More N. Korea Artillery Fire Heard as South, U.S. Plan Maneuvers

Special police patrol at the port of Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea. Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images.

North Korea’s state-run media warned Friday that plans for U.S. and South Korean military exercises this weekend place the region on the brink of war.

Within sight of the South Korean island it attacked earlier this week, North Korea appeared to launch defiant artillery drills though none of the rounds hit the South.

Gen. Walter Sharp, the U.S. commander in South Korea, was surveying damage from Tuesday’s artillery fire that killed four people, but U.S. military officials said Sharp did not hear the latest concussions.

Residents on other parts of the island, however, ran back to air raid shelters where they huddled earlier in the week as white smoke rose from North Korean territory.

South Korea is grappling over political fallout from Tuesday’s attack, which uncovered defense weaknesses and brought criticism of President Lee Myung-bak for not retaliating more forcefully. He appointed a new defense minister, after his predecessor resigned on Thursday for not keeping forces at ready in an area that has seen repeated clashes with the North.

Shoppers Hunt for Bargains as Retailers Expand Black Friday Hours

The traditional kick-off of the American holiday shopping season ushered in expanded hours at many stores and retailers rolled our deep discounts and online bargains to lure shoppers.

Some major retailers, including Old Navy and Sears opened on Thanksgiving Day. Toys R Us opened for 24 hours straight, starting at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

Brits Mum on Afghan Official’s Taliban Impostor Claim

British authorities withheld a formal response Friday to accusations by a senior Afghan official that the British introduced an impostor posing as a top Taliban official into the presidential palace in Kabul to meet President Hamid Karzai.

Mohammad Umer Daudzai told The Washington Post that the British brought a man purporting to be Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, a senior Taliban leader, to meet Karzai in July or August but that an Afghan at the meeting knew “this is not the man.”