hObama’s next stop: South Korea

hObama’s next stop: South Korea

TOKYO

When President Barack Obama arrives in South Korea today, he will be thrust anew into the role of consoler in chief in a time of crisis, a responsibility he has become all too accustomed to in the United States.

South Korea is reeling from the ferry disaster that has left more than 300 dead or missing, with the vast majority of the victims students from a high school near the capital of Seoul.

White House officials said Obama did not plan to change his schedule in South Korea as a result of the disaster. But the president probably will balance his expected statements — warnings against North Korean nuclear provocations and calls to lower tensions in regional territorial disputes — with words of condolence for the ferry victims and the people of South Korea.

Israel breaks off Mideast peace talks

JERUSALEM

Israel broke off Mideast peace talks and brought the U.S.-brokered process to the brink of collapse Thursday, protesting a reconciliation agreement between the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and the militant group Hamas, the Jewish state’s sworn enemy.

Israel’s Security Cabinet made the decision during a marathon emergency meeting convened to discuss the new Palestinian deal. The rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah announced the reconciliation plan Wednesday, meant to end a seven-year rift.

Israel objects to any participation in Palestinian politics by Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks over the past two decades.

Oregon to dump health exchange

PORTLAND, Ore.

Oregon, once expected to be a national leader in the federal health care overhaul, on Thursday moved to become the first state to dump its troubled online health exchange and use the federal marketplace instead.

Alex Pettit, a Cover Oregon official, said fixing the existing system would be too costly at an estimated $78 million, would take too long to implement, and would be too risky. The state’s site still isn’t fully functional seven months after a failed launch.

Pettit said switching to the federal system would cost $4 million to $6 million.

Severe storms loom across central US

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

Forecasters are predicting a significant chance of strong tornadoes this weekend across a large part of the nation’s midsection, an outbreak that could stretch from the Great Plains to the Midwest and South.

It’s been a quiet year for tornadoes so far, but that doesn’t mean the placid weather won’t take an abrupt turn, forecasters said Thursday.

“Our run of relatively quiet weather may be about to come to an end,” Bill Bunting, operations chief for the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said.

Bunting said the coming system will start Saturday in the Plains — Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and a sliver of South Dakota — and move eastward into Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana on Sunday.

Associated Press