Top Stories: Worldwide
The following are the day's top general news stories: Air Jordan Fusion 1. U.S. Aircraft Carrier Group Enters Korean Seas as War Talk Rattles Market 2. Obama Gets 12 Stitches After Being Elbowed in Lip During Basketball Game 3. South American Leaders Pledge to Isolate Coup Regimes, Fight Drug Traffic 4. Russian Lawmakers Blame Stalin for 1940 Katyn Massacre of Polish Officers 5. Djokovic Reaches ATP Semifinals Against Federer; Nadal to Meet Murray Next 1. U.S. Aircraft Carrier Group Enters Korean Seas as War Talk Rattles Market The aircraft carrier USS George Washington and four smaller warships tomorrow begin exercises with South Korean vessels in a show of force that North Korea warned will take the peninsula to the "brink of war." The drills follow North Korea′s Nov. 23 attack on a South Korean fishing community and military base that killed four people, including two civilians. Shells shattered windows of a school and set houses ablaze on Yeonpyeong island in disputed waters about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the North Korean mainland. While the U.S. has called the drills "defensive in nature," Kim Jong Il′s regime warned that any infringement of North Korea′s sovereignty would spark another attack. Japan′s Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered the Cabinet yesterday to stay in Tokyo in case of "unexpected" developments. The shelling of Yeonpyeong escalated tensions that flared after North Korea torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors. President Barack Obama, along with Kan and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, have called on China to use its influence to temper North Korean acts of aggression, while Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has reiterated calls for stability, without ascribing any blame to North Korea. Air Jordan 9 2. Obama Gets 12 Stitches After Being Elbowed in Lip During Basketball Game President Barack Obama got 12 stitches in his lip after being injured during a basketball game, spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player′s elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House medical unit," Gibbs said in a statement. The president played basketball for about 90 minutes at a gym at Fort McNair in Washington. Obama played basketball regularly during the 2008 presidential campaign and had a basketball court installed on the South Lawn of the White House. In addition to playing at Fort McNair, he plays at other local sites, including the Interior Department. Today, the president played with family members and friends in town for Thanksgiving, as well as with his personal aide, Reggie Love, a former college basketball player at Duke University. 3. South American Leaders Pledge to Isolate Coup Regimes, Fight Drug Traffic Presidents from the Union of South American Nations, known as Unasur, agreed to coordinate efforts to fight drug trafficking and to isolate governments that emerge from coups, Ecuador′s President Rafael Correa said. Unasur members met today during the fourth summit in Georgetown, Guyana, where Correa passed on the temporary presidency to that country′s President, Bharrat Jagdeo. The bloc didn′t propose names for a new secretary general to replace Nestor Kirchner, Argentina′s former president who died last month. The 12-nation Unasur, formed two years ago in a bid to bolster regional integration, adopted a charter today that calls for sanctions on non-democratic regimes. The charter is more substantial than a similar protocol adopted by the Organization of American States, Correa told reporters in Georgetown. "We didn′t limit ourselves to rhetoric," Correa said. "The main difference is not in the writing of the document, it is in the credibility." Air Jordan Q4 4. Russian Lawmakers Blame Stalin for 1940 Katyn Massacre of Polish Officers Breaking news, story to follow 5. Djokovic Reaches ATP Semifinals Against Federer; Nadal to Meet Murray Next Novak Djokovic beat Andy Roddick to set up a semifinal at the ATP World Tour Finals against four- time champion Roger Federer. Djokovic, the third-ranked Serb, defeated Roddick, the lone American man in the tennis tournament field, 6-2, 6-3 in the final match in Group A at the O2 arena in east London. "Definitely a great achievement reaching the semfinals," Djokovic, a runner-up at the U.S. Open, said in a televised courtside interview. "We′ve played so many times against each other, let′s see. The best will win." Djokovic, who has been beaten by Federer 12 times out of 18 meetings. Djokovic overcame two match points against the Swiss Grand Slam record holder in the semifinals of the U.S. Open in September. Air Yeezy