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

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

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

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."

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.

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

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

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

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

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

MELBOURNE (AFP) -- A global AIDS summit was in shock Saturday at the loss of colleagues in the Malaysia Airlines disaster over Ukraine, but spirits were lifted when the number who died was put at six, far fewer than feared.Reports on Friday said as many as 100 passengers on the plane were en route to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne when it went down in a rebel-held part of the country on Thursday, killing all 298 on board.But International AIDS Society president Francoise Bar

BEIJING (AFP) -- At least 38 people were killed when a van carrying inflammable liquid hit a bus on a highway in central China early Saturday, state media reported.The collision in Hunan province triggered a fire and explosion which destroyed five vehicles, the Xinhua news agency said.Another five people were injured in the accident, which occurred at around 3:00 am, Xinhua said, citing police.The fire was finally put out by about 8:00 am.The double-decker long-distance bus, with capacity for 53

GRABOVE, Ukraine (AFP) -- Investigators faced massive hurdles Saturday as they sought access to the grisly crash site of a Malaysian plane in eastern Ukraine, with the area controlled by armed rebels blamed for downing the jet with a missile.Despite a hail of calls from around the globe for a swift probe into the crash, initial efforts by international monitors to gain full access to the site have been impeded by pro-Russian separatists locked in fighting with Ukraine forces.The fate of the vita

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea temporarily shut down its 5-megawatt nuclear reactor, a key facility in its production of plutonium, or operated it at reduced levels following problems with a dam providing cooling water, a U.S. think tank said Friday.The website 38 North, run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, made the analysis based on satellite imagery, citing the absence of "white foam discharge" that occurs when the reactor runs.The foam

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A U.S. official on Friday brushed aside North Korea's protest against an American comedy film about a plot to assassinate its leader, Kim Jong-un, saying filmmakers are free to make whatever movie they want."We are of course aware of press reports about North Korean concerns about this movie," a U.S. government official said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency. "While it may be difficult for the DPRK (North Korea) to understand the concept, in the United Stat

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States began building a case linking pro-Russian separatists to the downing of a passenger jet in Ukraine as a somber President Barack Obama declared the deaths of those on board, including at least one American, an ``outrage of unspeakable proportions.''Obama said Friday the U.S. believes the Malaysia Airlines plane was felled by a surface-to-air missile launched from an area near the Ukraine-Russia border that is controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists. Even as h

DETROIT (AP) -- Kia is recalling nearly 52,000 Soul small SUVs to fix a problem that can cause steering failure.The recall covers vehicles from the 2014 model year built from July 21, 2013, through Jan. 17, 2014.The Korean automaker says a plug that secures a pinion gear to the steering assembly can loosen and cause the gear to separate. That can cause a driver to lose steering and increase the risk of a crash.Kia says in documents filed with U.S. safety regulators that it has three warranty cla

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday that the United States cannot rule out that Russia helped in the launch of the surface-to-air missile that shot down a Malaysia Airlines jet over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.Power said the U.S. believes the plane was likely downed by an SA-11 missile fired from an area in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists. She said Russia has provided SA-

PARIS (AP) -- The downing of a passenger jet in Ukraine is likely to be a turning point in the country's conflict. But which way it turns depends mainly on who carried out the attack and how convincingly it can be proved to the world.With suspicion falling heavily on pro-Russian insurgents, the event could provide an opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to disengage from his increasingly uncontrollable allies in eastern Ukraine.But if enough doubt persists, positions could harden in

The downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet over rebel-held eastern Ukraine has raised questions over why the company persisted in flying in conflict-zone airspace that many other Asian carriers had abandoned months ago.The air corridor over Ukraine has always been a crowded one for flights between Europe and Asia -- particularly Southeast Asia -- and rerouting around the airspace would mean an increase in flight time and fuel costs.Nevertheless, a number of major Asian airlines, including South Kore