WASHINGTON (AP) -- Changes could be in store for U.S.-Asian relations, but that has little to do with presidential race. Lost in the backbiting between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney over China is that they generally agree on their approaches to Asia. But whoever wins the Nov. 6 vote will have to deal with a region in flux -- and figure out how to keep simmering tensions from boiling over.Leadership changes are imminent in East Asia's dominant economies -- China, Japan and Sou

Foreign Affairs Oct. 27, 2012

The third game of the South Korean baseball championship series was rained out Saturday here in Incheon.The Korean Series matchup between the Samsung Lions and the SK Wyverns was pushed back by a day amid heavy downpours, the Korea Baseball said. The game had been scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at Munhak Stadium, home of the Wyverns, just west of Seoul. It will instead be played at 2 p.m. Sunday at Munhak.The fourth game will be back at Munhak on Monday at 6 p.m.The Lions have won the first two ga

Baseball Oct. 27, 2012

A former chief prosecutor said Saturday that presidential candidates should not politicize the issue of investigative rights of the prosecution and police as campaign pledges ahead of the December election.Former Prosecutor-General Kim Joon-gyu stepped down from his post in July 2011 in protest over the parliamentary approval of a contentious bill that prosecutors claim limits their investigatory power. The resignation came less than two months before his term was scheduled to end in mid-August.

Social Affairs Oct. 27, 2012

YANG MEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Norway's Suzann Pettersen shot a 7-under 65 on Friday to share the second-round lead with South Korea's Inbee Park in the LPGA Taiwan Championship.The winners the last two weeks in the opening events on the tour's Asian Swing, Pettersen and Park had 10-under 134 totals at the Sunrise Golf and Country Club. Park shot a 69.Yani Tseng, the top-ranked Taiwanese star who won the tournament last year, was two strokes back along with Scotland's Catriona Matthew. Tseng shot a 69

Golf Oct. 27, 2012

A failure of Japan's parliament to approve budget legislation by the end of November risks an impact on bond sales, a Ministry of Finance official said.Opposition lawmakers are blocking authorization for 38.3 trillion yen ($478 billion) in government borrowing to cover this year's deficit as they press Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to call elections. The legislation needs to be approved by November for the finance ministry to hold debt auctions as planned, the official told reporters in Tokyo ye

World Business Oct. 27, 2012

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leaving the door open to continuing to serve under President Barack Obama should he win a second term that would begin in January.One of Obama's most popular cabinet members, Clinton has repeatedly insisted she would leave her office as America's top diplomat at the end of the Obama administration's first term.But she hinted at serving beyond then in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Thursday."A lot of people have t

World News Oct. 27, 2012

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Hurricane Sandy is swirling off toward the U.S. East Coast, leaving the Caribbean to mourn the storm-related deaths of at least 43 people and clean up wrecked homes, felled power lines and fallen tree branches.While Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas took direct hits from the storm, the majority of deaths and most extensive damage was in impoverished Haiti, where it has rained almost non-stop since Tuesday.The death toll in Haiti stood at 29 late Friday, but officials wo

World News Oct. 27, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) -- The nightmarish case of a nanny accused of stabbing to death two children in her care stunned the family's well-to-do New York City neighborhood and caused legions of parents to wonder how well they know who is watching their kids.The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, lay in critical condition Friday with what police said were self-inflicted knife wounds, and investigators were unable to question her, in part because she was still breathing with the help of a tube.Her motive and mental sta

World News Oct. 27, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) -- In Internet chats as breezy as they were bizarre, a New York City police officer accused of plotting to kidnap and eat as many as 100 women was once cautioned not to be wasteful when cooking a victim because "there is nearly 75 pounds of food there."But no one was ever actually harmed in Gilberto Valle's alleged plot, let alone eaten. And a defense attorney says the officer was merely engaging in harmless Internet fantasy.Where exactly the line is drawn between bizarre talk and

World News Oct. 27, 2012

TURIN, Italy (AFP) -- As economic giant China ploughs ahead with modernisation and industrialisation, small-scale farmers and producers are creating pockets of resistance by going back to their roots."China has made incredible steps forward but we're paying the price in terms of our health and are losing traditional ways of farming and eating," Zhou Jinzhang told AFP at the world's biggest food fair in Turin in northern Italy.Zhang founded a non-profit association, "The Farmers' Friend," in 2004

World Business Oct. 27, 2012

Korea Southern Power Co., a unit of the nation's monopoly power distributor, is in talks to buy a stake in a British carbon-capture project that may cost 5 billion pounds ($8 billion) to develop, people familiar with the discussions said.The level of Korean equity ownership in the project owned by 2Co Energy Ltd. would be determined after 2Co determines how much funding it can obtain from European investors, said the people who asked not to be named because the discussions are confidential. One

Business Oct. 27, 2012

BEIJING (AP) -- China blocked access to The New York Times website Friday after the paper published a lengthy article claiming the family of Premier Wen Jiabao has amassed assets worth $2.7 billion through a web of investments.The report said most of Wen's family's wealth was accumulated after he rose to high office in 2002.Chinese censors also blocked the Times' Chinese-language site that carried a translated version of the story.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a p

World News Oct. 27, 2012

North Korea said Friday it has started to build a management office for a special economic and trade zone to be jointly developed and operated by the North and its strongest ally, China.According to the Korea Central News Agency, dozens of high-ranking officials from the both countries attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the office building of the Rason Economic and Trade Zone Management Committee.The North has been ramping up efforts to develop special economic zones in Rason, the North's no

North Korea Oct. 27, 2012

South Korea and the United States will maintain the "closest possible" alliance and partnership "no matter who wins" the South's Dec. 19 presidential election, a senior U.S. diplomat said Friday, as presidential elections loom for both nations.Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat on East Asian policy, made the remarks after talks earlier in the day with South Korean officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun and Lim Sung-nam, Seoul's chief envoy to the six-nation talks on ending

National Oct. 27, 2012