N. Korea Frees American Prisoner

After being detained in North Korea for about six weeks, 85-year-old Palo Alto, California native Merrill Newman is being deported, according to North Korean state news agency KCNA. Newman, a Korean war veteran, was held on charges of "hostile acts" but deported on humanitarian grounds after issuing a filmed "apology" for killing soldiers and civilians during the war. "Taking into consideration his admittance of the act committed by him on the basis of his wrong understanding [and the] apology made by him for it, his sincere repentance of it and his advanced age and health condition, the above-said institution deported him from the country from a humanitarian viewpoint," the official North Korean report said.