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North Korea Warns Against Ulchi Exercise

SEOUL, Aug. 17 (UPI) — North Korea said it would “deal a merciless counterblow” to South Korea if provoked by military exercises, including the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Guardian. The annual South Korean-U.S. exercise — called Ulchi Focus Lens up to 2007 — runs through Aug. 26 in the Yellow Sea off the peninsula’s west coast. […]

Obama: Politics Is Broken, Not Government

ATKINSON, Ill., Aug. 17 (UPI) — Politics is a process and government is an institution, and politics not working doesn’t mean government is broken, U.S. President Barack Obama said. “You’ll hear a lot of folks … say that government is broken. Well, government and politics are two different things,” Obama said at a public town-hall […]

Church Forgives Abortion During Pope Visit

MADRID, Aug. 17 (UPI) — Any woman in Madrid confessing abortion during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit will be forgiven and welcomed back into the Roman Catholic church, the Vatican said. The “special” concession for a pregnancy-termination act normally deemed a sin punishable by excommunication is a result of an appeal by Madrid Archbishop Antonio Maria […]

10,000 Palestinians Flee Syrian City

LATAKIA, Syria, Aug. 17 (UPI) — Syria’s assault on principal port city of Latakia is a crime against humanity, a senior Palestinian official said as 10,000 Palestinians fled the city. The regime of President Bashar Assad has “lost rationality,” Yasser Abed Rabbo, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told Voice of Palestine Radio […]

London Police Mulled Shutting Down Twitter

LONDON, Aug. 17 (UPI) — London police mulled shutting down the Twitter microblogging service at the height of the rioting but had no power to do so, the city’s top police officer said. Scotland Yard officials, including Metropolitan Police Service Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin, discussed shutting down the social-networking Web site “a few times” as […]

Obama Blames Republicans For Gridlock

PEOSTA, Iowa, Aug. 17 (UPI) — President Barack Obama, in an interview Tuesday with CNN, said Republicans in the House of Representatives are responsible for the current political gridlock. Obama said when Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and members of his caucus refused to support a deficit plan with $4 trillion in cuts because it included […]

Boat Capsizes, At Least 12 Missing

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Aug. 17 (UPI) — A boat capsized in the Kamal River in eastern Nepal, leaving at least a dozen people missing, authorities said. Nepalnews.com said at least 17 people swam to safety after the boat capsized Tuesday evening near the districts of Siraha and Dhanusha. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, quoting other media, […]

China Refutes U.S. Stealth Copter Report

BEIJING, Aug. 17 (UPI) — China is dismissing a report Pakistan gave Chinese experts access to a crashed U.S. stealth helicopter used in the Osama bin Laden raid. The highly secret U.S. Blackhawk helicopter crashed during the May 2 raid by a U.S. Navy SEALs team in which the al-Qaida leader was killed in his […]

Gray Whale Dies In Klamath River

CRESCENT CITY, Calif., Aug. 17 (UPI) — A female gray whale died early Tuesday in the Klamath River in northern California, about 10 hours after beaching on a sandbank, biologists said. Dawn Goley, a marine biologist at Humboldt State University, told the (Eureka, Calif.) Times-Standard the whale died at 4:19 a.m. Goley’s students and members […]

British Honeymooner Killed By Shark

VICTORIA, Seychelles, Aug. 17 (UPI) — A British man honeymooning in the Seychelles was killed by a shark 10 days after his wedding, authorities said. Ian Redmond, 30, was out swimming with a facemask, snorkel and flippers Monday afternoon while his wife, Gemma Houghton, 27, sunbathed on Anse Lazio Beach on Praslin Island, The Daily […]