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• On the frontline Yeonpyeong Island, motel owner Kim Oh-mok said she went to a shelter with other residents after hearing a broadcast telling her to do so. But she didn't hear the sound of artillery fire. Ongjin county official Hwang Young-mi said island residents were later told they could return home.
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Obama heads home after 4-country Asia swing overshadowed by tensions between Russia, Ukraine
• MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- President Barack Obama ended a four-country swing through Asia and headed for home Tuesday, still confronting the challenge of how to deal with Russia's threatening moves toward Ukraine. The issue overshadowed an Obama tour that was meant to reassure anxious allies in the orbit of a rising China that the U.S. will always be there to defend them.
• Before getting on Air Force One for the flight to Washington, Obama rallied U.S. and Philippine troops at Fort Bonifacio, just outside Manila. In brief remarks inside a sweltering gymnasium, Obama hailed the cooperation both sides showed during some of the storied battles of World War II. He also paid his respects at the Manila American Cemetery, where row upon row of white crosses mark the final resting places of more than 17,000 military personnel from that war, mostly U.S. but including nearly 600 Filipinos.
• Obama won't be returning to the U.S. with a coveted free-trade deal with countries in the region, but he won't be stepping off the airplane empty-handed.
• Just before Obama arrived in the Philippine capital, the two countries signed a 10-year agreement to give the U.S. military greater access to Philippine bases. Obama said the arrangement will help promote peace and stability in a region unsettled by China's claims on disputed territories. Many of the details remain to be worked out.
• U.S. negotiators also claimed a breakthrough in negotiations over a 12-nation trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is a cornerstone of Obama's rebalancing of U.S. foreign policy toward the booming economies in Asia. Japanese officials were more restrained, saying there was progress but not a basic agreement.
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