Police have sought an arrest warrant for a South Korean man on charges of burning the national flag during last month's ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Sewol ferry sinking, officials said Sunday.The 24-year-old man, only identified by his surname Kim, was accused of burning the national flag during the April 18 rally in downtown Seoul and trying to damage a police vehicle, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. Thousands of people attended the ceremony to mark the first anniver

GENEVA (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in bike crash Sunday, apparently after hitting a curb, and scrapped the rest of a four-nation trip that included an international conference on combating the Islamic State group.Kerry was in stable condition and in good spirits as he prepared to return to Boston for further treatment with the doctor who previously operated on his hip, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said. He said X-rays at a Swiss hospital confirmed that

MADRID (AFP) -- Britain, Germany and Turkey grounded their Airbus A400M military transport planes Sunday after one crashed in Spain, killing four people, as authorities hailed passers-by who rescued two survivors.The pair, a mechanic and an engineer, were in stable but serious condition at hospitals in Seville, the capital of the southwestern region of Andalusia.The plane, due for delivery to the Turkish air force in June, crashed in a field just north of Seville's airport on Saturday after hitt

BEIJING (AP) -- China cut interest rates Sunday for the third time in six months to boost sluggish economic growth and announced that it is giving banks more flexibility in setting rates paid to depositors in a new step to make its financial system more market-oriented.The central bank's rate cut reflects the communist leadership's growing urgency about reversing a deepening slump that threatens to cause a politically dangerous spike in unemployment.Economic growth has fallen to its lowest level

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- South Africa's main opposition group on Sunday chose its first black leader at a party congress, seeking to expand its appeal in a country whose ruling party has dominated since the first all-race elections in 1994.  Mmusi Maimane was elected by delegates of the Democratic Alliance party who convened in the city of Port Elizabeth. He replaces Hellen Zille, a white who is the premier of Western Cape province, the only one of nine South African provinces that is controlled by

GENEVA (AFP) -- Five people were killed in a shooting in northern Switzerland, police said Sunday, rocking the normally tranquil nation.The shooter in the drama that played out on Saturday evening in the town of Wuerenlingen, near Zurich, was among the dead, Michael Leutpold, the head of the local police told a news conference, adding that it was linked to a personal conflict. All the victims and the shooter were Swiss, he said, adding: "We have ruled out a terrorist angle."He said the shooter w

LONDON (AFP) -- Britain was on Sunday adjusting to a new political landscape after a shock election victory for Prime Minister David Cameron that decapitated the opposition and bolstered secessionists in Scotland.While Cameron spent the weekend drawing up his new team of ministers, the Scottish National Party was celebrating its seismic gains, insisting it would not be sidelined in the new parliament.Despite pollsters predicting that Cameron's Conservatives would lose ground in Thursday's vote,

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Cuban President Raul Castro received a warm welcome at the Vatican Sunday from Pope Francis, who played a key role in the breakthrough between Washington and Havana aimed at restoring U.S.-Cuban diplomatic ties. `'Bienvenido!'' Francis said in his native Spanish, welcoming Castro in a studio near the Vatican public audience hall. The Cuban president, bowing his head, gripped Francis' hand with both of his, and the two men began their private talks.The meeting lasted nearly a

LONDON (AFP) -- David Cameron barely had time to toast his stunning election victory before attention turned to Britain's future in Europe and the onerous task of quelling rebellious eurosceptics within party ranks.During his victory speech, Prime Minister Cameron said he would stick to his pledge to hold an in-out referendum on Britain's European Union membership by the end of 2017.Cameron will campaign to stay in the union, but only if he can secure reforms such as changes on migration and ben

SANAA (AFP) -- Efforts for a ceasefire in Yemen after more than six weeks of Saudi-led air strikes gathered pace Sunday with rebels saying they would respond "positively" and their allies accepting a US-backed truce plan.The renegade troops, who helped the Shiite Huthi rebels seize much of the country, said they had agreed to the five-day humanitarian truce that Riyadh has offered starting from Tuesday.The rebels themselves made no explicit reference to the Saudi offer but expressed "readiness t

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- A powerful typhoon slammed into the northeastern tip of the Philippines on Sunday, as about 2,500 residents in two provinces huddled in shelters following warnings by officials to evacuate coastal and mountainous villages.Typhoon Noul, packing winds of 185 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 220 kph, made landfall in Cagayan province's coastal town of Santa Ana late Sunday afternoon and was moving northwest at 17 kph, the government's weather bureau said.Around 2,5

MANILA (AFP) -- The Philippines' navy chief said Sunday it would hold a joint exercise with Japan in the South China Sea, but emphasised the collaboration was unrelated to China's land reclamation efforts in the disputed waters.Two warships from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force will take part in the exercise with a single Philippine ship after making a port call in the Philippines this month, said Vice Admiral Jesus Millan."This is a port call, a regular port call of the Japanese navy and w

MOSCOW (AFP) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday paid tribute to Soviet soldiers killed in WWII as she called for cooperation with Russia amid tensions over Ukraine.Merkel flew to Moscow to lay a wreath at the grave of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin walls, in an apparent compromise gesture after she skipped Russia's main festivities on Saturday.Meeting her host Vladimir Putin for talks at the Kremlin, she stressed the importance of cooperation."It's necessary for us to work, to co

JAKARTA (AP) -- Boats carrying about 500 members of Myanmar's long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community washed to shore in western Indonesia on Sunday, with some of the people in need of medical attention, a migration official and a human rights advocate said.The men, women and children arrived on two separate boats, one carrying around 430 people and the other 70, said Steve Hamilton, deputy chief of mission at the International Organization for Migration in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital.Teams w

LORIENT, France (AFP) -- Defence ministers from five EU countries will meet Sunday for talks on a military campaign to stop human trafficking and reinforce the region's defences against the flow of migrants from North Africa.Officials from France, Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain will use events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Lorient, western France, to discuss how to battle the new threat facing Europe that has already cost thousands of lives. The ministers are also exp

ATHENS (AFP) -- Greece and its international creditors were "very close" to a loan deal for the cash-strapped country, a Greek junior minister said Sunday, a day ahead of a key meeting in Brussels."After weeks of painful negotiation, if the other side is willing, it will become apparent that... the deal is very close and will be sealed in the coming period," Euclid Tsakalotos, one of Greece's main negotiators, told Avgi daily.Tsakalotos, a junior foreign minister, said Athens and its creditors w

TEHRAN (AFP) -- Afghanistan and Iran announced Sunday plans for enhanced security cooperation to combat threats from the Islamic State group, including possible joint military operations.Standing alongside visiting Afghan leader Ashraf Ghani, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the tumult hitting the region meant intelligence must be shared.His comments came after IS, which holds swathes of Syria and Iraq, said it was responsible for a suicide bombing in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad

New Hampshire is the early primary state that likes to give second chances. It's where Bill Clinton became the "comeback kid" in 1992 and John McCain rose from a political grave in 2000.That's why New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, positioning themselves for a 2016 White House run, had more at stake at the weekend confab of Republican activists in Nashua than their party's other prospective nominees.Based on interviews with attendees and Republican operative

CAIRO (AP) -- A video released by the Islamic State group on Sunday appears to show the killing of two different groups of captured Ethiopian Christians by the extremist group's Libyan affiliates.The 29-minute online video purports to show militants holding two groups of captives. It says one group is held by an IS affiliate in eastern Libya known as Barka Province and the other by an affiliate in the south calling itself the Fazzan Province.A masked fighter brandishing a pistol delivers a long

The government will make the final decision later this week on whether to salvage a passenger ferry that sank last year along with the salvage method, based off the feasibility test results, the ruling party said Sunday."(The government) will wrap up the technical review on the salvage project as soon as possible, and announce the final results before the end of this week," Cho Hae-jin, senior deputy floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a briefing, after a government-ruling party me