WASHINGTON (AP)- President Barack Obama says North Korea's failed rocket launch shows the country is wasting money on rockets that  "don't work" while its people starve.Obama told a television interviewer that the North Koreans have been trying to launch missiles like this for over a decade now, and they don't seem to be real good at it.Still, he called the failed launch Friday an area of deep co

UNITED NATIONS (AP)-The U.N. Security Council deplored North Korea's rocket launch on Friday, saying it violates two council resolutions but stopped short of imposing any new sanctions against the reclusive Asian nation. The U.N.'s most powerful body said in a brief press statement after a closed meeting that members agreed to continue consultations "on an appropriate response in accordance with i

 

South Korean swimming star Park Tae-hwan failed to advance to the 100-meters final at the World Championships in Shanghai on Wednesday.Park finished sixth in his heat and 14th overall with a time of 48.67 seconds, while Australia’s James Magnussen finished first in 47.90 seconds and American Nathan Adrian came second at 48.05. His time was only 0.16 seconds behind his personal record of 48.70.  At

South Korea and China agreed on Wednesday to seek ways to tighten their cooperation on nuclear safety in the wake of massive radiation leaks from a tsunami-hit nuclear plant in Japan and prevent any spread of damage to neighboring countries, the Seoul government said.South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao also vowed efforts to move forward "strategic partn

TOKYO, March 14, 2011 (AFP) - A tsunami alert was lifted in Japan Monday, a Fukushima prefecture official said, after reports of an approaching large wave and retreating seawater -- a phenomenon that occurs before tsunamis -- had sparked alarm and local evacuation orders.An official with the Fukushima Prefectural Natural Disaster Office told AFP: "There is no more fear of a tsunami at this moment,

A 102-member Korean rescue team departed for Japan aboard Air Force planes Monday to help the neighboring country cope with the massive devastation left by a record earthquake and tsunami.Three Air Force C-130 planes carrying the rescue workers took off from a military airport in Seongnam, south of Seoul, around 8:10 a.m. and were scheduled to land at Japan's Narita airport around 10:50 a.m., the

ATLANTA (AP) - Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich says he expects to be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.Gingrich announced Thursday that he's exploring a run for president, launching a website to collect donations.In an interview Friday night with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity, Gingrich said ``my expectation is that by the end of this exploratory

BEIJING (AP) - China's government promised Saturday to clamp down on inflation and urgently raise incomes as it pushes to spread the benefits of economic growth at a time when living standards are rising but so are popular calls for greater change.In a more than two-hour speech that is China's equivalent to a state-of-the-nation address, Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to boost assistance to working clas

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's latest bullet train, the thin-nosed "Hayabusa" or Falcon, made its 300 kilometer per hour (186 mph) debut Saturday, boasting a luxury carriage modeled on airline business class.Japan has built up a network of cutting-edge Shinkansen train lines since the 1960s that criss-cross the island nation and now hopes to sell the infrastructure technology abroad, including to the Unite

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - Moammar Gadhafi's regime struck back at its opponents with a powerful attack Friday on the closest opposition-held city to Tripoli and a barrage of tear gas and live ammunition to smother new protests in the capital. At least 37 people died in fighting and in an explosion at an ammunitions depot in Libya's rebellious east.The bloodshed signaled an escalation in efforts by bot

South Koreans will likely be prohibited from traveling to Libya due to the ongoing anti-government uprising in the region, the foreign ministry said.   The government convened an emergency meeting to deal with the ongoing unrest in Africa and the Middle East, and decided to upgrade its travel alert on all of Libya from the current Level 3 (travel restriction) to Level 4 (travel ban), the ministry

North Korea refused to receive its 27 nationals South Korea planned to return on Friday after they strayed into southern waters on a fishing boat, the South's unification ministry said.The North Koreans, part of the boat's 31-member crew, waited for hours near the border village of Panmunjom for an approval from their government to go home."A North Korean liaison officer at Panmunjom called at abo

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan and South Korea's foreign ministers saidWednesday that the U.N. Security Council should take up the issue of NorthKorea's uranium enrichment programme with a view to possible punishment.Seiji Maehara of Japan and Kim Sung-hwan of South Korea told a newsconference that the North must take concrete steps to give up its nuclearprogrammes as it had previously agreed."We confirmed t

 NASA released the first 360-degree view of the entire sun on Sunday. The photo comes courtesy of NASA ’s twin STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RE lations Observatory) spacecraft, which aligned exactly opposite each other on opposite sides of the sun to capture the image. (Yonhap News)

Park Ji-sung is no stranger to holding a press conference, but the versatile midfielder admitted Monday that the one announcing his retirement from international football was the “toughest” of his career. “I’ve done many interviews, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen so many reporters gathered in one place,” Park said in a news conference at the Korea Football Association’s office in Seo

North Korea appears willing to push for humanitarian aid from South Korea by calling for cross-border dialogue in its New Year's message, despite tension that soared when the North attacked a South Korean island last year, the government  said Saturday.In its analysis of a joint press editorial from Pyongyang, the Unification Ministry in Seoul also warned that the North will continue to create a r

Two sailors were killed and 15 remain missing after a North Korean-registered cargo ship sank in the Yellow Sea off China, according to a news report Saturday.The North Korean ship "Kang Bong" sank on Friday morning amid strong gales off Lianyungang Port in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.Three sailors had been rescued, and rescuers recovered the bodies

The government confirmed two additional foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks on Saturday, despite nationwide quarantine efforts to contain the spread of the highly contagious animal disease.The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said cattle at farms in North Gyeongsang Province in the country's southeastern region and Gangwon Province on the east coast tested positive for FMD.All 9

Twelve ruling and opposition lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it legal for South Korean taxpayers to pay for the expected massive cost of an eventual reunification with North Korea, a ruling party lawmaker said Saturday.While reunification of the two Koreas is still a distant goal, it was the first time that lawmakers proposed such a bill to the National Assembly that would require