Military drills up the ante in Koreas

Military drills up the ante in Koreas

ABOARD USS GEORGE WASHINGTON

A massive nuclear- powered U.S. supercarrier began maneuvers today with ally South Korea in a potent show of force that North Korea has threatened could lead to “sacred war.”

The military drills, code-named “Invincible Spirit,” are to run through Wednesday with about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft.

The North routinely threatens attacks whenever South Korea and the U.S. have joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion.

Still, the North’s latest rhetoric threatening “nuclear deterrence” and “sacred war” carries extra weight after the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors.

Law addresses ties to war in Congo

NEW YORK

Does that smart phone in your pocket contribute to rape and murder in the depths of Africa? Soon, you’ll know: A new U.S. law requires companies to certify whether their products contain minerals from rebel-controlled mines in Congo and surrounding countries.

It’s a move aimed at starving the rebels of funds and encouraging them to lay down their arms.

But experts doubt the law will stop the fighting. Furthermore, they say, it could deprive hundreds of thousands of desperately poor Congolese of their incomes.

Candidate brings race into campaign

MEMPHIS, Tenn.

In the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, a once-unbeatable former mayor wants the Democratic congressional primary to be a referendum on race.

Willie Herenton is accusing white two-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of “trying to act black.” He tells voters in this majority-black city that they “need to come off that Cohen plantation and get on the Herenton freedom train.”

But President Barack Obama has endorsed Cohen, who has an “A” rating from the NAACP and has built support in the black community by supporting civil-rights legislation and bringing federal funding to Memphis schools and hospitals.

East Coast heat wave

TOMS RIVER, N.J.

Another wave of oppressive heat clamped down on a broad swath of Eastern states Saturday, with temperatures in the high 90s and 100s and residents scrambling for shade or just staying indoors.

With the heat and humidity combining for a possible heat index of over 110 degrees, the weather service issued an excessive-heat warning for the first time this year for an area stretching from south of Washington to north of Baltimore, along the Interstate 95 corridor. By midday Saturday, a wide band from lower New England to the Deep South was under a heat advisory.

Queen on Flickr

LONDON

These aren’t your average family snapshots.

Queen Elizabeth II is joining other proud parents starting Monday in showing off and sharing her photo albums — and those of the House of Windsor — on the online Flickr photo site.

The site will stream the latest images of royal engagements as well as contain historic photos from the archives, the palace said.

Associated Press