Meanwhile, High over Seoul...

Battling strong winds and swooping birds, tightrope walkers inched across a high wire for more than a half mile spanning a river in Seoul in a competition Thursday that organizers claimed was a record-breaking distance.

The World High-Wire Championships are part of the capital's annual Hi Seoul Festival, with 18 acrobats from nine countries each being given an hour to complete the walk across the high wire stretching above the Han River. The fastest wins a $15,000 award.

The iron wire stretched for 0.6 of a mile long and was supported by 72-foot-high towers on each bank, although it appeared to sag closer to the surface of the water in the middle of the river.