US Secretary of State John Kerry says Washington is “fully committed” to protecting Tokyo days after it received nuclear threats from North Korea. The latest comments by Kerry come after North Korea vowed to launch a strike on Japan if it continued with its “hostile posture” against Pyongyang. “The United States is fully committed to the defence of Japan,” Kerry said during... 

A journalist tells Press TV that a possible nuclear attack on North Korea by the US forces will raise anger of South Korean people. Tensions in Korea continue to mount as the North has decided to shut down the jointly-operated Kaesong manufacturing area. Established in 2004, Kaesong, which houses 123 factories, is the biggest employer in North Korea’s third-largest city. On Wednesday, Pyongyang... 

Pyongyang warned that Tokyo would be its primary target if war broke out on the Korean Peninsula, if Japan maintains its “hostile posture.” It also threatened a nuclear strike against the island nation if it intercepts any North Korean test missiles. In the comments, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Friday, Pyongyang lambasted Tokyo’s standing orders to shoot down any North... 

A B-2A bomber releases a test version of the new B61-11 gravity bomb over the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, November 20, 1996 The Pentagon and NATO’s multibillion-dollar war budgets are financed by massive economic austerity measures, impoverishing people in the US and NATO member-states in order to build advanced nuclear weaponry justified by the ‘Iran threat.’ While the Pentagon’s modernization... 

A missile is displayed during a military parade marking 100 years since the birth of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang on April 15, 2012. South Korea has raised its military surveillance alert to “vital threat” amid claims that North Korea would test-launch a medium-range missile. The decision was made on Wednesday after South Korean intelligence said that the North is... 

France has withdrawn its first batch of 100 troops out of the 4,000 deployed in Mali as it prepares to hand over operations to a UN peacekeeping force, with 1,000 French troops to remain on the ground by the end of the year. However, fears are mounting that Mali will become a drawn-out war, spilling into other regions and fueling terrorism. France justified its January intervention into Mali as a... 

Pyongyang has issued a warning urging foreign nationals to evacuate South Korea, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. The statement was followed by threats from North Korea of “thermonuclear” war on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has warned all foreign nationals to prepare to evacuate the South in the event of conflict. “We do not wish harm on foreigners in South Korea should... 

Russia has warned that a possible nuclear conflict on the Korean Peninsula would be far more destructive than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. “I would make no secret about it, we are worried about the escalation on the Korean Peninsula because we are neighbors,” Russian President Vladimir Putin made the comment at a joint press conference with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday. Putin... 

A North Korean vehicle carrying a new missile passes by during a mass military parade in Pyongyang to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, April 15, 2013. The South Korean government says North Korea is likely to test-launch a missile this week. Kim Jang-Soo, director of national security for South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, said on Sunday that Pyongyang... 

One person has reportedly been killed and 66 wounded when clashes erupted outside a Coptic cathedral in Cairo after funeral prayers were held for four Christians killed in sectarian violence. There are conflicting reports on how exactly the clashes erupted. AFP, citing witnesses, writes that mourners who were chanting against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood were pelted with stones as they left the church.... 

South Korean soldiers man K-55 self-propelled howitzers at a military training field in the border city of Paju on April 5, 2013. North Korea has asked foreign embassies, including that of Russia, to consider the possibility of evacuation due to an upsurge of tensions on the Korean Peninsula. “A representative of the North Korean Foreign Ministry suggested that the Russian side examine the question... 

The United States has deployed chemical weapons and a battalion equipped to deal with nuclear and chemical attacks in South Korea. Japan has warned North Korea against its ‘provocative statements’ after Pyongyang stepped up its war rhetoric against the US threats. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday, “Our government does not believe we should be pushed around and... 

North Korean army says it has final approval for nuclear attack on the US, the official KCNA news agency says. This comes shortly after the Pentagon said the US military prepares to deploy an advanced missile-defense system to Guam. “Merciless operation of its revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified,” said a spokesman for the General Staff of the... 

The holiest Jewish site in Syria – the 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue in Damascus – has been looted and burned, and its roof blown off. The Syrian army and rebel forces have both blamed each other for the demolition of the historic landmark. It is believed that the Jobar Synagogue, one of the world’s oldest, was built atop a cave where the Prophet Elijah once hid from persecution. One of the... 

The guided missile destroyers USS Lassen (L) and USS Fitzgerald are seen at a South Korean naval port in Donghae, about 190 km east of Seoul, on March 9, 2013. The United States is shifting a guided-missile destroyer in the Pacific to waters off the Korean Peninsula as tensions mount with North Korea, a US military official say. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that...