World Politics

Ahead of an announcement of new United Nations sanctions to be placed against North Korea, which carried out a third nuclear test on February 12, the North Korean government threatened a nuclear strike against the United States. The White House has responded to the threats out of Pyongyang, insisting that the U.S. is fully capable of defending against a North Korean ballistic missile strike.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said:

"The United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack."

According to a statement from a Foreign Ministry spokesman that was carried on the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea is prepared to "exercise the right to pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors", and Washington is "set to light a fuse for nuclear war."

Carney contends that North Korea "will achieve nothing by threats or provocations."

Ahead of a United Nations vote on new sanctions, North Korea cranked up its rhetoric and threatened to exercise its "right to pre-emptive nuclear attack." In a statement issued over the official KCNA news agency, North Korea's foreign ministry spokesman said:

"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to pre-emptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest."

The South Korean military also said on Wednesday that it would strike back at North Korea and target its top leadership if Pyongyang attacks.

Tensions have been increasing across the Korean peninsula ever since North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who took office a year ago following the death of his father, launched a long-range rocket last December. This was followed up with a third nuclear test on February 12, which triggered the prospect of additional U.N. sanctions.

These new U.N. sanctions are due to be formally announced on Thursday after the U.S. and China, North Korea's one major diplomatic ally, struck a deal to punish Pyongyang.

Earlier this week, North Korea threatened to end the 60-year truce that ended the Korean war.

The current consensus is that North Korea does not yet have a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. They do, however, have smaller missiles, which they have shown off during military parades. South Korea's capital or Seoul is within range.

Only weeks into his fourth term as Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez has died at the age of 58 following a two-year battle with cancer.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro made the announcement on national television. Chavez passed away at 4:25pm local time on Tuesday. The exact cause of death was not revealed, but late Monday evening, Maduro revealed that Chavez's health had taken a turn for the worst and said that he was now battling a new, severe respiratory infection.

Having heard the grim news on Monday, many of Venezeula's military and political leaders gathered at the presidential palace on Tuesday morning.

With tears streaming down his face, Maduro called upon Venezuelans to be "dignified inheritors of the giant man" that Chavez was.

Chavez had been struggling with an undisclosed type of cancer in his pelvic region for the past two years, and in December 2012 had undergone surgery in Cuba. He had also recently resumed chemotherapy treatments. In recent weeks, Chavez's condition worsened.

On Tuesday morning, the political and military leaders of Venezuela gathered at the presidential palace after learning that President Hugo Chavez had suffered from a serious setback in his battle against cancer.

On Monday night, the Venezuelan government issued one of its most grim statements to date on the Socialist leader's health, stating that Chavez's breathing problems had worsened and that he was suffering from a "severe" new respiratory infection at a Caracas military hospital.

Chavez, 58, has not been seen in public and has not been heard from since he underwent surgery in Cuba on December 11. That was his fourth operation since the cancer was detected in his pelvic area in mid-2011.l

Ministers as well as military leaders gathered at the presidential palace in Miraflores beginning on late Tuesday morning, amid rumors that Chavez 14-year reign may be coming to an abrupt end.

Speaking at a conference held by Young Americans for Liberty, a group that was founded after Ron Paul's 2008 presidential run, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) suggested that former Vice President Dick Cheney will go to hell for his involvement in the Iraq War.

During the speech at the event held in Raleigh, N.C., Jones said:

"Congress will not hold anyone to blame. Lyndon Johnson's probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War, and he probably needs to move over for Dick Cheney."

Jones' remarks drew a round of applause from those in attendance.

During the speech, Jones also expressed regret over his own vote in support of the Iraq War in 2003.

Raul Castro, the brother of former Communist leader Fidel Castro, announced on Sunday that he will step down as Cuba's president in 2018 following a final five-year term. This decision marks the first time that a expiration date has been set for the Castro era.

Fidel Castro, 86, had served as Cuba's Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976, and then as president from 1976 to 2008, when he tapped his brother Raul, 81, to take over.

Castro also announced that he hopes to establish two-term limits and age caps for political offices, including the presidency.

Castro also tapped rising political star Miguel Diaz-Canel as his top lieutenant and first in the line of succession. Canal is now just one heartbeat from the presidency. He's also risen higher than any other Cuban official who did not directly participate in the 1950s revolution.

The President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has ordered U.S. special forces to leave the Maidan Wardak province following reports from local officials claiming that the elite forces had been involved in the torture and disappearance of nine Afghan civilians.

U.S. military officials are rejecting the allegations of torture and involvement in the disappearances, but President Karzai, who convened a meeting of the Afghan national security council on Sunday, seems to believe that the evidence was strong enough to demand that the forces leave the province within two weeks.

Over the past year, security in the province bordering the capital city of Kabul has deteriorated and has become a focus of American-led efforts to prevent insurgents from reaching the capital.

Afghanistan's decision to disallow U.S. special forces in Maidan Wardak province could have serious implications for the nation's relations with Washington, as well as for U.S. plans to maintain a counter-terrorist force in Afghanistan even after NATO combat troops leave in 2014.

The government of North Korea has released a new propaganda video which shows President Barack Obama and United States troops in flames, and credits Washington with leading North Korea to become a proud nuclear power.

Such content isn't shocking to North Koreans, who are exposed to a regular barrage of songs, operas, and even novels that fuel the nation's hatred of the United States and belittle South Korea. Propaganda is a tool used to govern the people, and in recent years North Korea has taken its propaganda campaign online, posting thousands of videos to YouTube.

Recently, the propagandists have been busy touting the successful launch of a satellite in December, and a nuclear test on February 12, attempting to convince North Koreans that their country was becoming a high-tech nuclear power under its new, young leader, Kim Jong-un.

The latest video to be uploaded is a 90-second video uploaded by the country's official Uriminzokkiri website, entitled "Thanks to the Americans."

President Barack Obama has called North Korea's nuclear test on Monday a "highly provocative act" and says that their nuclear program is a "threat to U.S. national security". In a statement released early Tuesday, President Obama called for swift and credible action against the Asian nation.

North Korea detonated a miniaturized nuclear device at a northeastern test site, and in doing so, defied United Nations Security Council orders to shut down atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation. It was the first test since leader Kim Jong Un took over power.

President Obama also said that the test "undermines regional stability", and may force action by the international community. Both China and Russia have also condemned the tests, with Russia demanding that Pyongyang rejoin six-party talks on its nuclear program.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also been quick to condemn the test, saying that it was "deplorable that Pyongyang defied the strong and unequivocal call from the international community to refrain from any further provocative measures."

Scientists announced on Monday that they had found the 528-year-old remains of King Richard III under a parking lot in the city of Leicester, England. Fans of the King say that the discovery will help rewrite the history books as well as help to restore the king's reputation.

Reseachers from the University of Leicester revealed that tests on a battle-scarred skeleton that was dug up in the central England city in 2012 prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that it is the king. King Richard III died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and his remains have been missing ever since.

There are few monarchs who have had such a decline in reputation after death as Richard III, who ruled England between 1483 and 1485 during the era known as the War of the Roses, which pitted two wings of the ruling Plantagenet dynasty - York and Lancaster - against one another.

Richard III's brief reign as king saw some liberal reforms that included lifting restrictions on books and printing presses, and the introduction to the right to bail. However, his rule was challenged and he was defeated and killed by the army of Henry Tudor, who took the throne as King Henry VII and ended the Plantagenet line of rule.

Richard III's problems did not end at death. Historians writing under the Tudors trashed his reputation and accused him of a multitude of crimes, including the murder of the "Princes in the Tower", the two sons of his older brother, King Edward IV. Richard remains a villian in popular imagination, an idea that wasn't helped by William Shakespeare who depicted the king as a hunchbacked usurper leaving a trail of bodies on his way to the throne before dying in battle.