Chatter: US sends in reinforcements after North Korean threats

NEED TO KNOW

Things just got real on the Korean Peninsula. The US is sending reinforcements to its Pacific territories after North Korea's army said it had the green light to launch "merciless" attacks on American soil. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered missile interceptors deployed in Guam, one of the targets North Korea has vowed to strike, saying that "we have to take those threats seriously."

US military bases in the region are thought to be within range of North Korea's mid-range missiles, along with allies South Korea and Japan. South Korean officials say they've spotted what appears to be one such missile on North Korea's east coast.

"The US had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation," Pyongyang warned today. You can bet it's doing that.

WANT TO KNOW

Argentina is flooded. Rescue teams continue to search for people stranded by flash flooding that has already claimed more than 50 victims. When a "tsunami of rain" dumped as much as 16 inches of water on the cities of Buenos Aires and La Plata late on Tuesday, residents took shelter anywhere they could find it – on rooftops, in trees, on the tops of public buses – and many are still feared trapped. Thousands more have taken refuge in emergency shelters.

The government has declared three days of nationwide mourning for what it calls "an unprecedented catastrophe."

Connecticut controls its guns. The state has just approved some of the toughest gun laws in the entire US, mandating background checks for all buyers, expanding a ban on assualt weapons, and outlawing high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The nation's strictest gun bill comes four months after "the nation's worst nightmare," the shooting at Connecticut's Sandy Hook elementary school that left 20 children and six teachers dead. "No one is claiming that this bill will prevent all mass killings," admitted one state senator. "But to say that we should do nothing? That is wrong."

"We must deal with everything alone." Syria's war has taken one of its hardest tolls on Syria's women. Across the country, tens of thousands of women have lost their husbands, children, homes and lives. Thousands more live in tents amid the mud and misery of border camps.

GlobalPost meets some of the Syrian women suffering most from a conflict that shows no sign of stopping.

STRANGE BUT TRUE

Oh look, a hellmouth. Archeologists believe they've found an actual, ancient highway to hell in southwest Turkey. The research team says it has tracked down the storied cave of Plutonium, believed by Greeks and Romans to be a portal to Hades, at the ancient site of Hierapolis.

Early Christian rampages and several earthquakes later, the cave is no longer in prime infernal condition – though inscriptions to the underworld rulers, as well as steps leading into its depths, remain visible. Horns and hair are optional.