Breaking News Thread

[Flynbyu]

LONDON, England (CNN) -- "Why do I find it hard to write the next line?" If you recognize the lyric then brace yourself for some good news.



Spandau Ballet, pictured aboard HMS Belfast, on Wednesday.

Twenty years since their acrimonious split, Spandau Ballet -- the pin-up boys who helped shaped the sound of 1980s glam pop -- have announced the first dates of what band members say will be a full world tour.

The Tony Hadley-fronted band, who enjoyed worldwide success with hits such as "True" and "Gold," will launch their comeback in Dublin, Ireland, on October 13 before playing seven dates across the UK.

Wednesday's announcement took place onboard HMS Belfast, a retired Royal Navy moored in the Thames that was the scene of a key early gig by the band in 1980 that launched them on the road to global stardom.

"It is impossible to stress too highly how achingly fashionable Spandau Ballet were in the winter of 1979 and the summer of 1980," GQ magazine editor Dylan Jones writes in a biography of the band.

Formed at a London school in 1979, Spandau Ballet went on to sell 25 million records worldwide, emerging out of the post-punk "New Romantic" music scene.

Along with fellow British band Duran Duran, their sound, style and attitude came to define an era dominated by ostentatious glamour, gold lame suits and big hair.

"Not only did their albums sell by the millions, but their look and style impacted on the fashion world and beyond," said a press release, summing up the band's influence on the decade.

"They created their own style, combining creativity with entrepreneurship and the 'can do' spirit of early 80s youth at a time of crisis and upheaval eerily reminiscent of 2009. Spandau Ballet are both commercially and culturally enormous."

Following the band's split in 1989, several members including Hadley unsuccessfully sued main songwriter Gary Kemp for a larger share of songwriting royalties.

Since then, Hadley has appeared in the London production of the hit musical "Chicago" and also won an 80s revivalist reality TV show "Reborn in the USA." Several other members of the band have carved out moderately successful acting careers.


Sweeet. A world tour.



~Brian

[Krandall]

Robber fatally shot in Miami Burger King holdup
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/966133.html


An afternoon shootout at a busy Burger King restaurant in Miami left a potential robber dead and the customer who shot him seriously wounded.

The bloody event unfolded about 4 p.m. Tuesday at the restaurant at Northeast 54th Street and Biscayne Boulevard. It was a time, employees said, when it is usually crowded with schoolchildren and people getting out of work early.

The robber entered wearing a ski mask. He approached a clerk, showed his gun and demanded money, said Miami police spokesman Jeff Giordano.

A customer eyed him and the two started arguing. The customer had a concealed-weapons permit and his gun -- and the two exchanged gunfire.

The robber crumpled to the floor and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The customer, with several gunshot wounds, was in serious but stable condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center.

Officers divided witnesses into several groups outside the restaurant to gather information about the incident. Employees waiting to start their shift called friends and family members on their cellphones to pass the time because they were not allowed through the police tape.

''I just hope all my people are OK inside,'' said Cynthia Thomas, who has worked at the Burger King for five years. ``It is scary.''

Around them, drivers on busy Biscayne Boulevard gawked at the scene.

The area is a prime destination for residents in the Upper East Side neighborhood -- featuring Soyka's restaurant, Sushi Siam and Andiamo Pizza.

[Flynbyu]

Even i the nice part of town shit goes down.

~Brian

[Krandall]

North Korea readies missile, makes new threat
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090326/ts_nm/us_korea_north_missile


SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea said on Thursday that if the international community punishes it for next month's planned missile launch it will restart a nuclear plant that makes weapons grade plutonium.

The secretive state this week put a long-range missile in place for a launch the United States warned would violate U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for past weapons tests.

The planned launch, seen by some countries as a disguised military exercise, is the first big test for U.S. President Barack Obama in dealing with the prickly North, whose efforts to build a nuclear arsenal have long plagued ties with Washington.

North Korea warned that any action by the U.N. Security Council to punish it would be a "hostile act."

" ... All the processes for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula ... will be brought back to what used to be before their start and necessary strong measures will be taken," the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in comments carried by the official KCNA news agency.

North Korea has frozen its aging nuclear reactor and started to take apart its Yongbyon atomic plant under a deal signed by regional powers in 2005 that called for economic aid and better diplomatic standing for the isolated North in return. Despite the agreement, the North carried out a nuclear test in 2006.

The South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo quoted a diplomatic source as saying the North could fire its Taepodong-2 missile, which has the range to hit U.S. territory, by the weekend.

This is earlier than the April 4-8 timeframe Pyongyang announced for what it says is the launch of a satellite.

"Technically a launch is possible within three to four days," the Chosun Ilbo quoted a diplomatic source in Seoul as saying.

South Korea said the launch would be a serious challenge to security in north Asia, which accounts for one sixth of the global economy. Japan urged North Korea to refrain from action that would destabilize the region.

"We strongly urge the North to immediately stop the launch of a long-range missile, which would be a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution 1718," South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters.

ROCKET ON THE PAD

On Wednesday, a U.S. counter-proliferation official told Reuters that North Korea appeared to have positioned the rocket on its launch pad.

Another U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said North Korea had placed together two stages of what is expected to be a three-stage rocket.

Once it has been positioned, North Korea will need several days to fuel the rocket which could, in theory, carry a warhead as far as Alaska. The only previous test of the rocket in 2006 ended in failure when it blew apart seconds after lift-off.

South Korea plans to dispatch an advanced destroyer capable of tracking and shooting down missiles to waters off the east coast, Yonhap news agency quoted government sources as saying.

The planned launch and growing tension on the Korean peninsula are beginning to worry financial markets in the South, although so far there has been only minor impact.

"If they really fire something, it would definitely shake the financial markets, but only briefly, as has been the case in many previous cases of provocation and clashes," said Jung Sung-min, a fixed-income analyst at Eugene Futures.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a visit to Mexico, said the launch would deal a blow to six-party talks to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

Those talks sputtered to a halt in December over disagreement on how to check the North was disabling its nuclear facilities.

"This provocative action ... will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences," she told reporters, repeating earlier warnings it could put the issue before the U.N. Security Council for additional sanctions.

Pyongyang repeated its threat on Thursday to quit the six-party talks, which also involve South Korea, Russia, Japan, the United States and China, if it was punished.

CHINA TO BLOCK MORE SANCTIONS?

North Korea faces a range of U.N. sanctions and many analysts doubt new ones would get past China -- the nearest Pyongyang has to a powerful ally -- in the Security Council.

China, sticking to its low-key approach, said it hoped all "relevant parties will remain restrained and calm."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cautioned the international community against making rash decisions.

"Do not try to make evaluations before events have occurred," he said in Moscow, while noting U.N. Security Council resolutions should be adhered to.

A successful launch would be a huge boost at home to leader Kim Jong-il, whose illness last year -- widely thought to have been a stroke -- has raised questions over his grip on power.

North Korea has given international agencies notice of the rocket's planned trajectory that would take it over Japan, dropping booster stages to its east and west.

The U.S. military has said it could with "high probability" intercept any North Korean missile heading for U.S. territory, if ordered to do so. Pyongyang says any attempt to shoot down the rocket would be an act of war.

(Additional reporting by Randall Mikkelsen and Paul Eckert in WASHINGTON, Arshad Mohammed in MEXICO CITY, and Jack Kim, Jon Herskovitz, Yoo Choonsik and Seo Eun-kyung in SEOUL; Editing by Dean Yates)

[FoundArealQuad]

Empty threats.

[Krandall]

Empty threats.

Yea.. But there's always the potential..

[FoundArealQuad]

True once, or if we pull out of the middle east they will calm down again. It would be nice if South Korea could beef up their own military.

[Krandall]

or if ANYONE ELSE could beef uip their military... We're always flexin our muscles.

[Flynbyu]

We have technology to knock their missile out of the sky. If it does reach Alaska, could they please take out Palin?



~Brian

[disco]

We should shoot it down once it clears their borders. 

[Flynbyu]

They've saay they are launching a satellite.

~Brian

[Peelz]

We have technology to knock their missile out of the sky. If it does reach Alaska, could they please take out Palin?



~Brian

as long as it is equipped with ignorance radar. 

[Flynbyu]

+1

No doubt.

~Brian

[Krandall]

Man lifts meat with his beard
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/cltv-beard-lift-gallery,0,2685938.photogallery

Eamon Daly turned to his fearsome facial hair to lift things - and your spirit! For every $100 raised for his charity of choice - the Off The Street Club - the amateur stuntman adds another pound to his weekly beard-breaking lift. Jax caught up with Eamon at Wild Dogz in Evanston, where Week 6 meant suspending 42 lbs of gyros meat from his face. Help him get to $5000 by donating at ThingsMyBeardCanLift.com.

[disco]

What would they do if we space-jacked their satellite and brought it home in the Space Shuttle?  That would be awesome. 

Man lifts meat with his beard
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/cltv-beard-lift-gallery,0,2685938.photogallery

Eamon Daly turned to his fearsome facial hair to lift things - and your spirit! For every $100 raised for his charity of choice - the Off The Street Club - the amateur stuntman adds another pound to his weekly beard-breaking lift. Jax caught up with Eamon at Wild Dogz in Evanston, where Week 6 meant suspending 42 lbs of gyros meat from his face. Help him get to $5000 by donating at ThingsMyBeardCanLift.com.

Pay enough money and you watch his beard get ripped from his face.  I need to win the lotto.