SEOUL - Diplomatic efforts are underway in Asia to defuse tension on the Korean peninsula. But South Korea is effectively rejecting China’s call to quickly convene multi-national talks to discuss North Korea. This comes as the United States and South Korea begin four days of naval drills seen as a show of strength to dissuade […]

JERUSALEM - Israel has adopted a controversial measure to deal with an influx of foreigners from Africa. On Sunday, its Cabinet has approved construction of a massive detention center to hold illegal migrants, who are flooding across Israel’s porous border with Egypt.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the influx of tens-of-thousands of migrant workers must be […]

SEOUL - About 20 U.S and South Korean naval vessels have begun maneuvers off the west coast of the Korean peninsula.
The war games come less than a week after North Korea launched a deadly artillery barrage on an occupied South Korea island near a disputed maritime border.
The USS George Washington aircraft carrier and its strike […]

LONDON - Tens-of-thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Dublin Saturday to express their anger at the government’s handling of the country’s financial crisis and its budget-cutting austerity solution.
The demonstration, organized by Ireland’s trade unions, is the biggest yet since the country’s economic woes became apparent.
Among those in the crowd were people from all […]

PORTLAND - U.S. prosecutors say an Oregon teenager of Somali descent has been arrested in an alleged terrorist plot to car-bomb a Christmas tree lighting event in the northwestern city of Portland, Oregon Friday night.
Authorities say 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud was taken into custody by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation after he dialed […]

MOSCOW - Russia’s lower house of parliament on Friday, for the first time, officially blamed Soviet dictator Josef Stalin for the 1940 massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers and other citizens at Katyn.
Warsaw welcomed the statement as “a good step,” just weeks before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s planned visit to Poland in early December.
Although […]

SEOUL - North Korea warned Friday that planned U.S.-South Korean naval exercises are pushing the peninsula to the brink of war.
The North’s state Korean Central News Agency said drills involving a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier are a reckless plan by “trigger-happy elements” aimed at North Korea.  Pyongyang has used such language frequently in the past […]

HOUSTON - In Austin, Texas, a jury has convicted former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering and the prominent and once very powerful Republican now faces anywhere from two to 99 years in prison. However, he plans to appeal the verdict.
As the verdict was read in […]

LONDON - Britain has just passed the grim milestone of 100 servicemen killed in Afghanistan this year alone.  As NATO leaders meeting in Portugal over the weekend agreed to hand over security to Afghan forces by 2014, protesters back in Britain were calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops.
A stream of around 5,000 people wound […]

WASHINGTON - Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is undergoing medical treatment in the United States after a blood clot complicated a slipped spinal disc.
The official Saudi Press Agency said Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and a number of top Saudi officials met King Abdullah when he arrived in New York Tuesday.  The news service published a photograph […]

PHNOM PENH - At least 347 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a stampede at a major festival in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh.
The numbers of dead continued to rise as the night wore on. At one point, there were more than 30 bodies on the bridge in Phnom Penh; a Cambodian Red Cross […]

SEOUL - In the most serious incident in decades, North Korea Tuesday unleashed an artillery barrage on a small South Korean island. South Korean forces were conducting military exercises on Yeongpyeong at the time.
Officials say one marine was killed and 13 others were wounded.  The shelling prompted South Korea to scramble fighter jets and go […]

WASHINGTON - Forty-seven years ago Monday, late American president John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in his motorcade in downtown Dallas, Texas.
Kennedy, who is the youngest man elected U.S. president, was killed by gunshots on November 22, 1963 as he rode in an open-top car.  He was 46 years old.
His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, was […]

SAN DIEGO - Republican governors and governors-elect charted a conservative course for their party, and their states, in meetings this week in San Diego. The state officials are looking to the 2012 elections, when they hope to see a Republican elected to the White House.
With Republicans now controlling governorships in 29 of the 50 states, […]

CAIRO - Egypt has accused the United States of meddling in its internal affairs, after Washington called for international monitors to observe the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
In a strongly worded statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Thursday the U.S. is acting like an “overseer” and not respecting the country’s sovereignty.
Cairo expressed dismay about a November […]

WASHINGTON - Violent unrest in Haiti has spread to the capital, Port-au-Prince, where angry Haitians clashed with U.N. peacekeepers, whom they blame for the nation’s cholera epidemic.
Reports from the capital late Thursday say protesters threw rocks at the peacekeepers and blocked roads with burning tires.
Violent riots broke out earlier this week after some Haitians accused […]

SEOUL - The South Korean Unification Ministry’s annual report calls the Sunshine Policy of peaceful engagement with North Korea a failure.
The ministry’s white paper, issued Thursday, contends a decade of cooperation, cross-border exchanges and billions of dollars in aid did not change Pyongyang’s behavior or improve the lives of North Korean citizens.
Lee Jong-joo, a ministry […]

WASHINGTON - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have chosen John Boehner of Ohio to be their leader when Republicans take over the majority of the U.S. House of Representatives in January.
Current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defeated a challenge to her top leadership position in the Democratic caucus.
As expected, House Republicans were united in […]

LOS ANGELES - More than 30 Republican governors and governors-elect will meet in San Diego, California, Wednesday and Thursday to discuss issues confronting their states. The officials will address economic concerns, and highlight the personalities who are likely to play a role in national politics.
In the November 2 election, Republicans gained control of the House […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. lawmakers returned to work on Monday, after midterm elections that shook the political landscape in favor of Republicans. Members of Congress have a lot of unfinished business to take care of in the remaining weeks of this year, including funding the federal government so it can continue operating, and deciding whether - […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Representative Charles Rangel has appeared at the opening of his ethics trial, where four of his fellow Democrats and four Republican members of Congress are weighing whether he violated ethics and federal regulations.
In his opening statement, Rangel said he has no lawyer and no funding to get one.  He said he has […]

WASHINGTON - Egypt and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as the Met, have announced that objects in the museum that had been taken from the tomb of the famed pharaoh Tutankhamun would be sent back to Egypt.
The museum agreed to recognize Egypt’s right to 19 relics in its possession since early last […]

SEOUL - The South Korean government says that more than 10,000 North Koreans reached the South during the past three years.
South Korea’s government said Monday the total number of North Korean defectors has surpassed 20,000 since the end of fighting in the Korean War in 1953.
Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo says number 20,000 arrived in […]

SEOUL - Leaders of G-20 nations in Seoul, South Korea are heading for the conclusion of their summit. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak spoke of progress on Friday but offered no details ahead of a G-20 communique to be issued later covering fiscal and monetary policy and other issues.
President Lee’s statement about “big progress” achieved […]