A 2,000-year-old wooden bridge found in Shaanxi province, home of the famous Terracotta Army, may have been the world's biggest at that time, scientists say.Remnants of the bridge's piers were unearthed in a suburb of Xi'an, the province's capital, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.The bridge is estimated to have been almost 1,000 feet long and 65 feet wide, Li Yufang, a researcher at

South Korea's state-run electricity distributor issued a power shortage alert Tuesday due to a surge in electricity consumption caused by high temperatures, the second such move in as many days.The Korea Power Exchange issued an initial warning at 11:20 a.m. after the country's electricity reserve dropped to below 4 million kilowatts.The company later upgraded the warning to its third-highest leve

Algerian middle-distance runner Taoufik Makhloufi was reinstated for the 1,500-meter final after being disqualified from the London Olympics for allegedly not trying hard enough in the 800-meter heats Monday morning.Makhloufi had already qualified for Tuesday's 1,500 final, where he was a likely medal contender, when he stopped running in the first lap of his 800 heat.The race referee ruled that t

In this undated photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab, center, speaks under the portrait of the Syrian President Bashar Assad during a meeting in Damascus, Syria. (AP-Yonhap News)Syria's prime minister defected on Monday, evidence that the widening cracks in President Bashar's Assad's regime have reached the highest echelon

Torrential rains pounding the Philippine capital on Tuesday paralyzed traffic as waist-deep floods triggered evacuations of tens of thousands of residents and the government suspended work in offices and schools. Incessant downpour set off by the seasonal monsoon overflowed major dams and rivers in Manila and surrounding nine provinces and put authorities on alert. The death toll from last week's

(MCT)A Canadian woman called police when she found an online ad offering her baby for sale based on photos she'd posted on Facebook.The unidentified woman in the central British Columbia town of Fort St. John called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when she spotted the ad in an online buy-and-sell site, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.RCMP Sgt. Steve Perret told the broadcaster the ad ha

A photo of Mars sent by Curiosity rover moments after it landed on the planet. (NASA)In a show of technological wizardry, the robotic explorer Curiosity blazed through the pink skies of Mars, steering itself to a gentle landing inside a giant crater for the most ambitious dig yet into the red planet's past.A chorus of cheers and applause echoed through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Sunday

A police officer beats Mumtaz Mirbahar (right) and forces him to take off his clothes in this cellphone video footage. (Image from YouTube-BBC)Several police officers in the Pakistani town of Gambat were suspended after parading a couple accused of adultery through the town naked, officials said.The officers were suspended by local authorities after cellphone video footage of the incident stirred

Masked gunmen killed 16 Egyptian soldiers Sunday at a checkpoint along the border with Gaza and Israel, the first such attack on troops _ and then the attackers drove off, crashing into Israel, officials said.Egypt blamed Islamist militants from Gaza and Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula. President Mohammed Morsi said the attackers ``will pay dearly.''The Israeli military said the attack was part o

South Korean sabre fecing team cheers after beating Romania to claim gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The victory brought the country its 100th Olympic gold medal. (Yonhap News)South Korea claimed its 100th Olympic gold medal on Friday, as the men's sabre fencing team beat Romania for the country's ninth gold at the London Games.The country's first Summer Olympics under its own flag wa

China has again denied allegations that it tortured a South Korean human rights activist during his four-month arrest, Seoul's foreign ministry said, indicating growing diplomatic tensions over the issue.The denial was Beijing's first official response to Seoul's request for a reinvestigation into claims by activist Kim Young-hwan that he was tortured by Chinese security agents during the early da

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill calling for bipartisan efforts to address North Korea's human rights violations, sending it to President Barack Obama for signature, according to congressional officials.Shortly before leaving Capitol Hill Thursday night for a five-week summer recess, senators approved the legislation on extending until 2017 the authority of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 20

 From left, South Korea`s gold medal team, Kim Junghwan, Oh Eun-seok, Gu Bon-gil and Won Woo-young participate in the medals ceremony for men`s team saber fencing at the 2012 London Olympics on Friday. (Yonhap News)South Korea captured the gold medal in men's sabre team event here Friday.The team of Gu Bon-gil, Kim Jung-hwan and Won Woo-young, plus substitute Oh Eun-seok, beat Romania 45-26.In the

South Korean fencer Shin A-lam (London Olympic Joint Press Corps)The South Korean female epee fencer who lost her bid for gold in disputed circumstances will not earn a joint medal after all, officials said Friday.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has informed South Korean officials that it will not give an extra medal to Shin A-lam, who lost to Britta Heidemann of Germany in the semifinal

  South Korean archer Oh Jin-hyek poses at the award ceremony after winning gold medal in the men`s archery at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Yonhap News)Oh Jin-hyek won the gold medal in men's individual archery Friday at the London Olympics.Oh defeated Takaharu Furukawa of Japan by the set score of 7-1 to become the first South Korean man to capture an individual archery Olympic gold.In the ind

U.S. employers added 163,000 jobs in July, a hopeful sign after three months of sluggish hiring.The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent, from 8.2 percent in June.Stronger job creation could help President Barack Obama's re-election hopes. Still, the unemployment rate has been above 8 percent since his first month in office _ the longest stretch on record. No

South Korea`s Jung Kyung-eun, left, and Kim Ha-na play against Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova, or Russia, during a women`s doubles badminton match at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 30, 2012, in London. (AP-Yonhap News)The head of South Korea's disgraced badminton delegation issued his first public apology Friday over his players' connection to controversial match-throwing attempts at th

South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan checks his record after completing the qualifying round of the men`s 1,500 meter event in the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Yonhap News)Swimmer Park Tae-hwan progressed to the final of the men's 1,500-meter freestyle race Friday.At Aquatics Centre, Park finished second in his heat and sixth among eight qualifiers at 14 minutes and 56.89 seconds.The final set for Sa

The ruling Saenuri Party decided Friday to ask two members to leave the party over an alleged money-for-nomination scandal, an attempt to create a firebreak to stop the scandal from hurting its chances in December's presidential election.The scandal centers on suspicions that Rep. Hyun Young-hee became a lawmaker on a proportional representation ticket after giving 300 million won ($265,000) to Hy

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met a senior Chinese official in Pyongyang, state media said Friday, his first reception of a foreign guest since taking power after the death of his father Kim Jong-il.Kim held talks with Wang Jiarui, the head of the International Liaison Department of China's Communist Party, and other Chinese officials, the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an Eng