PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea gave foreign media access on Monday to three detained Americans who said they have been able to contact their families and -- watched by officials as they spoke -- called for Washington to send a high-ranking representative to negotiate for their freedom.Jeffrey Fowle and Mathew Miller said they expect to face trial within a month. But they said they do not know what punishment they could face or what the specific charges against them are. Kenneth Bae,

North Korea Sept. 1, 2014

Hundreds of unionized workers at a major university hospital in Seoul reached an agreement with management on Monday to end a six-day strike aimed at protesting what they call a government move to privatize medical services.In a joint statement, the Seoul National University Hospital and the hospital's labor union announced they have agreed to end the strike and resume work starting 5 a.m. on Tuesday.The two sides said they have reached a consensus on issues such as wage, employee dispatches to

Social Affairs Sept. 1, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has yet to campaign alongside a Democrat at risk of losing in the midterm congressional elections, and the president will be largely sidelined in nearly all of the races that will determine November's biggest prize: control of the Senate for the remainder of his presidency.Hampered by low approval ratings and an unfriendly electoral map, Obama is seen as a liability to some vulnerable Democrats and a target for Republicans trying to fire up conservatives

World News Sept. 1, 2014

HONG KONG (AP) -- China's Communist leaders have pulled out their usual playbook to suppress resistance to their plans to tightly limit the first direct election of Hong Kong's leader, but are likely to find that the results are quite different. Beijing is blaming radicals and foreigners and showing off its military might, all things unlikely to go down well in the freewheeling capitalist bastion where a sizeable middle class accustomed to freedom of speech and the rule of law plans to push back

World News Sept. 1, 2014

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- A day of militia fighting over control of the international airport in Libya's capital killed 22 people, the country's interim government said Sunday, part of the worsening chaos gripping the country.  Libya is seeing its worst violence since the 2011 civil war that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi, as militias made up of the rebels who overthrew him largely run wild in the country, armed with heavy weaponry that outguns its poorly organized security forces.Saturday's deat

World News Aug. 3, 2014

TAIPEI (AFP) -- The head of the company allegedly responsible for deadly explosions that rocked Taiwan's second city apologised on Sunday, as authorities said the firm failed to notify them quickly enough of a gas leak blamed for the blasts."Regarding the Kaohsiung explosion, I would like to make an apology to the public on behalf of the company," Bowei Lee, CEO and chairman of LCY Chemical Corp, told reporters with a deep bow of respect.The blasts sparked massive fires which tore through the ci

World News Aug. 3, 2014

BEIJING (AP) -- A strong earthquake in southern China's Yunnan province has killed at least 150 people and injured more than 1,400.China's official Xinhua News Agency says at least 150 people died in Sunday's quake. Yunnan province's information bureau says at least 120 of the dead were in densely populated Ludian county, with another 180 missing and 1,300 people injured there. Yunnan's seismological bureau says another 24 people died and more than 100 were injured in Qiaojia county.The U.S. Geo

World News Aug. 3, 2014

NEW DELHI (AFP) -- Rescue workers Sunday discovered more bodies in the mud and debris of a devastating landslide in western India, taking the confirmed death toll to 92, an official said.With dozens more villagers still missing, rescue workers kept up their grim search for victims of the landslide which destroyed a remote village in Maharashtra state on July 30."So far we have found 92 bodies and eight survivors. But we expect to find 68 more bodies," Alok Awasthi, commandant of the National Dis

World News Aug. 3, 2014

HARTMANNSWILLER, France (AFP) -- French President Francois Hollande and his German counterpart Joachim Gauck paid emotional tributes Sunday to the millions of soldiers who died during World War I, exactly 100 years after Germany declared hostilities against France.The two leaders gathered at Hartmannswillerkopf to remember the 30,000 soldiers who lost their lives in fierce battles around the rocky peak known as the "man-eater" in France's Alsace region near the border between the two countries."

World News Aug. 3, 2014

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- A United Nations school sheltering displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip was hit Sunday by what a U.N. official said appeared to be an Israeli airstrike, as the military struck the Hamas-ruled territory despite signaling a possible scaling back of its 27-day offensive.Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded after the strike near a boys' school in the town of Rafah. Robert Turner, the director of operations for the U.

World News Aug. 3, 2014

SHANGHAI (AFP) -- The death toll from an explosion at a Taiwan-invested car parts factory in China climbed to 71 on Sunday, state media said, as a labour rights group cast doubt on its safety measures.The blast on Saturday in a wheel hub polishing workshop at the Zhongrong Metal Products Co. in Kunshan, near Shanghai, also left 186 injured, state television said, many with severe burns and respiratory problems.The death toll, announced by city officials at a news conference on Sunday, rose as mo

World News Aug. 3, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine (AFP) -- Brutal fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels continued to take a deadly toll on civilians in east Ukraine Sunday, as international experts once again combed woods and fields at the crash site of downed flight MH17. Some 70 Dutch and Australian police investigators spent a third day trawling through wreckage for more unrecovered remains of the 298 people killed when the Malaysian passenger jet was blown out of the sky over separatist territory almost

World News Aug. 3, 2014

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) -- Israeli air strikes killed 20 people in Gaza Saturday, taking the death toll to more than 300, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon headed to the region to bolster truce efforts.The new peace push came as Israel stood poised to intensify a ground operation inside the besieged Palestinian territory aimed at stemming rocket fire by militants on day 12 of its bloodiest conflict since 2009.The United States urged its Israeli ally to do more to limit the high civilian d

World News July 19, 2014

South Korea's Air Force on Saturday refuted allegations that air traffic control played any role in the crash of a fire department helicopter that left all five crew members dead.The Eurocopter-built AS365 Dauphin medium-weight helicopter crashed Thursday in a residential area of Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul. The chopper and its crew were returning to a base in Gangwon Province after taking part in search missions related to the April 16 sinking of the Sewol ferry off the country's sou

Defense July 19, 2014

South Korea's national football team is expected to take on Venezuela in its first A match since its early shutout in the Brazil FIFA World Cup, the country's governing body for the popular sport said Saturday.According to the Korea Football Association, the friendly versus the South American team will take place on Sept. 5. It likely will be the first one for Korea's new head coach, who has yet to be selected.There has been speculation that a candidate is being sought among K League coaches but

Soccer July 19, 2014