SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON -- Asiana Flight 214 was flying significantly slower than its pilots had intended, and they made a failed attempt to abort landing just 1.5 seconds before smashing into a runway at a San Francisco airport, U.S. investigators said Sunday.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced the preliminary results of its analysis of the so-called black box from the passenger jet, which crash-landed on Saturday.Two Chinese girls were killed and more than 180 people wer

Foreign Affairs July 8, 2013

BOSTON (AP) -- Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and heir to a ketchup company fortune, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition Monday, a day after showing symptoms consistent with a seizure, a person in close contact with the family said.Heinz Kerry was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on Sunday night after doctors at a hospital on Massachusetts' Nantucket Island stabilized her, said Glen Johnson, a spokesman for Kerry. The secretary o

Foreign Affairs July 8, 2013

PATNA ( AFP) - Indian police arrested a man on Monday over weekend bomb attacks targeting one of Buddhism's holiest sites and were studying CCTV footage that appeared to show two men planting explosives.The Indian government condemned the "terror attack" after multiple small bombs exploded at the historic Bodh Gaya Buddhist temple complex on Sunday morning, wounding two monks at the pilgrimage destination in eastern Bihar state."The police are doing everything to identify the two persons on the

Foreign Affairs July 8, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The evacuation of Asiana Flight 214 began badly. Even before the mangled jetliner began filling with smoke, two evacuation slides on the doors inflated inside the cabin instead of outside, pinning two flight attendants to the floor.Cabin manager Lee Yoon-hye, apparently the last person to leave the burning plane, said crew members deflated the slides with axes to rescue their colleagues, one of whom seemed to be choking beneath the weight of a slide.Lee on Sunday described

Foreign Affairs July 8, 2013

JERUSALEM (AFP) --  Three Israeli teenagers convicted of taking part in a brutal assault on a group of Palestinian youngsters in Jerusalem last August have been given jail terms, a copy of Sunday's district court judgement showed.Jamal Julani, 17, and three cousins, residents of Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem, were attacked by dozens of Israeli youths in Zion Square, a busy bar and entertainment district of west Jerusalem.Julani was rushed unconscious to hospital but eventually released in

Foreign Affairs July 8, 2013

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former director of his feared general security services died of cancer on Monday in a Baghdad hospital, a senior official said.Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim told The Associated Press that Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, who had received several death sentences, was transferred to the hospital from prison as his health deteriorated at dawn. His body will be handed over to his family.Al-Hassan had lived in exile for a period after the 2003 U.S.-l

Foreign Affairs July 8, 2013

BEIJING (AP) -- The two 16-year-old girls killed in the San Francisco plane crash were close friends and top students who were on Asiana Flight 214 for the same reason: to get a taste of American education and possibly brighten their futures.Wang Linjia showed talent in physics and calligraphy; Ye Mengyuan was a champion gymnast who excelled in literature. Both were part of a trend among affluent Chinese families willing to spend thousands of dollars to send their children to the U.S. for a few

Foreign Affairs July 8, 2013

South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed condolences Monday for the deaths of Chinese passengers aboard the crashed Asiana jet.In a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Park said she is pained by the deaths of Chinese nationals and offered deep condolences to the families of the victims and those injured in the accident, her office Cheong Wa Dae said.She also promised her government's fullest support to get to the cause of the accident and in handling its aftermath.South Korean carrier

National July 8, 2013

Cambodia on Saturday denied it had banned foreign radio broadcasts in the run up to next month's election, after the US accused the government of violating freedom of expression.This week, local FM radio stations were ordered to provide "neutral" coverage of election campaigning and to temporarily suspend broadcasting Khmer-language programs made by foreign stations.But Chhum Socheat, an official at the information ministry, told AFP on Saturday "we do not ban broadcast by foreign radios".Foreig

International June 29, 2013

South Korean police on Saturday stopped a planned launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets following a threat of violent retaliation by the North.A group of defectors from North Korea and US human rights activists had said they would use gas-filled balloons to drop 200,000 leaflets critical of Pyongyang over the tense border.But a contingent of plain-clothed policemen prevented the activists from unloading the pamphlets and other materials for the launch from a pickup truck at Imjingak, a tourist site

Politics June 29, 2013

Violent attacks have spread this week in a tense minority region of western China, state media reported Saturday, just days before the anniversary of a bloody clash between minority Uighurs and the ethnic Han majority that left almost 200 dead and resulted in a major security clampdown.China's communist authorities have labeled some of the incidents -- including one which left 35 people dead -- as terrorist attacks, and President Xi Jinping has ordered that they be promptly dealt with to safegua

International June 29, 2013

South Korean stocks are expected to gather ground next week after a steep decline, as fear of a sudden liquidity squeeze from an unwinding of the U.S. easy-money policy has waned, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 1,863.32 on Friday, up 2.22 percent from the previous week. The main index underwent a roller coaster trading, dipping more than 2 percent on the first two days before reverting back upon a strong rebound of 4.64 percent over the r

June 29, 2013

Alec Baldwin has apologized to a New York City-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights group for a series of tweets that could be interpreted as homophobic.Baldwin's messages were directed at a newspaper reporter who accused his wife of tweeting during the funeral for the former star of ``The Sopranos'' James Gandolfini. Baldwin says in a letter to GLAAD posted on its website Friday his tweets didn't have anything to do with "issues of anyone's sexual orientation."The former "30 Rock

Film June 29, 2013

North Korea warned Saturday that South Korea could face a "miserable fate" if it allows anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to be flown into its territory from across the border.The warning from Pyongyang came as a group of North Korean defectors and a U.S.-based human rights agency said last week that they jointly plan to fly leaflets with anti Pyongyang messages into the communist country later in the day from Imjin Pavilion, just south of the western inter-Korean border.The communist country w

North Korea June 29, 2013