The rocket broke up soon after taking off.

“All indications are that it failed,” one official said but went on to say that they are still looking into it.

The White House said it would issue a statement, NBC News reported.

The launch, which North Korea’s neighbors and the West say is a disguised ballistic missile test, was to take a three-stage rocket over a sea separating the Korean peninsula from China before releasing a weather satellite into orbit when the third stage fires over waters near the Philippines.

Regional powers also worried it could be the prelude to another nuclear test, such as one the hermit state conducted in 2009.

The South Korean Defense Ministry announced that North Korea fired the long range rocket Friday morning around 7:38 a.m. The ministry later also said the rocket broke into several pieces in the air a few minutes after launch, based on joint intelligence from South Korea and the United States.

North Korea had announced it was planning the launch of an observation satellite to celebrate Sunday’s centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder.

“There is not a lot of information being disseminated at this point,” said Richard Engel, NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent, who is in North Korea. “But we did hear just a short while ago after the launch took place, after it was confirmed internationally, some martial music playing in the street, some fighter jets flying overhead. This is a national celebration time in North Korea and this rocket launch and this satellite launch, as the government describes it, is seen as a source of pride.”

The Japanese Defense Minister said early Friday that the North Korea rocket test had no effect on Japanese territory.

The U.S. earlier canceled food aid when North Korea announced the rocket test, despite Pyongyang’s February agreement to suspend all tests in exchange for food, NBC News reported.

Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after meeting with G8 foreign ministers that the U.S. would be going to the UN Security Council to seek action. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice is the rotating President of the Security Council and controls when to call a meeting.

The White House said it would issue a statement, NBC News reported.

The launch, which North Korea’s neighbors and the West say is a disguised ballistic missile test, will take a three-stage rocket over a sea separating the Korean peninsula from China before releasing a weather satellite into orbit when the third stage fires over waters near the Philippines.

Regional powers also worry it could be the prelude to another nuclear test, a pattern the hermit state set in 2009.

The South Korean Defense Ministry announced that North Korea fired the long range rocket around Friday morning around 7:38 a.m. and the success of the launch was being tracked by the joint military of South Korea and United States.

The launch is set to take place between Thursday and next Monday and has prompted neighbors such as the Philippines to re-route their air traffic just in case.

Japan said it would shoot down the rocket if it crossed its airspace.

The launch of the Unha-3 rocket, which North Korea says will merely put a weather satellite into space, breaches U.N. sanctions imposed to prevent Pyongyang from developing a missile that could carry a nuclear warhead.

“This launch will give credence to the view that North Korean leaders see improved relations with the outside world as a threat to their system,” Clinton told cadets at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

“And recent history strongly suggests that additional provocations may follow.”

She also called on China to do more to ensure regional stability.

China, impoverished North Korea’s only major ally, on Tuesday reiterated its pleas for calm and said it had “repeatedly expressed its concern and anxiety about the developments”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a press briefing in Beijing.

State Attorney Angela Corey’s decision is not to be considered a factor in whether charges are eventually brought against George Zimmerman, Corey’s office said in a statement.

The grand jury, which was previously scheduled by the prosecutor, was set to convene on Tuesday.

Martin, a 17-year-old from Miami Gardens, was shot to death by Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, at a gated community in Sanford on Feb. 26.

The winning Illinois ticket — a quick pick sold at the Moto Mart in Red Bud, Illinois — is worth $213.3 million, according to the Illinois lottery.

The winning Maryland ticket was sold in Baltimore County, the Maryland Lottery said Saturday.

The winning numbers were 2, 4, 23, 38, 46 with a Mega Ball of 23.

California Lottery Commission spokesman Alex Traverso said 29 tickets sold in that state matched five of the six winning numbers. He said the payout will be about $125,000 to $130,000.

The multistate jackpot caused long lines at convenience stores, with many dreaming of creative ways to quit their jobs if they get the lucky numbers.

Sales skyrocketed at Manhattan Tobacco, a New York convenience store, cashier Alex Shanahe said. He said the store has proved to be lucky before, having sold winning tickets of $3 million and $5 million.

“The sales have tripled. Everybody wants to win the Mega Millions,” Shanahe said before the drawing.

A single winner could claim yearly payments or a one-time cash option of $462 million, Mega Millions spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said.

Carole Everett, director of communications for the Maryland Lottery, told the AP the winning Mega Millions ticket was purchased at a Baltimore County store. She said it’s too early to know any other information about the lucky ticket-holder or whether others were sold elsewhere in the nation.

The winning numbers for the Mega Millions prize were 46, 23, 38, 4, 2; mega ball was 23, lottery officials said late Friday.

Forensic experts say newly released video by police of the man who shot Trayvon Martin raises more questions than it answers — but that’s not stopping droves of amateur sleuths on TV, Twitter and Facebook from scrutinizing it anyway.

“I think the public should not draw any conclusions from this at all,” said Grant Fredericks, who once headed the forensic video unit for the Vancouver (British Columbia) Police Department.

The video should be just a fraction of the evidence available to police as they investigate George Zimmerman’s claim that he shot and killed Trayvon, 17, after the teenager allegedly punched the neighborhood watch volunteer in the nose and slammed his head against the ground, Fredericks said.

The Feb. 26 shooting in Sanford, Fla., has brought national attention because Trayvon’s family claims Zimmerman killed the unarmed youth after racially stereotyping him. Trayvon was black. Police say Zimmerman is white; his family says he is Hispanic.

Zimmerman’s brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr., told CNN Thursday that reports his brother was chasing the teen are “absolutely false” and that he “was not patrolling the neighborhood. He was going to a store, Target.”

Robert Zimmerman said the voice heard screaming on 911 tapes is that of his brother, who acted to save his own life. He said George Zimmerman “was very disappointed that none of the neighbors had come out” to help him. He said his brother would have been dead “if he had not acted decisively and instantaneously.”

The police security camera video shows Zimmerman exiting a patrol car and entering the Sanford Police Department about 35 minutes after the shooting. Images of Zimmerman’s head and face reveal no obvious cuts or gashes, but at one point, a police officer inspects the back of his head. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Craig Sonner, told NBC’s Today the video supports his client’s story because the officer may have been looking at an injury.

The public weighed in on social media sites. Many expressed disbelief at Zimmerman’s claim that he fired in self-defense, and pointed to the grainy video as proof.

Trayvon’s family and supporters say Zimmerman’s lack of apparent injury in the video shows he lied about the teen attacking him.

Forensic video expert David Notowitz, founder of the National Center for Audio and Video Forensics, says much work remains before investigators can draw evidence from the video. “Right now, people are jumping to frantic conclusions,” he said.

A cafe worker in Arizona reported selling $2,600 worth of tickets to one buyer, while a retired soldier in Wisconsin doubled his regular weekly ticket spending to $55. But each would have to put down millions more to guarantee winning what could be the biggest single lotto payout in the world.

“I feel like a fool throwing that kind of money away,” said Jesse Carter, who spent the $55 and donated the last two tickets he bought at a Milwaukee store Friday to a charity. “But it’s a chance you take in life, with anything you do.”

The jackpot, if taken as a $462 million lump sum and after federal tax withholding, works out to about $347 million. With the jackpot odds at 1 in 176 million, it would cost $176 million to buy up every combination. Under that scenario, the strategy would win $171 million less if your state also withholds taxes.

Laura Horsley, who does communications and marketing for a trade association, bought $20 worth of Quick Pick tickets at a downtown Washington, D.C., liquor store Friday. But Horsley, who said she won’t buy a lottery ticket unless the jackpot tops $100 million, remained realistic.

“I don’t actually think I’m going to win, and I don’t believe in superstitions or numbers or anything like that,” she said. “I just figured it’s right around the corner. I’d be crazy not at least to give it a shot.”

Thousands of players — who converged on convenience stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C., where Mega Millions tickets are sold — agreed.

Kelly Cripe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Lottery Commission, said that as of Tuesday, nationwide sales for the Mega Millions drawing totaled more than $839 million. Officials projected an additional $618.5 million in sales ahead of Friday’s drawing, however, for a projected total sales figure of more than $1.46 billion.

Florida prosecutors face significant hurdles building a case against the man who killed Trayvon Martin, a legal expert has told the Guardian.

Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University and a defense attorney, said the case had several “murky” elements which are likely to prove difficult for the prosecution, including within the 911 tape which appears to suggest Zimmerman was the one in pursuit of Martin.

Turley said the evidence was not nearly as conclusive of guilt as many people have assumed. “Some parts of the 911 tape would work to the disadvantage of Zimmerman, others to his advantage,” he said. “It would be a very difficult case for the prosecution without more evidence.”

It has him ignoring requests not to follow Martin but it includes a portion where he is saying that Martin is approaching him. We have heard reports that Zimmerman was bleeding as the result of a struggle. Zimmerman was a big individual and was armed. It’s difficult to believe because of his size and the fact that he was armed that he felt in imminent threat of death. But lawyers could point to the tape showing that Zimmerman believed Martin might be armed. That Martin was moving towards him and checking him out. All of that is likely to be playing to a jury with the question of intend and whether he had a reasonable fear of serious injury or death.

At one point in the tape, Zimmerman refers to Martin’s hand in his waistband.

Turley believes that the case is going to turn on classic criminal defense elements under common law, where an individual is allowed to use lethal force if they fear injury or death.

“You lose that defense if you are the aggressor or if you do not have a reasonable basis for fear or serious harm or death. Even if he is not the aggressor there will remain the question of escalation or confrontation.”

The key difficulty, said Turley, is the “maddening gap” of evidence at the critical time of confrontation.

“At what point does a physical struggle justify the use of lethal force? If I was the defense counsel in the case, the first thing I would do is the trajectory of the bullet, how close it was to Martin, where it was fired.”

Turley said the racial element is unclear. In the 911 tape, Zimmerman says “He looks black” and then says “he’s a black male”.

“The Zimmerman family have denied any racial element. On the tape he initially appears not to know the race, but then later does. All of these elements are murky.”

Nevertheless, Turley believes there was enough evidence to arrest Zimmerman and to secure an indictment.

“Police would have been on solid grounds to arrest him. You have an unarmed teenager and someone who does not comply with a request that he not follow Martin.

“That doesn’t mean there’s enough evidence to secure a conviction.”

Even under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Turley said, Zimmerman, if indicted, would still have to demonstrate he had a reasonable fear of death or serious injury.

Mary Cutcher, a resident of the Retreat at Twin Lakes community where the shooting happened tells the Miami Herald she heard crying before the shots rang out.

“I heard someone crying — not boo-hoo crying, but scared or terrified or hurt maybe,” she says. “To me, it was a child.”

So far the only official statement surrounding the incident is the one made by police, saying that they believe Neighborhood Watch member George Zimmerman’s self-defense story where he admits to trailing Martin when he spotted him in the neighborhood, approaching him, getting assaulted by him and then shooting him to protect his own life. Martin was unarmed.

“This was not self-defense,” Cutcher says. “We heard no fighting, no wrestling, no punching. We heard a boy crying. As soon as the shot went off, it stopped, which tells me it was the child crying. If it had been Zimmerman crying, it wouldn’t have stopped. If you’re hurting, you’re hurting.”

Cutcher was sitting beside an open window with her friend Selma Mora Lamilla, who says she also heard the cries, and ran outside to see Zimmerman standing over Martin’s body.

“I asked him, ‘What’s happening here? What’s going on?’ ” she tells the paper. “The third time, I was indignant, and he said, ‘just call the police.’ Then I saw him with his hands over his head in the universal sign of: ‘Oh man, I messed up.’ ”

She continues, “I know what I heard. I heard a cry and a shot. If there was a fight, it did not happen here where the boy was shot. I would have heard it, as this all happened right outside my open window.”

An eighth-grader who was walking his dog around the same time also says he heard crying.

“I saw someone lying on the ground, and I heard screaming,” says the 13-year old named “Austin” (his last name has not been published). “I don’t know that it was the person on the [ground] who was screaming, but to me it sounded like a kid who was crying. It was a yell for help, and I think it was Trayvon.”

In an interview with the Miami Herald, where Trayvon is from, his mother Sybrina Fulton says that it was not in his character to get into altercations with people, let alone adults.

“I think he felt like he was in a strange position,” she says. “He did not know who this guy was, this guy did not identify himself as a police officer or security guard. I feel like he wanted to get away from the situation and Zimmerman prevented him from doing that.”

The charges come almost two weeks after the massacre in which Bales allegedly left his base in the early morning hours and shot Afghan civilians, including women and nine children, while they slept in their beds, then burned some of the bodies.

It was the worst allegation of civilian killings by an American and has severely strained U.S.-Afghan ties at a critical time in the decade-old war.

Bales was read the charges on Friday at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he has been held since being flown from Afghanistan last week, a U.S. official said.

Bales’ civilian attorney, John Henry Browne, said Friday without commenting on the specific charges that he believes the government will have a hard time proving its case and that at some stage in the prosecution his client’s mental state will be an important issue.

First she heard, “What are you doing here?” and then a push and an altercation just before the line went dead, the attorney for the dead teen’s family said.

“I called him again and he didn’t answer the phone,” the girl said.

A recording of the girl’s account of Trayvon’s last moments were among several major developments Tuesday in the investigation into the killing of the teen by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford. Seminole County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger announced he would convene a grand jury next month to probe the case, which is now being reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

With the case becoming a national cause célèbre and racial tempers flaring, social media sites were exploding Tuesday with the belief that the teen’s killer used a racial epithet just minutes before he shot Trayvon.

“I share in the desire of the family and the community to accurately collect and evaluate all the facts surrounding the tragic death of  Trayvon Martin,” Wolfinger said in a news release. “The public is entitled to no less than a thorough, deliberate, and just review of the facts. We intend to honor that commitment.”

The Seminole County Grand Jury will be called to session on Tuesday, April 10, Wolfinger said.

He apparently died after trudging into chest-deep snow while trying to elude snow-shoe wearing SWAT team members and other police who were on his trail.

Twenty-four-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes reportedly fled to the remote park following an earlier shooting that wounded four near Seattle. Washington State Patrol spokesman Guy Gill says a body believed to be Barnes was found face down in the snow. The identity of the body has not been confirmed.

Almost all park visitors had been evacuated from the area following the Sunday slaying of Margaret Anderson. The park remained closed for a second day Monday.

Trooper Guy Gill tweets: https://twitter.com/wspd1pio

Smartphone giant Samsung saw a drop of 3.6 percent in large cap stocks. Stocks in LG Electronics also dropped 4.7 percent, and LG Display fell 5.3 percent on the Korean Exchange.

The two South Korean companies account for over 50 percent of the global LCD Panel market.

Overall, South Korean shares have fallen as much as five percent today following the death of North Korean leader.

The South Korean Won also fell 1.8 percent following the announcement, made this morning at 12 noon Pyongyang local time.

The sudden drop in shares stems from fears about the stability of the region following Jong-il’s death; a potential consequence of the leadership transition in North Korea.

South Korean companies are not the only ones that might be affected by Jong-il’s death, with Japan’s Nikkei shares average also falling to a three-week low.

“The risk or fear that the death of Kim Jong-il will lead to provocation from North Korea is pressuring selling,” said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, chief executive of Tokyo-based Investrust. “Right now, there’s going to be a sell off as part of a risk off”, he added.

Japan’s finance minister Jun Azumi also expressed concern over the drop, saying that he was monitoring the financial market after the news.

He added that the news has put regional powers on edge over the potentially tumultuous leadership transfer, as the countries collapsing economy, and nuclear ambitions could pose a big threat to north-east Asia.

The Eurozone financial crisis has already been causing instability in stocks, and has been pushing down the price of commodities under the pressure.

Gold, often considered a safe asset in unsteady financial times dropped 0.7 percent this week. The Euro also fell 0.5 percent.

With credit downgrades anticipated in Europe, it’s a bad time for further instability.

“We are moving in a positive direction,” U.S. Ambassador Stephen Bosworth said from the Kempinski Hotel in Geneva after the meeting concluded. “We have narrowed some differences but we still have differences that we have to resolve.”

At a previous meeting between the two countries in July, Washington laid out a list of things it was looking for from Pyongyang to demonstrate its seriousness about abandoning its nuclear ambitions, the State Department official told reporters last week.

One of the things the United States was seeking is North Korean engagement with South Korea, the official said, adding that a recent “constructive meeting” between the two countries helped get the parties to this point.

The State Department did not give a specific reason for Bosworth’s decision to step down, but Toner said he believes it is a “personal” decision. In addition to his role at the State Department, Bosworth has also maintained his position on the faculty at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University outside Boston.

Hart, a foreign policy adviser to the U.S. Navy and an expert on China and Taiwan, will become the new chief U.S. negotiator to the six-party talks and will report to Davies in his new role.

Libyans took to the streets to celebrate the end of a brutal era, to mark the historic day that the former strongman, once thought of as untouchable, was gone. They sighed relief that after many months of fierce fighting, the war was over. They had won what had been dubbed one of the Arab Spring’s most improbable uprisings.

Libyan interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril declared Gadhafi dead.

Also killed Thursday were Gadhafi’s son Mutassim and the chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, said Anees al Sharif, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council’s military arm in Tripoli.

A grisly video aired on the Al Jazeera Arabic network showing a lifeless Gadhafi with a wound to his head.

“I think today is a day to remember all of Col. Gadhafi’s victims,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron. “People in Libya today have an even greater chance of building themselves a strong and democratic future.”

During the Conferences, government officials, industry leaders, and experts from both Chinese and foreign mining industries have in-depth mining dialogues on questions related to the mining industry.

Conference, exhibition and featured events are the three parts that make up the China Mining Conference.  Leaders from both Chinese and foreign mining industries will present and discuss new developments, investment policies and programs for the Chinese mining industry.

Also on the agenda will be discussed, mining industry trends, the global mineral commodity market, domestic and international investment opportunities, sustainable mining development, geological surveys, mining technologies and equipment.

China Mining has developed over the years into one of the premier mining trade shows in the world. In 2011, the Congress & Expo will be celebrating the 13th annual event at Tianjin Meijing Convention Center, the hosting venue of Dovas World Economic Forum 2011.

Country pavilions, mining and exploration companies, investment and financing institutions, evaluation consultancies, (technical) service providers and equipment suppliers just to name a few on exhibit.

Featured events will include a warm welcome cocktail party, awards gala dinner and mine site visit.

The Congress & Expo will be an enhanced center of global mining communities with capital, technology, information and services welcomes you, and is looking forward to seeing you at China Mining 2011.

In nearby Licking County, Sheriff Randy Thorp said he has activated the county SWAT team “who will be equipped with night vision and the necessary weapons to deal with any encounters with such animals.”

The menagerie of about 48 animals on the loose also includes wolves, giraffes and camels.

Deputies shot dead about two dozen of them Tuesday.

Schools in at least four districts were declared closed for Wednesday, as authorities asked residents to stay inside until the rest of the animals were rounded up or killed.

Officials in eastern Ohio declared schools closed Wednesday as sheriff’s deputies equipped with night vision attempted to hunt down dozens of exotic animals — including bears, lions, tigers and cheetahs — that escaped from a preserve following the death of its owner.

On Tuesday, commuters reported spotting bears and wolves along I-70.

The animals escaped from the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville on Tuesday. Police later found the farm’s owner, Terry Thompson, dead.

Authorities did not elaborate on how Thompson died.

Microsoft boss Bill Gates said Jobs’ “profound impact” would ” be felt for many generations to come”.

Mr Gates added: “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honour. I will miss Steve immensely.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that “America lost a genius who will be remembered with Edison and Einstein, and whose ideas will shape the world for generations to come”.

Knox has since left Italy and is on her way back to the US.

She is travelling back to her hometown of Seattle on a commercial flight and is expected to land at around 0100 BST on Wednesday (0000 GMT, 1700 PDT on Tuesday).

Speaking to reporters in Perugia, where his sister was studying at the time of her death, Mr Kercher said: “We accept the decision and respect the court and the Italian justice system.

“We do find we are now left looking at this again and thinking how a decision that was so certain two years ago has been so emphatically overturned, which raises other questions.

Speaking after an Italian court cleared Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito of murder, Meredith’s brother Lyle said it felt like it was “back to square one”.

Their mother, Arline, said: “What happened to my daughter, Meredith, is every parent’s nightmare.

“Of something so terrible happening, when basically she was in the safest place, her bedroom.”

Prosecutors said Miss Kercher was killed in a brutal sex game which went wrong.

Mrs Kercher admitted she could appreciate why Knox would feel she had lost her life over the last few years.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get off scot-free,” she said. “Their lives have been disrupted – no-one is untouched by this.”

Earlier, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said he felt sympathy for the Kerchers.

“They previously had an explanation about what happened to their daughter and they don’t have that any more, and I think all of us should be thinking of them,” he said.

Miss Knox, 24, and her ex-boyfriend Mr Sollecito, 27, had spent nearly four years in jail since they were convicted of killing the 21-year-old, from Coulsdon, south London, in 2007.

American Miss Knox sobbed as the judge said the pair would walk free.

Her family said she “suffered for four years for a crime she did not commit”.

The judge upheld Miss Knox’s conviction for slander after she accused bar owner Patrick Diya Lumumba of carrying out the killing. He set the sentence at three years, time that Miss Knox has already served.

Speaking on the steps of the court, Miss Knox’s sister Deanna said: “We are thankful to the court for having the courage to look for the truth and to overturn this conviction.”

She said Miss Knox’s “nightmare was over” and asked for privacy for her family to recover from “this horrible ordeal”. -MORE

Common a $2 muffin tastes just as good as a $16, do some shopping around  like I do.

Wake up America your being duped.

A meeting at Cern, the world’s largest physics lab, has addressed results that suggest subatomic particles have gone faster than the speed of light.

The team has published its work so other scientists can determine if the approach contains any mistakes.

If it does not, one of the pillars of modern science will come tumbling down.

Antonio Ereditato added “words of caution” to his Cern presentation because of the “potentially great impact on physics” of the result.

The speed of light is widely held to be the Universe’s ultimate speed limit, and much of modern physics – as laid out in part by Albert Einstein in his theory of special relativity – depends on the idea that nothing can exceed it.

Thousands of experiments have been undertaken to measure it ever more precisely, and no result has ever spotted a particle breaking the limit. – MORE

The execution followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of a stay, allowing the state to proceed. Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. ET.

Until the very end, Davis maintained his innocence.

After he was strapped to the death gurney, he lifted his head to address the family of the slain officer.

He told the family of Mark MacPhail that he was not responsible for the officer’s death and did not have a gun at the time, according to execution witnesses.

At 7:05 p.m. tonight, five minutes after his scheduled death, Davis’ supporters erupted in cheers, hugs and tears outside the jail in Jackson, Ga., as supporters believed Davis had been saved from the death penalty. But the Supreme Court only granted a temporary reprieve as it considers the decision.

The Supreme Court could decide at any time tonight or in the next seven days whether to go through with his execution, according to local TV station 11Alive.

NASA’s doomed Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite — UARS — will break into pieces, and NASA put the chances that somebody somewhere will get hurt at just 1-in-3,200.

As far as anyone knows, falling space debris has never injured anyone. Nor has significant property damage been reported. That’s because most of the planet is covered in water and there are vast regions of empty land.

If you do come across what you suspect is a satellite piece, NASA doesn’t want you to pick it up. The space agency says there are no toxic chemicals present, but there could be sharp edges. Also, it’s government property. It’s against the law to keep it as a souvenir or sell it on eBay. NASA’s advice is to report it to the police.

Do you live in the “strike zone?”

The strike zone straddles all points between latitudes 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south. That’s as far north as Edmonton and Alberta, Canada, and Aberdeen, Scotland, and as far south as Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America. Every continent but Antarctica is in the crosshairs.

One Million Moms. The conservative organization, an offshoot of American Family Association, has called for a boycott of the newest Ben & Jerry’s flavor because they find it offensive.

“The vulgar new flavor has turned something as innocent as ice cream into something repulsive,” the group posted on its website. “Not exactly what you want a child asking for at the supermarket.”

The flavor is named after the classic Alec Baldwin sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” in which he plays a bakery owner named Pete Schweddy. The most famous line (and the one most often repeated by drunk frat boys) is his end note: “No one can resist my Schweddy Balls.”

Clearly there is a double entendre here, but is it really worth protesting vanilla ice cream with rum and fudge-covered malt balls? After all, Trix may be for kids, but rum ice cream is for the rest of us.

“We’ve been hearing from many fans. It appeals to those who love our irreverent sense of humor,” Ben & Jerry’s spokesperson Sean Greenwood told Gannett News Service. “If you watch the skit, it’s a lot easier to get the joke,” he said.

Well, One Million Moms watched the skit (they give a play-by-play in their call to action), and they are still not amused. They are asking for people to write to Ben & Jerry’s and ask them to refrain from producing another batch of what’s currently a popular flavor.

They also cite their disdain for the special addition of Chubby Hubby called Hubby Hubby, created in 2009 to celebrate the start of legalized gay marriage. “It seems that offending customers has become an annual tradition for Ben & Jerry’s,” One Million Moms writes.