The head of the U.S. congressional panel on foreign affairs has lodged a strong protest with the Chinese government against its recent repatriation of nine North Korean defectors, his office said Friday.Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to China's President Xi Jinping expressing his concern over recent reports of the forced repatriation of nine North Korean defectors, some as young as 15, who now face extreme punishment in North Korea, including

Foreign Affairs June 1, 2013

The prosecution on Tuesday raided the office of Younghoon International Middle School to secure evidence of alleged admission fraud. According to the investigation, dozens of officers at the Seoul Northern Prosecutors’ Office secured documents, computer files and other material around 3:30 p.m. The evidence is believed to support their suspicion that the school’s vice headmasters as well as teachers fabricated school records used in the initial application screening process in order to admit unq

Social Affairs May 28, 2013

MURRAY, Utah (AP) _ A soccer referee who slipped into a coma after being punched by a teenage player during a game a week ago died Saturday night, police said.Ricardo Portillo, 46, of Salt Lake City passed away at the hospital, where he was being treated following an assault, police said. Police have accused a 17-year-old player in a recreational soccer league of punching Portillo after the man called a foul on him and issued him a yellow card.``The suspect was close to Portillo and punched him

World News May 5, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) _ Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said.The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syrian state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific rese

World News May 5, 2013

The market is eyeing whether the Bank of Korea will cut its key interest rate when it holds its monetary policy committee meeting Thursday, following Europe’s widely expected rate cut from 0.75 percent to a record low of 0.5 percent last week.Despite the government’s growing calls for a lower rate to further spur the economy, Korea’s central bank has kept its key base rate unchanged for the last six months, citing an expected recovery toward the latter half of this year.It seems BOK Governor Kim

May 5, 2013

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ The death toll from the collapse of a shoddily built garment-factory building in Bangladesh continued its horrifying climb, reaching 580 on Sunday with little sign of what the final number will be.It has been well over a week since the April 24 disaster, but each of the last several days has seen 20 or so bodies pulled from the mangled concrete, and sometimes much more than that.The disaster is likely the worst garment-factory accident ever, and there have been few indus

World News May 5, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) _ Niall Ferguson, a Harvard history professor and author, apologized on Saturday for saying economist John Maynard Keynes was less invested in the future because he was gay and had no children.The British-born Ferguson said his remarks at an earlier conference were ``as stupid as they were insensitive.''During a question-and-answer session after a prepared speech at the Altegris Strategic Investment conference in Carlsbad, California on Thursday, Ferguson was asked to comment about

World News May 5, 2013

A powerful earthquake in southwest Iran brought down homes across the border in Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least five people and wounding others in a remote community, a hospital official said."We have received five dead bodies," Ashraf Baloch told AFP by telephone from Mashkail in Washuk district, around three kilometres (1.8 miles) inside Pakistan from the Iranian border. (AFP)

World News April 16, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Barack Obama says he expects North Korea to make ``more provocative moves'' over the next several weeks.However, he says his administration does not believe Pyongyang has the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile. His says his conclusion is based on current intelligence estimates.A report revealed last week showed that the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency has ``moderate confidence'' that the North has the knowhow to deliver a nuclear weapon by

World News April 16, 2013

South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed shock and offered condolences Tuesday over the deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon as she sent a message of sympathy and solidarity to U.S. President Barack Obama, the presidential office said.Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people and wounding more than 140 others.No one has yet to claim responsibility for the attacks."I cannot contain my shock at the news that a bombing incident involving

World News April 16, 2013

Lawyers say judges have disqualified Pakistan's former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, from running in the upcoming parliamentary election.Musharraf applied to run from four different districts, which is allowed in Pakistan. Over a week ago, judges reviewing Musharraf's nomination papers disqualified him from running in three districts because he suspended the constitution while in power. But a judge in the remote northern district of Chitral gave Musharraf approval to run.Lawyer Taufiq Asif s

World News April 16, 2013

Authorities say 17 people are dead after an accident at a gold mine in central Ghana.Local official Peter Kofi Owusu-Ashia told The Associated Press on Tuesday that 20 others had been rescued Monday afternoon.Owusu-Ashia said authorities did not believe that anyone remained trapped inside the area but he said efforts would resume Tuesday at the site.The deaths happened in Kyekyiwere, in the Upper Denkyira district in Ghana's central region.The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, and

World News April 16, 2013

A major 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Iran near the border with Pakistan on Tuesday and tremors were felt in India and Gulf states.The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 10:44 GMT at a depth of 15.2 km (9.4 miles). The epicenter was insoutheast Iran in an area of mountains and desert. It was located 201 km (125 miles) southeast of the Iranian city of Zahedan and 250 km northwest of Turbat in Pakistan, USGS said.Tall buildings shook in India's capital New Delhi, sending people running

World News April 16, 2013