three months in prison before a Constitutional Court ruling set them free however the president has made it clear that the case is not closed.

The Listening Post's Richard Gizbert talks to journalist Can Dundar about the Turkish government's steamrolling of the press, the reporting that landed him in jail, and why he is still on President Erdogan's radar.

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Recipe videos tend to go viral so Red Sky studios, a post-production company based in Alabama, adopted the same approach for their video about film production. It's called 'Recipe for disaster' and shows what's needed to bake 'your epic film'. The difficulty level is very hard. The cooking time is months, sometimes years or forever. And yes, their video did go viral.

600 IS Fighters 'Killed In Three Weeks'

Islamic State has lost 600 fighters and thousands of square kilometres over the past three weeks, the US Secretary of State says.

John Kerry made the comments after talks with European allies in Paris on the Syrian conflict.

"In Syria, over the last three weeks alone, Daesh has lost 3,000 sq km (1,160 sq miles) and 600 fighters," he said, using another name for Islamic State.

Mr Kerry also said a recent truce has reduced violence in the war-torn country by 80-90%, which he said was "very, very significant".

The landmark truce signed between the Syrian regime and rebels - but not by jihadist groups like Islamic State and Nusra Front - took effect late last month.

A new round peace talks on the Syrian conflict are due to start in Geneva on Monday.

Trump's IS Protester Claim 'Utterly Farcical'

US intelligence experts have rejected claims by Donald Trump that a protester who tried to storm the stage at his rally may have links to Islamic State.

The presidential hopeful's Secret Service detail swarmed around him as the protester was detained and escorted from the rally at Dayton International Airport, Ohio, on Saturday.

Mr Trump appeared shaken and then told the audience: "I was ready for him, but it's much better if the cops do it, don't we agree?"

Authorities have identified the man as Thomas Dimassimo, from Fairborn, Ohio. He has been charged with inducing panic and disorderly conduct.

Chancellor To Unveil £4bn More In Spending Cuts

George Osborne is to announce a further £4bn of spending cuts by 2020 in this Wednesday's Budget.

The Chancellor will say the cuts are necessary to keep his fiscal plan on course, and enable him to continue to hit a Budget surplus in the final year of this Parliament.

He had anticipated a surplus of £10bn for 2019/20 just four months ago.

But revisions by the Office for Budget Responsibility to the forecast for earnings, the stock market and for low inflation have eaten into that forecast surplus.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated a £7bn shortfall in tax revenues.

The cuts could come partly from reducing cash totals to departments that anticipated higher inflation, and there could also be some new efficiencies to unprotected government departments.

Mr Osborne said the cuts he was planning were "not a huge amount in the scheme of things".

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "We need to act now so we don't have to pay later.

"That's why I need to find additional savings equivalent to 50p in every £100 the Government spends by the end of the decade.

"Because we have got to live within our means to stay secure and that's the way we make Britain fit for the future."

The Department for Work and Pensions has already confirmed some further cash-saving reforms to disability benefits.

Asked about claims the Government is facing an £18bn black hole in its finances, he replied: "£18bn is the sum of money that has been revised off our nominal GDP. In other words, that's a number out there last year because inflation was lower.

"It's a real number in the sense that all around the world every Western country, and indeed in big emerging countries like China, Brazil, Russia, people are looking at economic prospects and thinking they are not as rosy as they were just a few months ago."

Former chancellor Ken Clarke suggested Mr Osborne should carry out "tough and difficult" measures now as it was early in the five-year parliamentary cycle.

Mr Clarke told Sky News' Murnaghan programme: "The global economy is certainly slowing down.

"Markets are very jittery and if you look at the biggest problem in the short-term in Britain, it is that we are still running a deficit and we are still piling up debt and that slows down the prospects of growth.

"You've got all the other structural changes we've got to make, all the things we are doing on skills, training, infrastructure spending, trying to rebalance the economy.

"George has got to get on with that and this is the first Budget in a five-year parliament so if I were him, I'd want to do some of the tough and difficult things now."

:: Chancellor To Target Tax Loophole In Budget

The shadow Chancellor John McDonnell confirmed on Friday that Labour does not plan to reach an overall surplus under its new Fiscal Credibility Rule, as it will exempt investment spending from its target.

Mr McDonnell has criticised the Chancellor for his lack of investment spending.

Meanwhile, Mr Osborne appeared to indicate the Government may hold back from fuel duty rises in this week's Budget, after pressure from Tory backbenchers.

He also defended the £130m tax deal Google reached with HMRC, which was criticised by MPs for being "disproportionately small".

Mr Osborne said: "I was faced with a situation when I became Chancellor where we were not raising any money from this company.

"We are raising money from Google and indeed, from Facebook and the like.  I think that is a success."

Hospital call made for Germanwings pilot

Germanwings co-pilot was urged by doctor to attend psychiatric hospital weeks before he crashed plane, report says

Donald Trump blames Bernie Sanders fans for violence

Donald Trump supporters and protesters clash on Friday March 11 in Chicago [Charles Rex Arbogast/AP] 

Donald Trump supporters and protesters have clashed again following a rally that the Republican presidential frontrunner held in Cleveland, Ohio as he blamed Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders for escalating chaos. 

US police also fired pepper spray against an unruly crowd of demonstrators outside Trump's rally in Kansas City on Saturday. 

"Bernie's People," Trump repeatedly said in Cleveland, referring to several demonstrators before having them escorted out of the venue. 

The crowds later faced off outside, arguing about immigration and racism, before they were broken up by law enforcement.

"I'm terrified by Donald Trump, by the way I see his supporters behaving, by the things he says about women, people of colour, anyone that's different to him," said Ben Bowman, a Trump protester. 

At the rally, Trump also referred to "Bernie our communist friend" and called him a "lousy" senator while blaming him for the disruptions at his rallies.

Rosa Rossi, a Trump supporter, said she thinks the former reality TV show star can revive the US' past standing in world affairs. 

"I believe he can get the illegal immigrants in control, he can build a wall, and he can also make better deals for America, where America will rise and be the most powerful country in the world again," Rossi said.  

In a Twitter post late Saturday, Kansas City police said they used pepper spray twice outside a rally adding two people were arrested. It wasn't clear if those sprayed were demonstrators or Trump supporters.

Videos posted on Twitter showed a large number of people being sprayed during the incident.

Trump has both inspired impassioned supporters and ignited a backlash of angry dissent with his promise to build a wall along the US-Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants, and his call to temporarily ban the entry of non-US Muslims into the country.

Trump's events have been intense. For months, he incorporated interruptions by protesters into his speeches, growling "Get 'em out!" - sparking explosive cheers from the audiences as he did so.

But the confrontations began to escalate this month, most notably at a Trump event in New Orleans. A steady stream of demonstrators interrupted Trump's speech, including a huddle of Black Lives Matter activists, who locked arms and challenged security officials to remove them.

There were skirmishes throughout the speech, mostly pushing and shoving, although one man was captured on video biting someone.

Chicago violence 

Hours before Trump was scheduled to appear Friday night at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the atmosphere inside a campus arena was crackling as protesters and supporters shouted back and forth, arms raised and yelling in each other's faces.

Some of the protesters, many of whom said they supported Democratic candidate Sanders, said they planned to rush the stage when Trump came out to speak. They didn't get the chance as Trump called off the rally before even getting to the venue.

On Saturday morning, Trump was mid-speech when a man, later identified by authorities as Thomas Dimassimo of Fairborn, Ohio, jumped a barricade and rushed at Trump. He was able to touch the stage before he was tackled by security officials.

Trump initially laughed it off but later in the day he said Dimassimo had ties to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Experts who watched a video that Trump tweeted as evidence called the allegation "utterly farcical".

"Trump's accusations about it being linked to ISIS serve only to underline the totality of his ignorance on this issue," said Charles Lister, a fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton called Trump's rhetoric "political arson". She said Trump's "ugly, divisive rhetoric" and alleged encouragement of violence "is wrong, and it's dangerous".