Nation & World Digest

Koreas exchange fire

SEOUL, South Korea — North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire along their disputed western sea border today, two days after the North designated no-sail zones in the area, the military and news reports said.

North Korea fired several rounds of land-based artillery off its coast, an officer at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy, said no causalities or damage were immediately reported.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the South immediately returned fire from a marine base on an island near the sea border. Yonhap, citing an unidentified presidential official, said both Koreas fired into the air.

South Korea’s YTN television network carried a similar report on the exchange of fire.

UN: 27 million people worldwide lost jobs in ’09

DAVOS, Switzerland — Twenty-seven million people around the world lost their jobs in 2009, the U.N. labor agency said today, warning of a jobless recovery in a report released on the opening day of the World Economic Forum.

About 12 million of the newly unemployed were in North America, Japan and Western Europe, the International Labor Organization said. The jobless jumped by nearly 4 million in both Eastern Europe and Latin America, while unemployment rates were more stable last year in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Homeschooling German family granted US asylum

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A German couple who fled to Tennessee so they could homeschool their children was granted political asylum Tuesday by a U.S. immigration judge, according to the legal group that represented them.

The decision clears the way for Uwe Romeike, his wife and five children to stay in Morristown, Tenn., where they have been living since 2008. Romeike says his family was persecuted for their evangelical Christian beliefs and for homeschooling their children in Germany, where school attendance is compulsory.

When the Romeikes wouldn’t comply with repeated orders to send the children to school, police came to their home one October morning in 2006 and took the children to school. German state constitutions require children to attend public or private schools, and parents can face fines or prison time if they don’t comply.

Remains of missing college student found

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The remains of a Virginia Tech student who disappeared in October after attending a Metallica concert were discovered Tuesday in a remote farm field about 10 miles from the venue, authorities said.

Virginia State Police Superintendent Steve Flaherty said authorities are confident they’ve found the remains of 20-year-old Morgan Harrington, but an autopsy was being conducted to confirm the identification. The Roanoke County woman was last seen Oct. 17 while attending the concert in Charlottesville.

“We can’t say with 100 percent certainty, however, there were significant items and evidence” to lead authorities to conclude the remains were Harrington’s, Flaherty said during a late-afternoon news conference.

Autopsy results should be available by today.

Octuplets celebrate their first birthday

LA HABRA, Calif. — The world’s longest-surviving octuplets are celebrating their first birthday at their California home.

The eight babies were born a year ago Tuesday. Paparazzi mobbed mom Nadya Suleman’s car when she brought them home from the hospital.

Three of the octuplets peered out of the windows Tuesday at a handful of photographers. A woman brought eight balloons and a large bag of presents earlier in the day.

Suleman’s attorney, Jeff Czech, says she celebrated with a quiet party with her octuplets, her six older children, and other family members Sunday.

LA City Council caps number of pot shops at 70

LOS ANGELES — The day feared by medical marijuana advocates arrived Tuesday when the city council finally approved an ordinance intended to close hundreds of pot shops and banish those that remain to industrial areas.

The new law, which passed 9-3, caps the eventual number of dispensaries in the city at 70. But at this point, 137 shops that registered before a 2007 moratorium could be allowed to keep operating if they adhere to the new guidelines.

Associated Press