Police try to confirm if Dorner's body found in cabin

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Dorner is now accused of killing four people


• Wardens spot him driving a purple Nissan down icy roads


• He carjacks a pickup truck and barricades himself in a cabin


• A shootout ensues

Follow the story here and at CNN affiliates KCBS/KCAL, KABC, and KTLA.

Near Big Bear Lake, California (CNN) -- It may take days before authorities can officially determine whether Christopher Jordan Dorner's body was found in the ashes of a torched cabin near Big Bear Lake, California.

But several signs early Wednesday seemed to suggest that the ex-Los Angeles police officer's vendetta against his brothers in blue ended in that wooden cabin with a shootout that left one deputy dead and another wounded.

The frenzied manhunt, road blocks and helicopter flights, which had brought the mountain town to a standstill for six days, died down Tuesday night.

And late in the evening, authorities announced that they found human remains in the cabin and would need forensic experts to identify them.

Ex-cop at center of California manhunt

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But even as the question of Dorner's fate seemed close to being answered, other details eluded explanation.

The carjacking

The deputy's death in the shootout Tuesday brought to four the number of people Dorner is accused of killing.

Dorner, a man who vowed to kill police officers to avenge what he called an unfair termination, was first named a suspect in two shooting deaths on February 3: that of the daughter of his police union representative and of her fiance.

Police also say he killed one officer in Riverside, California, and wounded two others Thursday.

Authorities offered a $1 million dollar reward in the case after Dorner's burned truck was found on a forestry road near Big Bear Lake on February 7, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

Officers converged on the remote area but the trail went cold for days. On Sunday, the San Bernadino authorities said they had scaled back the search.

Timeline in manhunt

That all changed Tuesday, where arguably the most wanted man in America was finally spotted.

The question of where Dorner was between February 7 and Tuesday was unclear.

Wardens of the California Fish and Wildlife said they spotted Dorner driving a purple Nissan down the icy roads Tuesday. Dorner was driving very close to some school buses as if using them as cover, said Lt. Patrick Foy.

The wardens, driving in two different vehicles, chased Dorner and a gun battle ensued.

A warden's car was hit.

Dorner crashed his car, ran and then quickly carjacked a pick up truck.

Rick Heltebrake, a camp ranger, said he was driving in the area when he saw the crashed purple car -- and then something terrifying.

"Here comes this guy with a big gun and I knew who it was right away," Heltebrake told CNN affiliate KTLA. "He just came out of the snow at me with his gun at my head. He said, 'I don't want to hurt you. Just get out of the car and start walking.'"

Heltebrake said he was allowed to get his dog out of the truck before he walked away with his hands up.

"Not more than 10 seconds later, I heard a loud round of gunfire," Heltebrake said. "Ten to 20 rounds maybe. I found out later what that was all about."

The fire

Dorner fled to a nearby cabin and got into another shootout with San Bernadino County deputies, killing one and wounding another.

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Tuesday the other deputy was in surgery "but he should be fine,"

The cabin caught fire after police tossed smoke devices inside, a law enforcement source told CNN.

The intense fire burned for hours as authorities waited at a distance.

Despite the enormity of the blaze, authorities were hesitant to officially say they had stopped Dorner.

"No body has been pulled out," LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said at a news conference Tuesday night. "No reports of a body being ID'd are true."

Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the lead agency in the case -- the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department -- echoed the words, saying at a separate news conference that authorities believe whoever was in the cabin never left.

"They believe that there is a body in there, but it is not safe to go inside," she told reporters.

Finally, late Tuesday night, sheriff's investigators said they found charred human remains within the ashes of the torched cabin.

The department said it will work to identify the remains -- but it could take a while.

The security

Clues to the targets of the violence were mentioned in Dorner's fiery manifesto that was posted online. Authorities say Dorner began making good on his threats on February 3 when he allegedly killed Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence in an Irvine parking lot, south of Los Angeles.

According to the manifesto, Randal Quan, Monica Quan's father, bungled Dorner's LAPD termination appeal.

Randal Quan represented Dorner during the disciplinary hearing that resulted in his firing. The officer was among dozens named in the manifesto.

On February 7, Dorner allegedly opened fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburban city of Corona.

Roughly 20 minutes later, Dorner allegedly fired on two officers in the nearby city of Riverside, killing Officer Michael Crain and wounding another.

Since then, the LAPD has provided security and surveillance details for more than 50 police officers and their families -- many of whom were named in the manifesto.

Police said Tuesday night they would continue to protect the people Dorner said he would target until it was confirmed that he died in the cabin.

In the manifesto Dorner wrote about death multiple times. Not just the death of his targets but of his own.

"Self Preservation is no longer important to me," the manifesto said at one point. "I do not fear death as I died long ago."

CNN's Miguel Marquez reported from near Big Bear Lake and Lateef Mungin wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Paul Vercammen, Stan Wilson, Casey Wian, Kathleen Johnston, Alan Duke, Matt Smith, Chelsea J. Carter, Michael Martinez and Holly Yan also contributed to this report.

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Not surprisingly, House GOP pans State of the Union

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Obama: Both parties know sequester cuts "a really bad idea"

It shouldn't come as a shock that congressional Republicans weren't very impressed by President Obama's State of the Union address. 

For his part, the president didn't hide his suggestion that it's Republicans who are resistant to compromise, leading some Republicans to jab the president, particularly regarding his lack of clarity on how he would replace the so-called sequester cuts set to slash defense and domestic spending on March 1.

"What has he done?" asked Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo. "He signed the sequester, he agreed to the sequester, he came up with the sequester and then he complains about House solutions to actually try to deal with it. This president is more interested in campaign-style rhetoric than actual solutions."

While many said there is some room to work with Mr. Obama on issues like immigration, and even some gun safety measures, his new proposals on everything from education to repairing the nation's crumbling bridges were panned not necessarily based on merit, but on the president's claim that the new programs would not increase the deficit "by a single dime."

"I think it doesn't pass the laugh test" said the chairman of the conservative House Republican Study group Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. "People realize the President promised to cut the deficit in half and it's more than doubled."

"It's economic fairy dust that this President's working with," added Gardner.

On the president's call to address climate change and become more energy independent, Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., called the president's silence on giving the green light to construct the Keystone XL pipeline to pump oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico "deafening."

Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Fred Upton, R-Mich., also said "With a stroke of the pen, the president could unleash this $7 billion private sector investment. Yet nowhere in this evening's blueprint for the president's policy vision was this critical middle-class jobs project."

Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, who is expected to be a key House Republican player in immigration talks as a Hispanic-American from a conservative state, said the president's State of the Union this year was "one of the least inspiring speeches I ever heard him give."

But Labrador said he does think Republicans and Democrats will ultimately be able to come together on an overhaul of the nation's immigration system.

"As long as the president and his party don't draw a red line and say that they have to get everything that they want."

Labrador was less optimistic about gun control. He compared his home state of Idaho with low crime and few gun regulations to Mr. Obama's home state of Illinois as an example of why gun laws aren't necessarily effective.

"It has the most stringent gun control legislation and it has some of the highest crime in the United States" Labrador said of Illinois. "Clearly gun control is not going to protect those families."

And while Labrador said he believes the president cares about the victims of gun violence and their families that attended the speech, he said they should not be used as "political pawns."

Labrador said, however, that as a father of five children he was so upset by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that he could not speak of the shooting for two days. He said "if there's things that we can do to save lives without violating the second amendment I think we should consider it."

Democrats gave the speech high marks. In a statement, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she urged the two parties to work together and said "it is time to heed the President's call for real progress to reverse the rising tide of climate change, enact comprehensive immigration reform, and prevent gun violence."

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Charred Human Remains Found in Burned Cabin

Investigators have located charred human remains in the burned out cabin where they believe suspected cop killer and ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner was holed up as the structure burned to the ground, police said.

The human remains were found within the debris of the burned cabin and identification will be attempted through forensic means, the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department said in a press release early this morning.

Dorner barricaded himself in the cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear Tuesday afternoon after engaging in a gunfight with police, killing one officer and injuring another, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.

Cindy Bachman, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, which is the lead agency in the action, said Tuesday night investigators would remain at the site all night.

FULL COVERAGE: Christopher Dorner Manhunt

When Bachman was asked if police thought Dorner was in still in the burning cabin, she said, "Right… We believe that the person that barricaded himself inside the cabin engaged in gunfire with our deputies and other law enforcement officers is still inside there, even though the building burned."

Bachman spoke shortly after the Los Angeles Police Department denied earlier reports that a body was found in the cabin, contradicting what law enforcement sources told ABC News and other news organizations.

Christopher Dorner Manhunt: Police Exchange Fire With Possible Suspect Watch Video

Fugitive Ex-Cop Believed Barricaded in Cabin, California Cops Say Watch Video

Police around the cabin told ABC News they saw Dorner enter but never leave the building as it was consumed by flames, creating a billowing column of black smoke seen for miles.

A press conference is scheduled for later today in San Bernardino.

One sheriff's deputy was killed in a shootout with Dorner earlier Tuesday afternoon, believed to be his fourth and victim after killing an LAPD officer and two other people this month, including the daughter of a former police captain, and promising to kill many more in an online manifesto.

PHOTOS: Former LAPD Officer Suspected in Shootings

Cops said they heard a single gunshot go off from inside the cabin just as they began to see smoke and fire. Later they heard the sound of more gunshots, the sound of ammunition being ignited by the heat of the blaze, law enforcement officials said.

Police did not enter the building, but exchanged fire with Dorner and shot tear gas into the building.

One of the largest dragnets in recent history, which led police to follow clues across the West and into Mexico, apparently ended just miles from where Dorner's trail went cold last week.

Police got a break at 12:20 p.m. PT, when they received a 911 call that a suspect resembling Dorner had broken into a home in the Big Bear area, taken two hostages and stolen a car.

The two hostages, who were tied up by Dorner but later escaped, were evaluated by paramedics and were determined to be uninjured.

Officials say Dorner crashed the stolen vehicle and fled on foot to the cabin where he barricaded himself and exchanged fire with deputies from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Office and state Fish and Game officers.

Two deputies were wounded in the firefight and airlifted to a nearby hospital, where one died, police said. The second deputy was in surgery and was expected to survive, police said.

Police sealed all the roads into the area, preventing cars from entering the area and searching all of those on the way out. Are schools were briefly placed on lockdown.

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Robotic tormenter depresses lab rats

Hal Hodson, technology reporter

(Image: Chris Nash/iamchrisphotography/Getty)

Lab rats have a new companion, but it's not friendly. Researchers at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, have developed a robotic rat called WR-3 whose job is to induce stress and depression in lab animals, creating models of psychological conditions on which new drugs can be tested.

Animal are used throughout medicine as models to test treatments for human conditions, including mental disorders like depression. Rats and mice get their sense of smell severed to induce something like depression, or are forced to swim for long periods, for instance. Other methods rely on genetic modification and environmental stress, but none is entirely satisfactory in recreating a human-like version of depression for treatment. Hiroyuki Ishii and his team aim to do better with WR-3.

(Image: Takanishi Lab/Waseda University) 

The researchers tested WR-3's ability to depress two groups of 12 rats, measured by the somewhat crude assumption that a depressed rat moves around less. Rats in group A were constantly harassed by their robot counterpart, while the other rats were attacked intermittently and automatically by WR-3, whenever they moved. Ishii's team found that the deepest depression was triggered by intermittent attacks on a mature rat that had been constantly harassed in its youth.

The team say they plan to test their new model of depression against more conventional systems, like forced swimming.

The robot has been developed just as new research by Junhee Seok of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues shows that the use of mouse models for human conditions has led researchers trying to find treatments for sepsis, burns and trauma astray at a cost of billions of tax dollars.

Journal reference: Advanced Robotics, DOI: 10.1080/01691864.2013.752319

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Thailand warns of possible threat to US consulate

BANGKOK: Thailand said on Tuesday that it had tightened security around the US consulate in the northern city of Chiang Mai in response to warnings of a possible terrorist threat.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she had "instructed security officials to step up security protection" at the diplomatic facility.

"The US embassy did not make any special request but we have to be vigilant and cannot be reckless," she told reporters.

A Thai senior intelligence official who did not want to be named said the government had received information late last week about a possible threat.

"We have learned that Al-Qaeda linked Salafists (ultra-orthodox Islamists) may be planning an attack on the US consulate in Chiang Mai," he told AFP.

"It's difficult to find them because there are a lot of tourists in Chiang Mai and also it's hard for them to find weapons to mount an attack," he said.

The heightened security comes as Thailand and the United States stage 11 days of annual joint military exercises known as Cobra Gold.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Bangkok, Walter Braunohler, declined to comment on the reported threat but said the consulate in Chiang Mai was open as usual.

"We continue to take every precaution necessary," he added.

- AFP/al

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Defiant North Koreans hail third nuclear blast

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: China says it "resolutely opposes" the nuclear test


• Obama calls the test "highly provocative," calls for "swift" international action


• North Korea confirms it carried out a more powerful test


• The test is "a significant step forward" for the North's program, an analyst says

Hong Kong (CNN) -- North Korea said Tuesday that it had conducted a new, more powerful underground nuclear test using more sophisticated technology, jolting the already fragile security situation in Northeast Asia and drawing condemnation from around the globe.

It is the first nuclear test carried out under the North's young leader, Kim Jong Un, who appears to be sticking closely to his father's policy of building up the isolated state's military deterrent to keep its foes at bay, shrugging off the resulting international condemnation and sanctions.

What happens with an underground nuclear test?

Although Pyongyang had announced plans for the test in recent, vitriolic statements, its decision to go ahead with it provided a stark reminder of a seemingly intractable foreign policy challenge for President Barack Obama ahead of his State of the Union address later Tuesday.

The test was designed "to defend the country's security and sovereignty in the face of the ferocious hostile act of the U.S.," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, referring to new U.S.-led sanctions on Pyongyang in the wake of a recent long-range rocket launch.

Why is North Korea obsessed with rockets?

The nuclear test Tuesday, which follows previous detonations by the North in 2006 and 2009, had greater explosive force and involved the use of a smaller, lighter device, KCNA reported.

North Korea's nuclear program is shrouded in secrecy, so it's almost impossible to independently verify many of the details of the test. But its claims play into fears among the United States and its allies that Pyongyang is moving closer to the kind of miniaturized nuclear device that it can mount on a long-range missile.

Despite the North's claims of progress Tuesday, analysts say they believe it is still years away from having the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead on a missile.

"This test isn't going to do that in and of itself, but it is a significant step forward," said Mike Chinoy, a senior follow at the University of Southern California's U.S.-China Institute.

Condemnation from world leaders

After Pyongyang confirmed it had gone ahead with the test in defiance of international pressure, world leaders responded with condemnation.

"This is a highly provocative act" that threatens regional stability, breaches U.N. resolutions and increases the risk of proliferation, Obama said in a statement.

Five things to know about North Korea's planned nuclear test

"North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to U.S. national security and to international peace and security," he said, calling for "further swift and credible action by the international community."

"It is a clear and grave violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions," the office of Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, said in a statement referring to the test.

The United Nations Security Council will meet in New York on Tuesday morning to discuss the development, a security council diplomat said, declining to be identified because of U.N. protocol on such matters.

South Korea, which chairs the Security Council at the moment, said the test presented "an unforgivable threat to the Korean peninsula's peace and safety."

"North Korea should be responsible for all the serious consequences brought by such an action," said Chun Young-woo, national security adviser to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who is near the end of his term in office.

The China question

Perhaps the most closely watched reaction came from China, North Korea's main ally and the source of crucial economic and political support to the regime in Pyongyang.

The Chinese foreign ministry said it "resolutely opposes" the North's latest test, which it noted had taken place "despite the international community's widespread opposition."

It said it "strongly" urged North Korean officials to "to abide by their promise to denuclearize and take no further action that will worsen the situation."

Watch: China's role in Korean crisis

The real question, though, is whether Beijing will support significantly tougher measures against its smaller neighbor following the test, something it has refrained from doing in the past.

"The Chinese don't like the idea of international sanctions and coercing other countries," Chinoy said. "They still have a strategic interest in maintaining a viable separate North Korea as a buffer against a pro-U.S. South Korea, and that has only become more important as tensions between the U.S. and China have increased."

Recent opinion articles published in the state-run Chinese newspaper Global Times suggested Beijing's patience with North Korea may be wearing thin and raised the prospect of reducing support to Pyongyang.

But with fears in Beijing of what a possible collapse of the North Korean regime could bring, strong measures appear unlikely for the time being.

"I think the key with China right now is that they are necessary to a solution, but we can't expect them to solve the problem for us," said Philip Yun, executive director of the Ploughshares Fund, a U.S.-based foundation that seeks to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

Seismic activity

Indications that the test had taken place first emerged when U.S. seismologists reported a disturbance on Tuesday morning in North Korea centered near the site of the secretive regime's two previous atomic blasts.

The area around the epicenter of the tremor in northeastern North Korea has little or no history of earthquakes or natural seismic hazards, according to U.S. Geological Survey maps.

The disturbance reported Tuesday had a magnitude of 5.1 -- upgraded from an initial estimate of 4.9 -- took place at a depth of about 1 kilometer, the USGS said.

Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South Korean defense ministry, said the magnitude of the "artificial tremor" suggested the size of the blast could be in the order of 6 to 7 kilotons, more powerful than the North's two prior nuclear tests.

That calculation, though, was based on the USGS's initial estimate of a 4.9-magnitude seismic disturbance, he said. A 5.1-magnitude tremor could indicate a 10 kiloton explosion.

News breaks amid key dates in Northeast Asia

The test took place at a time when several East Asian countries, including China, North Korea's major ally, are observing public holidays for the Lunar New Year, which began Sunday.

It also comes ahead of significant dates in both North and South Korea.

On Saturday, North Koreans will celebrate the birthday of Kim Jong Il, the former North Korean leader who died in December 2011 after 17 years in power and was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un.

Watch: What North Korea can actually do

And on February 25, the South Korea president-elect, Park Geun-hye, will take office. She had campaigned on a pledge to seek increased dialog with the North, but Pyongyang's recent moves have left her little room for maneuver.

In a statement Tuesday, Park condemned the nuclear test, saying it harmed ties between the two Koreas.

North Korea announced last month that it was planning a new nuclear test and more long-range rocket launches, all of which it said were part of a new phase of confrontation with the United States.

It made the threats two days after the United Nations Security Council had approved the broadening of sanctions on the reclusive, Stalinist regime in response to the North's launching of a long-range rocket in December that apparently succeeded in putting a satellite in orbit.

Pyongyang said it carried out the launch for peaceful purposes, but it was widely considered to be a test of ballistic missile technology.

Threats against the U.S.?

The North's recent propaganda has used words and images that imply a threat to the United States, but analysts dismiss the prospect that Pyongyang is willing or able to carry out a military attack on U.S. soil.

The latest nuclear test is worrying in military terms, Chinoy said, "but does this mean they can drop a nuclear weapon on Los Angeles? Absolutely not. The notion that they are going to target the U.S. is way off the mark."

U.S. analysts say North Korea's first bomb test, in October 2006, produced an explosive yield at less than 1 kiloton (1,000 tons) of TNT. A second test in May 2009 is believed to have been about two kilotons, National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate committee in 2012.

By comparison, the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 was a 15-kiloton device.

The North's latest test on Tuesday suggests they have made a notable step forward in terms of power, said Jeffrey Lewis, East Asia director at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, part of the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

"They were pretty clear they were going to up the yield a lot," Lewis said, and it "looks like they've done that."

He also warned that Kim Jong Un's regime may not be ready to relinquish the headlines yet, suggesting that a second test remained a possibility and could potentially happen within a few days.

In a commentary last week, the North's KCNA said that Pyongyang had "drawn a final conclusion that it will have to take a measure stronger than a nuclear test to cope with the hostile forces' nuclear war moves."

It didn't elaborate on what would be stronger than a nuclear test.

CNN's Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's K.J. Kwon in Seoul, South Korea; Yoko Wakatsuki and Junko Ogura in Tokyo; Judy Kwon in Hong Kong; Dana Ford and Matt Smith in Atlanta, Georgia; Anna Maja Rappard in New York; and Elise Labott in Washington contributed to this report. Journalists Katie Hunt in Hong Kong and Connie Young in Beijing also contributed reporting.

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State of the Union guests reflect nation's hot-button issues

Several lawmakers are bringing special guests to President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night in order to make a statement.

Several lawmakers are bringing guests to help underscore the importance of gun control. More than 20 House Democrats are bringing guests who have been personally affected by gun violence. A bipartisan pair of Arizona lawmakers, meanwhile, will host former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband Mark Kelly.

Other lawmakers are bringing guests tied to issues like immigration and voting rights.

Below is a partial list of officials and the guests they are bringing. CBS News will update the list as more guests are confirmed:

First Lady Michelle Obama:

• Lt. Brian Murphy, who was wounded while responding to the Sikh Temple shooting last August in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. He was struck by 15 bullets.
• Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton and Nathaniel Pendleton Sr., parents of 15-year-old Hadiya who was killed in a Chicago park.
• Desiline Victor, a 103-year-old Florida woman who waited in line for several hours to vote.
• Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.

House Minority Leader Pelosi:

• Mother and daughter from Newtown, Conn. The 4th grader sent Pelosi a letter asking for her support to strengthen gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz.:

• Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband Mark Kelly

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas:

• Musician and gun advocate Ted Nugent

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn.:

• First Selectwoman Pat Llodra, a Republican and the Chief Executive Officer of Newtown
• Newtown Detectives Jason Frank and Dan McAnaspie, two of several first responders who rushed to Sandy Hook Elementary School on the day of the tragedy

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.:

• Undocumented immigrant Gabino Sanchez. The South Carolina husband and father of two U.S. citizen children is fighting deportation. Sanchez entered the country when he was 15 years old and has been working and living peacefully in the U.S. ever since.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.:

• Josh Stepakoff, who in 1999 was shot at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, Calif. Stepakoff, now 20, is a student at California State University Northridge.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.:

• Matt Gross, a New Jersey native who was shot in the head in 1997, at the age of 27. Gross was one of several victims wounded during a shooting attack on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

More House Democrats bringing guests affected by gun violence:

Rep. Jim Langevin, R.I.

Rep. Keith Ellison, Minn.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, N.Y.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Conn.

Rep. David Cicilline, R.I.

Rep. Diana DeGette, Colo.

Rep. Tammy Duckworth, Ill.

Rep. Elizabeth Esty, Conn.

Rep. Lois Frankel, Fla.

Rep. Lujan Grisham, N.M.

Rep. Janice Hahn, Calif.

Rep. Jim Himes, Conn.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal, Calif.

Rep. Gloria Negrete-McLeod, Calif.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter, Colo.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Ill.

Rep. Brad Schneider, Ill.

Rep. Bobby Scott, Va.

Rep. Mike Thompson, Calif.

Rep. Krysten Sinema, Ariz.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Md.

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North Korea Says it Has Conducted a Nuclear Test

North Korea says it has successfully tested a miniaturized nuclear device Tuesday, according to state media.

A large tremor measured at magnitude 4.9 was detected in North Korea and governments in the region scrambled to determine whether it was a nuclear test that the North Korean regime has vowed to carry out despite international protests.

Official state media said the test was conducted in a safe manner and is aimed at coping with "outrageous" U.S. hostility that "violently" undermines the North's peaceful, sovereign rights to launch satellites. Unlike previous tests, North Korea used a powerful explosive nuclear bomb that is smaller and lighter, state media reported.

President Obama called the test "a highly provocative act" in a statement Tuesday morning.

"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community. The United States will also continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies,"Obama said.

"The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and steadfast in our defense commitments to allies in the region," he added.

The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on North Korea's nuclear test later this morning.

Suspicions were aroused when the U.S. Geological Survey said it had detected a magnitude 4.9 earthquake Tuesday in North Korea.

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization told ABC News, "We confirm that a suspicious seismic event has taken place in North Korea."

North Korea Threatens More Nuclear Tests, Warns U.S. Watch Video

"The event shows clear explosion-like characteristics and its location is roughly congruent with the 2006 and 2009 DPRK (North Korea) nuclear tests," said Tibor Toth, executive secretary of the organization.

"If confirmed as a nuclear test, this act would constitute a clear threat to international peace and security, and challenges efforts made to strengthen global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation," Toth said in a statement on the organization's web site.

Kim Min-seok, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, told reporters that North Korea informed United States and China that it intended to carry out another nuclear test, according to the AP. But U.S. officials did not respond to calls from ABC News Monday night.

The seismic force measured 6 to 7 kilotons, according to South Korea.

"Now that's an absolutely huge explosion by conventional terms. It's a smallish, but not tiny explosion by nuclear terms. It's about two-thirds the size of the bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima," James Acton, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told ABC News.

North Korea threatened in January to carry out a "higher-level" test following the successful Dec. 12 launch of a long range rocket. At the time, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un said his country's weapons tests were specifically targeting the United States.

The suspicious tremor comes just hours before President Obama is to give the State of the Union address, and it marks the first diplomatic test in the region for new Secretary of State John Kerry.

Also, South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, is scheduled to be sworn in on Feb. 25. One of North Korea's biggest holidays, Kim Jong-il's birthday, falls on Feb. 16.

China, North Korea's main ally in the region, has warned North Korea it would cut back severely needed food assistance if it carried out a test. Each year China donates approximately half of the food North Korea lacks to feed its people and half of all oil the country consumes.

Both of North Korea's previous tests used a plutonium-based method for making bomb fuel. The first was deemed a failure, the second only slightly less so. If the most recent test used HEU (highly enriched uranium), a far more difficult-to-detect method of producing bomb fuel, it would be a significant and worrisome step forward for North Korea's weapons program.

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Can the internet revive US democracy?

Jim Giles, consultant

Tech-savvy campaigns get mixed results, as the Arab Spring shows (Image: William Dupuy/Picturetank)

Gavin Newsom's Citizenville shows that technology can empower people, but the book fails to explore deep-rooted problems within the democratic process

THERE'S a lot of crime in Oakland, California. But until a few years ago, citizens had little way of assessing the scale of the problem. Then Michal Migurski hurt his back. It was Christmas 2006 and Migurski, a computer programmer, was stuck at home in Oakland, looking for ways to use his time until his back healed. He knew about the area's crime problem and decided to create an online map showing where and when crimes had been committed - something local government had failed to do.

Migurski's crimespotting.org website gets enthusiastic coverage in Gavin Newsom's Citizenville, a homage to technology's ability to empower people and reform government. If committed and skilled citizens like Migurski can access official data, for example, they can create services that governments don't have time for or aren't well equipped to provide. The internet has already disrupted a swathe of industries, from journalism to telecommunications. Citizenville is packed with examples that show that it is government's turn.

For the book, Newsom - California's lieutenant governor - talked to a host of Silicon Valley luminaries, from Google founder Sergey Brin to Tim O'Reilly, tech publisher and one of the most high-profile advocates of the idea that technology can transform government. The result is a 239-page tribute to what the valley does best: suggest radical and scalable ways to do things better.

Unfortunately, Newsom's unfettered enthusiasm for the power of the internet and smartphones to transform social and governmental problems makes for a shallow read. Take his analysis of FarmVille, the incredibly successful Facebook game in which players run virtual farms. Why couldn't a similar game be used to help govern a real city, he asks? It's an intriguing idea, based in part on the argument put forward by Jane McGonigal, a game designer, that gaming can be used to solve real-world problems.

But doesn't FarmVille's appeal have much to do with its lack of real-life responsibility? Newsom only touches on this before rushing off to his next tech-inspired solution.

It's a frustrating approach because Newsom was mayor of San Francisco between 2003 and 2010, and rolled out some bold tech-based reforms during his tenure, so he is well placed to discuss the benefits and difficulties of applying technology to governance.

Some of the most interesting parts of Citizenville address ideas that did not work, like radical transparency. After becoming mayor, Newsom decided to post his diary on the web, until his chief of staff pointed out that fundraising meetings would be visible. Newsom relented, accepting that voters don't like to see politicians asking for money.

It's a great example of how technology is just part of the reform equation. To truly empower, technology will have to deal with many entrenched problems, ranging from the shameless distortions that most elected officials spout to the huge number of alienated people who don't register to vote. Any proper assessment of technology's power to change needs to do more than consider the solutions it offers. The impoverished democratic process in the US will not improve until the causes of this situation are part of the discussion.

Broader initiatives exist, of course. Political scientists who study how misinformation spreads have teamed up with technologists to create systems for reining in erroneous memes, like the claim that Barack Obama is not a US citizen. Public health experts are studying not just the internet's ability to communicate health information but also the extent to which that information changes behaviour. It is this kind of thinking, which accepts that technology is only part of the solution, that is missing from Citizenville. I was left wishing that Newsom had focused on just a few of the issues he writes about, and had taken his research beyond the confines of Silicon Valley.

This article appeared in print under the headline "There is no app for political reform"

Book information:
Citizenville: How to take the town square digital and reinvent government by Gavin Newsom and Lisa Dickey
Penguin
$25.95

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Police face flak over Kumbh Mela tragedy as organiser quits

ALLAHABAD, India : Survivors of a stampede that killed 36 people at India's Kumbh Mela on Monday blamed the tragedy on baton-charging police and the slow response of medics as the massive festival's chief organiser resigned.

The crush at a train station on Sunday evening at Allahabad marked a tragic end to the most auspicious day of the 55-day Hindu festival in the state of Uttar Pradesh which had drawn some 30 million people.

Local officials said the railings on a bridge at the station had given way, while witnesses said police had charged the crowd with heavy wooden sticks known as lathis and triggered panic among pilgrims leaving the world's biggest gathering.

"I saw the police pushing the crowd and they were ... beating the pilgrims," Abhijit Das, a 29-year-old pilgrim from West Bengal who was at the station when the disaster happened, told AFP.

There was also criticism of the response to the disaster, with relatives recounting how the emergency services took hours to reach the scene. At least 10 corpses wrapped in white sheets could be seen on a platform several hours later.

Among the victims was an eight-year-old girl called Muskaan whose distraught parents said she had died while waiting nearly two hours for help.

"Our daughter still had a pulse. Had the doctors reached in time she would have been saved, but she died before our eyes," Bedi Lal, the child's father, told the NDTV news channel.

Speaking from his hospital bed after suffering leg injuries, Shashi Bhaduri recounted the mayhem at the scene.

"Suddenly there were at least a hundred people on top of me. My legs are so badly injured that I cannot even lift them now," he said.

Apart from Muskaan, the dead included 26 women and nine men.

After the state government ordered an investigation into the tragedy, one of the driving forces behind the festival said he was resigning as a matter of honour.

"I have resigned as the chairman of the festival committee," said Mohammad Azam Khan, who is also a cabinet minister in the state.

"Although the stampede happened beyond the scope of my jurisdiction, I am deeply disturbed and step down on moral grounds," he told AFP.

Hindus believe a dip in the sacred waters of the River Ganges cleanses them of their sins. This year's Mela is enormous even by previous standards, with astrologers saying a planetary alignment seen once every 147 years made it particularly auspicious.

Police had been stretched in controlling the vast crowds as they reached their peak on Sunday, with officials saying the numbers had passed the 30 million mark by the evening.

A spokesman for the state government said the crush began after joints broke on railings attached to the bridge.

Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal attributed the accident to the sheer weight of numbers at the train station.

"There are limitations of a railway system," he told reporters. "Even if we have trains at 10-minute intervals, managing three crore (30 million) people may not be possible."

Asked about the police tactics, the minister said: "We have no evidence of lathi-charge."

The Kumbh Mela, which began last month and ends in March, takes place every 12 years in Allahabad while smaller events are held every three years in other locations around India.

In 2003, 45 people died in a stampede during the festival in the western town of Nasik.

At the Kumbh Mela on Sunday, 30,000 volunteers and 7,000 police were on duty, urging pilgrims to take one short bath and then leave the waters to make space for the flow of humanity that stretched for kilometres.

The event has its origins in Hindu mythology, which describes how a few drops of the nectar of immortality fell on the four places that host the festival - Allahabad, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar.

- AFP/ms

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