ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Three Cabinet ministers resigned in Turkey on Wednesday, days after their sons were taken into custody in a sweeping corruption and bribery scandal that has targeted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's allies in one of the worst political crises of his more than 10 years in power.Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler announced their resignations in statements carried by the state-run Anadolu Agency.Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erd

TOKYO (AFP) -- Tokyo Electric Power Wednesday submitted a fresh restructuring plan to a Japanese government-backed fund that envisages the creation of a special unit to dismantle the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.TEPCO president Naomi Hirose pledged thorough implementation of the plan, once approved by the government as expected next month.The utility's board Tuesday approved a draft plan that would see the creation of a holding company with several sub-units dedicated to separate tasks, incl

BANGKOK (AFP) -- Thailand's prime minister proposed a "national reform council" Wednesday to seek a way out of the political crisis gripping the kingdom, following weeks of mass street protests against her government.Yingluck Shinawatra said the body would be set up in parallel with a February 2 general election to recommend constitutional amendments, economic and legal reforms and anti-corruption measures."It is now time to develop a mechanism to push forward and mobilise national reform," she

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Repair crews worked around the clock to restore power to nearly half a million customers who faced a cold and dark Christmas in parts of the central and northeastern United States and into eastern Canada after a weekend ice storm. At least 24 deaths have been linked to the storm.It appears the bad weather isn't ready to take a break. The U.S. National Weather Service said more snow is forecast to roll into the Great Lakes and Midwest by Wednesday morning.In Canada, five pe

BEIRUT (AFP) -- A 10-day air offensive by Syria's regime against rebel areas of divided Aleppo city and nearby villages has killed more than 400 people, including 117 children, a monitor said Wednesday.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that by Tuesday night the toll since December 15 from air strikes and a bombing campaign using barrels packed with TNT stood at 410. Also among the dead were 34 women, 30 rebel fighters and nine jihadists.The Britain-based group said that the air force

KABUL (AFP) -- Two Taliban rockets landed inside the US embassy compound in Kabul early on Wednesday, causing no casualties but underlining Afghanistan's continuing security problems as many foreigners in the capital marked Christmas Day.Taliban militants, who have been fighting the US-backed government since being ousted from power in 2001, claimed responsibility for the attack, which included at least one other strike in the city.Rocket attacks in Kabul have been rare in recent years, but the

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) -- US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told American troops on Sunday that he supports a NATO force in Afghanistan after 2014, as Washington and President Hamid Karzai wrangle over a stalled security pact.Hagel travelled to bases in south Afghanistan to meet troops a day after further tensions arose over the Bilateral Security Agreement, which would allow some NATO forces to stay in the country after most combat troops withdraw next year."I believe there is a role for ou

TEHRAN (AP) -- Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that last month's nuclear deal with world powers has already boosted the country's economy, as he continues a push to convince skeptics of the benefits brought by the pact's partial sanctions relief.Rouhani told an open session of parliament that, after the "success" of the talks, investors were gravitating to businesses and the stock exchange."Economic activities have been shifted to the stock exchange from gold, hard currency and real

BAGHDAD (AP) -- At least nine explosions tore through predominantly Shiite Muslim areas in and around Baghdad Sunday, hitting crowded market places, commercial districts and car repair shops in a string of bombings that killed at least 33 people, officials said.The attacks are part of a wave of violence that has washed across Iraq since a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in April. Since then, the bloodshed in the country has reached heights unseen since the country teetered on t

TEHRAN (AFP) -- UN nuclear experts inspected Iran's Arak heavy water plant on Sunday for the first time since summer 2011, amid international concern that the half-built site may have a military purpose.No details were immediately available from the one-day inspection of the site 240 kilometres southwest of Tehran.The visit was made possible after a mid-November agreement that also granted the International Atomic Energy Agency access to another nuclear-related site.Iran's atomic energy organisa

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Several hundred thousand Ukrainians occupied a central square in the capital on Sunday, denouncing President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to turn away from Europe and align this former Soviet republic with Russia.As widespread protests continued for a third week, Yanukovych's meeting on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin raised more fears that Ukraine is on the verge of entering a Russian-led customs union that critics say could end its economic and political sove

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres said Sunday he would be prepared to meet his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, even though their two countries consider each other arch-enemies.Asked at an economic forum over a possible meeting, Peres replied: "Why not? I don't have enemies. It's not a question of personalities but of policies."The aim is to transform enemies into friends," said the president, whose role in Israel is symbolic and ceremonial.Peres also recalled that "there was

ADEN (AFP) -- Yemen LNG gas company has evacuated hundreds of workers from its Balhaf terminal on the Gulf of Aden, after a mortar round hit the site, an oil ministry official and employees said Sunday.Company staff, including foreigners, were evacuated to the capital on four planes as a precaution over fears of potential attacks on the terminal, employees said.The evacuation of non-essential staff, however, did not affect operations and liquefaction trains, which have a capacity of 6.7 million

PARIS (AFP) -- French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Sunday that nearly 400 people were killed in the last three days in violence in the Central African Republic capital Bangui, but that calm had returned."We have counted 394 dead in the last three days. Calm has returned to Bangui even if there are still some abuses here and there," Fabius told France 3 television.French troops poured into the impoverished landlocked country on Saturday after President Francois Hollande announced he was b

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) -- The government is back at work, and markets are laden with fruits, pork, fish and bread. Shredded trees are sprouting new leaves. Above all, the sounds of a city getting back on its feet fill the air: the roar of trucks hauling debris, the scrape of shovel along pavement, the ping of hammer on nails.One month since Typhoon Haiyan, signs of progress in this shattered Philippine city are mixed with reminders of the scale of the disaster and the challenges ahead: Bodie

News articles related to Jang Song-thaek, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's powerful uncle, were found to have been removed from the website of the country's news agency Sunday, reinforcing speculation that he has been ousted from power.The official website of North Korea's mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency, monitored by Yonhap News Agency, yielded no search result under Jang's name.Mentions of Ri Ryong-ha and Jang Soo-kil, senior party officials reportedly executed for their close ties to J

WARSAW (AFP) -- Fraught UN climate talks revealed growing frustration this week among vulnerable nations and observers with the political stance of emerging economies like China and India in the battle to stave off dangerous Earth warming.As the global balance of economic and political clout shifts, the world of climate negotiations is no longer a simple standoff between developed and developing nations.Some fear a growing divide within the developing bloc will see the voice of poor, climate-vul

MEDAN, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesia has raised the alert level for one of its active volcanoes to the highest after it repeatedly sent hot clouds of gas down its slopes.A government volcanologist says Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province unleashed volcanic ash Sunday as high as 5,000 meters and searing gas down its slope up to 2 kilometers.Authorities have urged people to stay at least 5 kilometers away from the crater, and more than 12,300 evacuees from eight villages were packed in crowded

BEIJING (Yonhap News) -- China has started work to set up a monument honoring a revered Korean independence fighter who assassinated a prominent Japanese colonial leader in 1909, a diplomatic source said Sunday.Ahn Jung-geun shot to death the Korean Peninsula's first Japanese governor-general, Hirobumi Ito, in Harbin, China, in October 1909. A year later, he was executed at a Japanese prison in the northern Chinese city of Ryojun, now called Lushun.South Korea and China have been working to set

SOROK ISLAND, South Korea (AP) -- Kang Sun Bong once considered this tiny island a ``hell on earth,'' a place where hospital workers beat the leprosy patients exiled here and forced them into harsh labor, sterilizations and abortions. But three years ago, old, sick and broke, Kang returned to the place he'd been banished with his mother decades ago.His savings wiped out by cancer treatment, the 74-year-old now hopes to live the rest of his life with hundreds of other former patients on Sorok Isl