An American nursing assistant had been charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault of a 93-year-old patient suffering from dementia.Robert Phelan Jr., 56, was allegedly witnessed by another staff member while having inappropriate contact with the victim at Lexington Health Care, Illinois. Phelan had been working at the facility for less than two weeks.Aggravated criminal sexual assault is refe

Fans dedicated a Facebook group to a local celebrity to make him the town’s official Olympic torch bearer, according to reports.　 Gordon Roberts from Bournemouth, England, is getting the support of 4,500 people who plan to nominate him as their “inspirational member of the community.” With his trademark white beard, scarf and jacket, the 82-year-old is known as a “big part of the comm

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A European study concludes a few years of cellphone use did not raise children's risks of brain cancer.Repeated studies in adults have been reassuring, too, although an arm of the World Health Organization said this spring that there is a possibility cellphones pose a risk. Moms are photographed at Hall's Calabasas, California home, where they run a business designing "apps" for

South Korea's current account surplus hit an eight-month high in June on record exports, the central bank said Thursday, showing that overseas shipments are humming along despite strong currency and global economic uncertainties.The current account surplus reached US$2.99 billion in June, up from a revised $2.18 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account

A South Korean Catholic charity group delivered 100 tons of flour to North Korea on Thursday, following the resumption of South Korea's flour aid to the impoverished North earlier this week, officials said.Four South Korean trucks carrying 100 tons of flour crossed the heavily fortified border on Thursday morning to deliver the aid to North Korea to help ease the country's chronic food shortages,

A road in Daechi-dong, southern Seoul, is flooded. (Kim Che-kyung via tweeter)Rescuers clear fallen tree branches in Seocho-dong(Yonhap News) 

North Korea's military commands 195,000 troops trained to launch various types of terror attacks on South Korea, a defector said Wednesday.The number includes 110,000 troops in the special forces, 40,000 in air and naval brigades, 10,000 charged with cyber terrorism, and 5,000 in the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea's top intelligence agency, said Kim Seong-min of the NK People's Liberat

North Korea called Wednesday for a peace treaty with the United States to officially end the Korean War decades after the fighting ceased, describing it as a first step toward the peninsula's denuclearization.The move comes as a senior North Korean official arrived in New York for rare talks with U.S. officials on how to resume stalled six-nation negotiations on ending the North's nuclear programs

GLENDALE, California (AP) -- A man stuck a butter knife into his belly in a failed bid at self-surgery to remove a painful hernia, police said Tuesday.The wife of the 63-year-old Glendale man called paramedics on Sunday night and told the emergency operator her husband was using a knife to remove a protruding hernia, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.“She said he had impaled himself with a knife,” Lorenz said.

The top U.S. trade official predicted confidently Tuesday that Congress will pass free trade agreements (FTAs) with South Korea, Colombia and Panama in September.In a speech at a Bretton Woods Committee meeting, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said a "framework" for a deal on the controversial Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) is already in place.President Barack Obama is pushing to renew the w

The South Korean economy grew at the slowest pace in six months in the second quarter as export gains sharply eased amid global economic uncertainty, the central bank said Wednesday.Asia's fourth-largest economy grew 0.8 percent in the April-June period, down from a 1.3 percent on-quarter expansion tallied in the first quarter, according to an advance estimate of the Bank of Korea (BOK). The count

A South Korean pastor was indicted on charges of secretly entering North Korea to celebrate the birthday of the late North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, prosecutors said Wednesday.The pastor, a U.S. resident who was identified only by his surname Hong, is accused of visiting the communist state in April without government approval, and taking part in celebrations of the late leader's birth on April

President Lee Myung-bak has warned that the safety of four Japanese lawmakers could be at risk if they press ahead with a trip here seen as aimed at bolstering Tokyo's claims to the South's easternmost island of Dokdo, an official said Wednesday.Four lawmakers of Japan's opposition Liberal Democratic Party said last week they will visit Ulleung Island near Dokdo in early August in an apparent atte

NEW YORK (Yonhap News) -- A senior North Korean official said Tuesday that he is optimistic about Pyongyang's relations with Washington and the future of the six-way nuclear talks."I believe North Korea-U.S. relations will improve as now is the time for all countries to reconcile," Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan told reporters.He added, "(I) am optimistic of the prospects for the six-way talks

Public anger is mounting in China after a video of bodies falling from train carriages during a post-crash clean-up operation appeared online, the Daily Telegraph reported.The Chinese government is being criticized for trying to cover up the deadly train accident in Zhejiang province in the east of the country without a full investigation. The disaster left 43 people dead and 210 injured.Immediate

A senior North Korean diplomat headed to the United States on Tuesday for rare talks with U.S. officials, a diplomatic source in Seoul said, amid cautious hopes for the resumption of stalled six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear programs. Kim Kye-gwan, the North's first vice foreign minister and one of the key strategists in Pyongyang's nuclear talks with Washington, left Beijing on Tuesda

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Monday night criticized a newly minted Republican plan to avert an unprecedented government default and said congressional leaders must produce a compromise that can reach his desk before the Aug. 2 deadline.“The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government,” the president said in a hastily a

South Korea will raise electricity prices by 4.9 percent starting next month as part of its efforts to reflect rising power production costs, the commerce ministry said Tuesday.Electricity bills for household consumption will grow 2 percent from August, while those for commercial and industrial use will increase 4.1 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Econ

 OSLO (AFP) -- More than 100,000 Norwegians thronged central Oslo on Monday in a vigil for the victims of a last week's attacks hours after the suspect told a court hearing that he had an active network of accomplices.People comfort each other outside Oslo City Hall as they participate in a "rose march" in memory of the victims of Friday's bomb attack and shooting massacre Monday July 25. (AP-Yonh

 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans and Democrats upped the ante Monday by putting forth competing plans to resolve the high stakes fight over slicing away at the government deficit and increasing the U.S. borrowing limit, but no compromise was in sight with time running out to prevent a potentially catastrophic default in barely a week.President Barack Obama planned to address the nation at 9 p.m. Mo