Experts poised to confirm blast

Experts poised to confirm blast

SEOUL, South Korea

With North Korea appearing set to detonate an atomic device, the U.N. agency that detected two previous tests says it is prepared to confirm an explosion when it takes place. But experts say it might be difficult to establish whether the blast is nuclear in nature.

The best indication of a test will be seismic tremors and gases released into the air, phenomena that the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty identified from previous testing.

The Vienna-based organization’s most potent detection tools are at more than 150 seismic stations across the globe. Although very small in yield, North Korea’s first test in 2006 was picked up by the CTBTO, as was a second test in 2009.

Tornado risk follows warmth

COLUMBIA, Mo.

Midwesterners who briefly had swapped puffy coats for sandals and shorts switched back Tuesday as balmy conditions gave way to severe storms that carried a risk of tornadoes, freezing rain and, later, snow.

Record-high temperatures across a swath of the central U.S. were being followed by thunderstorms and strong winds from Texas to Alabama and as far north as Michigan.

The temperature in the central Missouri college town of Columbia reached 77 degrees Monday, a record for January, and students exchanged their winter coats for shorts and flip-flops as freezing rain gave way to springlike conditions. Foul weather made a quick return, however, with a Tuesday downpour that flooded some streets near the University of Missouri campus. Early morning snow was expected today.

Police: Outdoor flare ignited fire

SANTA MARIA, Brazil

Penny-pinching by a band known for its onstage pyrotechnic displays may have cost more than 230 people their lives at a nightclub in southern Brazil, according to a police inspector leading the investigation into this weekend’s deadly blaze.

Inspector Marcelo Arigony told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that members of the band knowingly purchased flares meant for outdoor use because they cost a mere $1.25 a piece, compared with the $35 price tag for an indoor flare.

Judge: Release Boy Scout files

MINNEAPOLIS

A Minnesota judge Tuesday ordered the handover of confidential national Boy Scout records on sexual abuse from 1999 to 2008 in a move attorneys said could add to the body of evidence showing that the organization failed to take adequate steps to protect young people from molesters in its ranks.

Ramsey County District Judge Elena Ostby issued the order in a lawsuit involving former suburban Minneapolis scoutmaster Peter Stibal II, who is serving a 21-year prison sentence for molesting four Scouts in his troop. The lawsuit was filed by one of his victims.

CDC: Vaccination levels too low

LOS ANGELES

Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that vaccination coverage levels in U.S. adults were “unacceptably low,” and that public-health workers need to do more to make sure adults got immunizations to protect them from diseases including whooping cough, shingles and pneumonia.

The team, writing in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, updated statistics on vaccine coverage for those diseases as well as cervical cancer, hepatitis A and B and other preventable illnesses.

Combined dispatches