Threats from North Korea  will be met with a ‘massive military response’, US officials said last night after the rogue state announced it had carried out its most powerful nuclear test yet.

The US had ‘many options’ which could lead to the ‘annihilation’ of North Korea, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said.

‘Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming,’ Mr Mattis said.

‘Kim Jong Un should take heed of the UN Security Council’s unified voice. We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said, we have many options to do so.’

Earlier, when asked if he planned to attack Pyongyang, Donald Trump replied, ‘We’ll see’, and said he was holding a meeting with his military leaders.

Mr Trump also tweeted that talk of appeasement was pointless because North Korea ‘only understand one thing’, as the state promised further tests. 

His hard-line rhetoric was prompted by Pyongyang’s announcement that it had successfully tested a weapon up to ten times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb that could kill millions of people. Analysts say the claims should be treated with caution, but the state’s nuclear capability is clearly advancing. The UN Security Council will meet today to discuss North Korea’s test.

Yesterday’s announcement prompted international condemnation, with Prime Minister Theresa May criticising the ‘reckless’ act and urging a speeding-up of sanctions. She said North Korea’s actions posed an ‘unacceptable further threat to the international community’ and called for ‘tougher action’.

Mrs May added that she had discussed the ‘serious and grave threat these dangerous and illegal actions present’ with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during her visit to the country last week.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the announcement represented ‘a new order of threat’ before stating that ‘all options are on the table’. Yet he cautioned that there were no easy military solutions, saying North Korea could ‘basically vaporise large sections of the South Korean population’ if the West attacks. 

Kim Jong-un is plotting another ballistic test it has emerged this morning after Seoul simulated its own missile raid on the North in the wake of the dictator's hydrogen bomb test.

South Korea launched a spectacular rocket launch exercise hitting 'designated targets in the East Sea' last night in response to Pyongyang's provocative detonation.

The US warned it could launch a 'massive military response' to any threats from North Korea after the rogue state announced it had carried out its most powerful nuclear test yet.

Earlier, when asked if he planned to attack Pyongyang, Donald Trump replied, 'We'll see', and said he was holding a meeting with his military leaders. Mr Trump also tweeted that talk of appeasement was pointless because North Korea 'only understand one thing', as the state promised further tests.

His hard-line rhetoric was prompted by Pyongyang's announcement that it had successfully tested a weapon up to ten times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb that could kill millions of people. 

But this morning South Korea announced it had detected signs Kim Jong-un was preparing to carry out yet another launch - possibly of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Seoul and the US said this morning it will deploy more anti-missile defences despite a The Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system already being installed in the South. Last night, the South's military conducted a live-fire exercise simulating an attack on the north's nuclear site, hitting 'designated targets in the East Sea', the report added, quoting the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  

Pictures showed South Korean short-range Hyunmoo ballistic missiles roaring into the sky in the pale light of dawn from a launch site on the country's east coast. Authorities released video showing South Korean F-15K fighter jets firing air-to-ground missiles.

The weapons accurately hit their targets in the East Sea - the Korean name for the Sea of Japan - the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The exercise 'was carried out as a strong warning' to the North for conducting its sixth nuclear test, it added. 

The training involved long-range air-to-surface missiles and ballistic missiles.

The country is also preparing fresh military drills with its ally the United States in response to North Korea's sixth and most powerful nuclear test a day earlier.

Nearly two decades after her mother’s traumatic death, Ann Reeves is still battling to discover the truth of what happened to her at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire.

Elsie Devine was 88 and weighed just seven stone when she died on November 21, 1999, after being ‘given enough drugs to lay out a six-foot violent man’, according to her family.

A month earlier, she’d been admitted to the small community hospital, which specialised in respite care, when her daughter Ann, with whom Elsie lived, had to go to London to be with her husband while he received treatment for leukaemia.

Mrs Devine was visited daily by her son, Harry, and kept herself busy sending cards to friends and relatives.

In a card to Ann, she wrote: ‘I feel lost without you all, but never mind. The important thing to me is that you are all alright. Nothing else. I don’t get up here till 8.30 am. One day they let me stay in till lunch. All I did was watch telly.’

Two weeks later, Elsie Devine, who her family say was suffering from a kidney infection, suddenly died. An inquest into her death said that she had been given inappropriate medication at the hospital.

Over the years, using the inquest’s papers and details in her mother’s medical file, her daughter has unravelled, hour by hour, Elsie’s last days. ‘She was treated with strong opiates, and we feel it was an overdose of these that caused her death,’ says Ann, now 71.

In a formal complaint to doctors’ watchdog the General Medical Council, she has explained: ‘On November 18 1999, my mother was administered with a 25mcg fentanyl patch that was only licensed that year to be used for “chronic intractable pain due to cancer”.’

Fentanyl is a powerful painkiller which is up to 100 times more potent than morphine.

Before receiving the patch, Elsie had bathed, had her hair washed and was up and dressed, sitting talking to a doctor. She even signed her pension book. Her medical notes for that morning show she was ‘happy, no complaints. No obvious paranoia’.

Ann’s GMC complaint goes on: ‘The following morning, when our mother woke with the fentanyl patch running at full strength, she was feeling the effects of what was an overdose. She was acutely confused and, most likely, terrified. She was then injected with 50mg of chlorpromazine [a sedative used to treat paranoia and agitation], double the dose for a normal adult and far higher than what should be used on the frail elderly.

‘Fifty-five minutes later, our mum was started on a syringe driver with 40mg of midazolam, another strong sedative, pumping directly into her body. A further 40mg of diamorphine [a painkiller] was added, which is four times the recommended dose.’

Little wonder that tiny Elsie was soon close to collapse.

As Ann says today: ‘After three hours, she fell unconscious and remained in a coma for two days, until she died.

‘It was all without any logic or justification. If you take fentanyl alone, it is only prescribed for people with intractable pain, and Mum was in no pain.’

This one story is disturbing enough — but Elsie was far from alone, say other relatives of the elderly who entered Gosport Memorial never to emerge alive.

They maintain the hospital had a suspiciously high death-rate in what they call ‘end of line’ wards.

Some relatives who visited the morgue to see their loved one’s bodies say it was full. They speak of a climate of fear, with one elderly patient begging his son: ‘Get me out of here — they are trying to kill me.’

A patients’ services officer at the hospital has revealed on an NHS staff internet site that during one busy afternoon, he consoled the next of kin of eight patients who had passed away overnight. Death certificates said they had each succumbed to pneumonia.

He said some of the elderly were ‘scared to go to sleep because they were afraid they would not wake up. They were distressed and frightened about being given painkillers’.

Now 120 families are hoping that the new findings of an independent investigation — headed by the former bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, who chaired the inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster — will end their torment.

It was announced recently that the £13 million inquiry will report next spring after examining 833 death certificates issued historically at the hospital.

What are you good at or have a natural aptitude for? Forget about what you’re good at but don’t really like doing much. I’m talking about the things you have a knack for that delight or happily occupy you.

Are there things you like to do that you don’t think you’re that good at, that other people have complimented you on? Perhaps you even dismissed or rejected their enthusiasm.

After much digging and questioning (I am a passion hound) I recently discovered that one of my coachingclients loves taking pictures. She rarely picks up her camera, as she didn’t think she was any good.

I asked her to email me some favorite shots and they were fantastic. She was skeptical at first, but when I convinced her that I knew what I was talking about (I have earned income from my own photography) she could hardly contain her excitement. She finally had “permission” to fully embrace this pastime that she loves so much. Yet when I had asked about her passions in our first session, she had come up empty.

Identifying things you love that you’re good at is a great way to unearth potential passions. Don't be concerned if what you love isn't practical or common (I get very excited about the uncommon).

Please note though that you don’t have to be good at something for it to quality as a passion. You don't have to ever earn a penny of income from it either. Talent can simply be a clue. When it comes to your passions, the only thing that matters is that you enjoy them.

2) Pay attention to who makes you annoyed or jealous

Are there people doing things that are “frivolous” who annoy you? Take a closer look at that annoyance. Is the truth behind your annoyance that you really wish you could live so freely, that you didn’t have so many serious responsibilities and could be as “immature” as they are?

After a lifetime of being an overachieving do-what-everyone-expects-of-me student, when I embarked on my Mexican adventure at 33 I wanted to give myself a break and find time to pursue my freshly discovered passions for writing and dancing. Most people thought I was nuts, but my father got the angriest. He told me I was wasting my life and should let him help me set up my own clinic instead.

He pounded the kitchen table with his fist, shouting “Life isn’t supposed to be fun! When are you going to grow up like the rest of us?”        

Thankfully I ignored him, as I did everyone else who tried to discourage me.

A few years later, when it was clear that living, writing and dancing in Mexico was one of the best decisions (and careermoves) I ever made, my dad sold his business. And moved to Hawaii. To write his first novel.

I’m convinced he was largely so upset because he wanted to do what I was doing. At the time, I’m quite sure he didn’t know that. But eventually he figured it out!

3) Think of what you loved to do as a child

This is probably the simplest way to unearth what pursuits hold the potential to light up your days. Before the grown-ups get to us with their ideas, most of us know exactly who we are and what would make us happiest.

Were you obsessed with horses? Maybe you should head to a dude ranch for your next vacation.

Loved finger painting or drawing? Sign up for an art class.

Sang at the top of your lungs until people begged you to stop? Think about joining a local choir (or starting your own garage band!)

4) Notice when you lose track of time, or what you hate to stop doing

When I work at the clinic seeing a long line-up of sore throats and knees, I watch the clock all day until I’m finally done. Yet when I have a patient in front of me who is depressed or anxious or newly diagnosed with a condition that would benefit from lifestyle change, I often lose my usual urgency and spend a big chunk of time with them. Not surprisingly, my true passion is life and health coaching, where I have the luxury of time with clients and love spending great swaths of time teaching and encouraging.

I dance flamenco until my legs or body force me to stop. I also love working on my "Health and Happiness Expert" business so much that I have to force myself to stop writing and reading to sleep and eat and play. It’s reverse clock-watching – I get annoyed as time goes by! What a different world.

What would you love to spend hours doing, that you never get enough time to do? That’s a passion, and you probably need to do it more than you are.

5) See your passion hunt as a fun, joyful adventure

In my coaching and speaking work I see people putting pressure on themselves to find their passion. I do believe it’s critically important to discover and engage in things that light you up, but it’s just as important to cultivate an un-serious child-like attitude of play, wonder and adventure.

When you deliberately open yourself to noticing things you might enjoy doing, don’t be afraid of getting it wrong. It’s all an adventure, you’re learning and growing as you go. Happiness research shows that trying new things increases dopamine levels in the brain, contributing to sustained levels of contentment. So try away!

Notice what you love. Notice what makes you feel like a kid. Notice what you long to have more time for.

Make time for these things, whatever you can manage, and watch your life start to change. It’s really magical.

How have you stumbled on passions in the past? Share your story in the comments section - I'd love to know, it will surely inspire other readers and will also help me continue to help other people find theirs.

4 FOODS MOST LIKELY TO CAUSE CANCER                     1

MICROWAVE
POPCORN.  Although only microwave-popcorn bags have been proven to contain carcinogens, the contents carry their own special set of health risks. As for the packaging: Conventional microwave-popcorn bags are lined with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also called C8. Numerous animal and human studies show that exposure to PFOA significantly increases the risk of kidney, bladder, liver, pancreas and testicular cancers. On top of that, a condition called “popcorn lung” impedes breathing. Factory workers who produced microwave popcorn developed it from inhaling diacetyl, a synthetic butter flavoring. The good news? You can still enjoy microwave popcorn. Just use organic kernels, put them in a brown paper bag and lay it flat in the microwave.  2

CANNED
TOMATOES  The lining of almost all canned foods are made with a chemical called bisphenol-A, or BPA. Even minuscule exposures to BPA increase the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, infertility, early puberty, metabolic disorders and type-2 diabetes, according to the Breast Cancer Fund. But tomatoes are exceptionally dangerous because of their high acidity, which causes BPA to leach from the lining of the can into the fruit. You’re better off using fresh tomatoes when you cook a meal or, if you prepare them ahead of time, storing them in glass jars.                                                                                                 3

FARMED
SALMONMore than 60 percent of the salmon consumed in the USA is farm raised, and that’s bad. Why? Studies have shown that farmed salmon contain high levels of PCBs, mercury and dioxins — three cancer-causing chemicals. Hardly surprising when you consider that these fish are fattened up with feed that’s contaminated with chemicals, antibiotics and pesticides. And their pinkish hue? It’s dye. On top of all that, farmed salmon has much less of the stuff that makes eating wild salmon a healthy choice. They’re lower in the heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids that abound in wild specimens. Your move? Go wild when it comes to buying salmon.                                                                                                                                                 4

HYDROGENATED
OILS.       Hydrogenated oils are used to preserve processed foods, to give them an appealing look for a long as possible. The ugly truth: Those oils can influence cell membranes’ structure and flexibility, which can lead to cancer. Vegetable oils also contain high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, which can cause heart disease and increase the risk of various malignancies, particularly skin cancer. The body needs some omega-6s, but they should be balanced with omega-3s; wild salmon, mackerel and grass-fed meats are very good sources. When it comes to oil, your best bet is to use olive and coconut oils which are naturally, not chemically, extracted.

Secret networks of Freemasons have been used by organised crime gangs to corrupt the criminal justice system, according to a bombshell Metropolitan Police report leaked to The Independent.

Operation Tiberius, written in 2002, found underworld syndicates used their contacts in the controversial brotherhood to “recruit corrupted officers” inside Scotland Yard, and concluded it was one of “the most difficult aspects of organised crime corruption to proof against”.

The report – marked “Secret” – found serving officers in East Ham east London who were members of the Freemasons attempted to find out which detectives were suspected of links to organised crime from other police sources who were also members of the society. Famous for its secret handshakes, Freemasonry has long been suspected of having members who work in the criminal justice system – notably the judiciary and the police.

The political establishment and much of the media often dismiss such ideas as the work of conspiracy theorists. However, Operation Tiberius is the second secret police report revealed by The Independent in the last six months to highlight the possible issue. Project Riverside, a 2008 report on the rogue private investigations industry by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, also claimed criminals attempt to corrupt police officers through Freemason members in a bid to further their interests.

Concerns over the influence of freemasons on the criminal justice system in 1998 led former Home Secretary Jack Straw to order that all police officers and judges should declare membership of the organisation.

However, ten of Britain’s 43 police forces refused to take part and the policy was dropped under threat of legal action.  In England and Wales, the Grand Master of the Freemasons is Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. The United Grand Lodge of England declined to comment last night. 

The Independent revealed last week that Operation Tiberius found that organised crime syndicates such as the Adams family and the gang led by David Hunt were able to infiltrate the Met “at will”.

Asked to comment on the Tiberius report, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “The Metropolitan Police Service will not tolerate any behaviour by our officers and staff which could damage the trust placed in police by the public.

“We are determined to pursue corruption in all its forms and with all possible vigour.”

Nike employees continue to face poverty, harassment, dismissal and violent intimidation despite its pledge three years ago to improve conditions for the 500,000-strong global workforce.

A new report, Still Waiting For Nike To Do It, published by the San Francisco-based Global Exchange, says Nike workers still toil for excessive hours in high-pressure work environments while not earning enough to meet the basic needs of their children. he report's findings will further embarrass a company already discredited by consumer groups for exploitation of labour. 

In 1996 Nike was severely embarrassed when a US magazine featured a photograph of a young Pakistani boy sewing together a Nike football. The following year it was revealed that workers in one of its contracted factories in Vietnam were being exposed to toxic fumes at up to 177 times the Vietnamese legal limit. 

Still Waiting For Nike To Do It follows up the various promises made three years ago by Phil Knight, the company's chairman, to overhaul appalling conditions faced by the Nike workforce. 

Standing before the American National Press Club in Washington DC, Knight told journalists and trade union activists that he personally would ensure an improvement in conditions at Nike factories around the world. He promised six main improvements: 

• All Nike shoe factories would meet US air quality standards. 

• The minimum age would be raised to 18 for workers in Nike shoe factories and 16 those in for clothing factories. • Nike would include non-governmental organisations in factory monitoring, and the company would make inspection results public. 

• Nike would expand its worker education programme, with free secondary-school equivalent courses. 

• A loan programme would be expanded to benefit 4,000 families in Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand. 

• Research on responsible business practices would be funded at four universities. 

The Global Exchange report concludes, however, that the projects Knight announced have been of 'little benefit to Nike workers' or 'have helped only a tiny minority, or else have no relevance to Nike factories at all'. And while the report's authors find that 'the education programme has ex-panded, wages paid in Nike factories are so low that the great majority of workers cannot afford to give up overtime income in order to take one of the courses'. While its $9 billion turnover in 2000 was an increase of 2.5 per cent on the year before, sales of Nike products fell by nearly 8 per cent in 1999. And as rival shoemaker Reebok has seen its share price rise from $8 to $30 in the past year, Nike's stock has fallen by 15 per cent. 

In February, Nike issued a report confessing the company's role in facilitating worker exploitation. It uncovered the exchange of sexual favours for jobs at factories in Indonesia. The company - which sponsors sports celeb rities such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods - revealed that 30 per cent of the employees interviewed at Nike franchises in Indonesia had been abused verbally. 

Jason Mark, of Global Exchange, said: 'The key to solving many of Nike's problems would be to pay a living wage that allowed workers to save money, raise a family and move up to their society's middle class. Nike says they can't find a formula because it's different for every country. It's an assumption that's convenient for them, because it allows them to pay lower wages.