Bus drivers nationwide will abandon their vehicles from Thursday in protest against a bill that redefines taxis as a mode of mass transit and offers them compensation for losses.The bill, which unanimously passed through the parliamentary committee on land, transport and maritime affairs last week, was also approved on Wednesday by the parliamentary Legislation and Judiciary Committee, paving the way for being finally dealt with during the plenary session scheduled for Friday.Expressing immediat

A court in American Samoa has ruled a former teacher convicted of raping his 13-year-old student may leave prison on weekdays to work at a church next to a school.Tone Pulou is serving a two-year sentence. He pleaded guilty to rape earlier this year in a deal with prosecutors.The High Court of American Samoa said last week Pulou may leave prison to work at the headquarters of Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The church, which is the largest religious group

Hewlett-Packard Co. said on Tuesday that it's the victim of a multi-billion dollar fraud at the hands of a British company it bought last year that lied about its finances.HP CEO Meg Whitman said executives at Autonomy Corporation PLC “willfully” boosted the company's figures through various accounting tricks, which convinced HP to pay $9.7 billion for the company in October 2011.Autonomy's former CEO said HP's allegations are false.HP is now taking an $8.8 billion charge to align Autonomy's pur

A diplomatic push to end Israel's nearly weeklong offensive in the Gaza Strip gained momentum Tuesday, with Egypt's president predicting that airstrikes would soon end, the U.S. secretary of state racing to the region and Israel's prime minister saying his country would be a “willing partner” to a cease-fire with the Islamic militant group Hamas.As international diplomats worked to cement a deal, senior Hamas officials said some sticking points remained even as relentless airstrikes and rocket a

Astronomers using an infrared telescope in Hawaii say they've captured a rare image of a "Super-Jupiter" around a massive distant star.Of the nearly 850 exoplanets discovered orbiting stars other than the sun, only a few have been captured in actual astronomical images.Most are detected by indirect means, since stars are much brighter than their planets and with traditional observational techniques the planet will be hidden in the glare of its host star.Obtaining an image of the planet orbiting

Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers traded fire and tough cease-fire proposals Monday, and threatened to escalate their border conflict if diplomacy fails. No deal appeared near.An Israeli airstrike targeting a Gaza media center killed a senior militant and engulfed the building in flames, while Gaza fighters fired 95 rockets at Israel, nearly one-third of them intercepted by an Israeli missile shield.A total of 38 Palestinians were killed Monday, bringing the death toll since the start of Israel's o

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded France's government bond rating, citing the country's weak economic growth outlook and its exposure to Europe's economic crisis.The rating agency lowered France's rating one notch on Monday from Aaa _ its top rating _ to Aa1. The outlook for the rating remains negative, meaning it could face future downgrades.Moody's says France's long-term growth outlook is slowing and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict how resilient it will be to futu

Colombia's main rebel group announced a unilateral cease-fire on Monday as it began much-anticipated peace talks, but the Bogota government responded that it would continue military operations.  Top negotiator Ivan Marquez said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia would halt all acts of sabotage and attacks against government and private property starting at midnight Monday and running through Jan. 20.He made the announcement as negotiators for both sides entered the talks in Havana withou

A ranking Seoul prosecutor was formally detained Monday pending trial on charges of receiving bribes worth hundreds of millions of won in return for favors, a special prosecution team looking into the case said.The Seoul Central District Court approved the special investigation team's request to issue an arrest warrant for the disgraced prosecutor Kim Kwang-joon.The 51-year-old prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office is accused of receiving a total of nearly 900 million won ($826,000) f

Freestyle rap, an improvised style of the music genre associated with back-to-front baseball caps, baggy jeans and gold chains, has burst onto the science stage, shedding light on the workings of the brain.Researchers at the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders in the United States have examined freestyle rappers' brains to see which areas light up during the creative phase.The stream-of-consciousness singing style involves artists making up lyrics on the spot, guided

China, Japan, and South Korea are expected to agree on the launch of three-way free trade talks at a summit in the Cambodian capital this week, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday."I am optimistic the three parties can reach a consensus to commence the negotiations," Qin Gang told reporters in Phnom Penh where leaders of the three nations will attend an East Asia Summit from Monday.Qin said trade ministers were likely to hold a trilateral meeting on the matter on the sidelines of th

South Korean stocks opened higher Monday as investor sentiment was boosted by last week's gains on Wall Street, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) climbed 13.77 points, or 0.74 percent, to trade at 1874.60 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Shares gathered ground across the board, with market bellwether Samsung Electronics increasing 0.84 percent and leading carmaker Hyundai Motor adding 0.46 percent. Top builder Hyundai Engineering & Construction climbed 1.15

Overseas orders won by South Korean builders surpassed $50 billion for the third straight year in 2012, due to increased demand from the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, data showed Monday.Local builders signed deals worth $51.6 billion during the January-November period, up 13 percent from the same period last year, according to the data released by the International Contractors Association of Korea.Still, industry officials said it remained unclear whether the companies could achieve the

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Myanmar Monday to step up its reform drive on a historic visit during which he was cheered by huge crowds and welcomed by Aung San Suu Kyi at the home where she was locked up for years.The trip, the first to Myanmar by a serving U.S. president, came as the regime freed dozens more political prisoners to burnish its reform credentials. In once unthinkable scenes, Obama's motorcade passed tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters -- some chanting "America" -- li

South Korean Choi Na-yeon overcame an early double bogey and held off compatriot Ryu So-yeon to win the final LPGA Tour event of the season in Florida on Sunday.Choi captured the CME Group Titleholders at the TwinEagles Golf Club in Naples, Florida. She shot a final round of two-under 70 on the 7,634-yard layout for a four-round total of 14-under 274. The 25-year-old took home US$500,000 for her second win this year.Ryu, the 2012 LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year, also shot a 70 in the final round bu

Southeast Asian nations are set to press China on Monday to quickly begin talks on easing tensions over sea territorial rows that have shaken the region and overshadowed efforts to boost trade.Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to raise the contentious South China Sea issues during a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in the Cambodian capital.Their meeting is one of the highest-profile set pieces scheduled on the opening day of the East Asia Summ

An Israeli missile ripped through a two-story home in a residential area of Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 11 civilians, including four young children and an 81-year-old woman, in the single deadliest attack of Israel's offensive against Islamic militants.A similar scene unfolded elsewhere in the city early Monday, when an airstrike leveled two houses belonging to a single family, killing two children and two adults and injuring 42 people, including children, said Gaza heath official Ashr

 The stalled process of selecting a single candidate for the progressive bloc was jump started on Sunday following the en-masse resignation of the Democratic United Party’s leadership and Moon Jae-in’s decision to follow the candidate selection method chosen by Ahn Cheol-soo. On Sunday DUP chairman Lee Hae-chan and the entire supreme council announced that they would step down in an effort to bring Ahn back to the table.“History and the era urgently call for administration change. As such, I put

The Israeli military widened its range of targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday to include the media operations of the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers, sending its aircraft to attack two buildings used by both Hamas and foreign media outlets.The Israeli military also appeared to take over the frequencies of the radio stations of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group to broadcast a recorded, Arabic-language warning to the people of Gaza to stay away from Hamas installations and personnel.

France on Friday dashed the hopes of those who had planned to take refuge in one of the few places on Earth some believe will be spared when the world ends on December 21.Local officials banned access to the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain in the southwest where rumor has it the hilltop will open on the last day and aliens will emerge with spaceships to save nearby humans.Eric Freysselinard, the state's top representative in the area, said he was blocking access to the mountain for public safety rea