SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON -- Asiana Flight 214 was flying significantly slower than its pilots had intended, and they made a failed attempt to abort landing just 1.5 seconds before smashing into a runway at a San Francisco airport, U.S. investigators said Sunday.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced the preliminary results of its analysis of the so-called black box from the passenger jet, which crash-landed on Saturday.Two Chinese girls were killed and more than 180 people wer

BOSTON (AP) -- Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and heir to a ketchup company fortune, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition Monday, a day after showing symptoms consistent with a seizure, a person in close contact with the family said.Heinz Kerry was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on Sunday night after doctors at a hospital on Massachusetts' Nantucket Island stabilized her, said Glen Johnson, a spokesman for Kerry. The secretary o

PATNA ( AFP) - Indian police arrested a man on Monday over weekend bomb attacks targeting one of Buddhism's holiest sites and were studying CCTV footage that appeared to show two men planting explosives.The Indian government condemned the "terror attack" after multiple small bombs exploded at the historic Bodh Gaya Buddhist temple complex on Sunday morning, wounding two monks at the pilgrimage destination in eastern Bihar state."The police are doing everything to identify the two persons on the

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The evacuation of Asiana Flight 214 began badly. Even before the mangled jetliner began filling with smoke, two evacuation slides on the doors inflated inside the cabin instead of outside, pinning two flight attendants to the floor.Cabin manager Lee Yoon-hye, apparently the last person to leave the burning plane, said crew members deflated the slides with axes to rescue their colleagues, one of whom seemed to be choking beneath the weight of a slide.Lee on Sunday described

JERUSALEM (AFP) --  Three Israeli teenagers convicted of taking part in a brutal assault on a group of Palestinian youngsters in Jerusalem last August have been given jail terms, a copy of Sunday's district court judgement showed.Jamal Julani, 17, and three cousins, residents of Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem, were attacked by dozens of Israeli youths in Zion Square, a busy bar and entertainment district of west Jerusalem.Julani was rushed unconscious to hospital but eventually released in

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former director of his feared general security services died of cancer on Monday in a Baghdad hospital, a senior official said.Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim told The Associated Press that Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, who had received several death sentences, was transferred to the hospital from prison as his health deteriorated at dawn. His body will be handed over to his family.Al-Hassan had lived in exile for a period after the 2003 U.S.-l

BEIJING (AP) -- The two 16-year-old girls killed in the San Francisco plane crash were close friends and top students who were on Asiana Flight 214 for the same reason: to get a taste of American education and possibly brighten their futures.Wang Linjia showed talent in physics and calligraphy; Ye Mengyuan was a champion gymnast who excelled in literature. Both were part of a trend among affluent Chinese families willing to spend thousands of dollars to send their children to the U.S. for a few

South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed condolences Monday for the deaths of Chinese passengers aboard the crashed Asiana jet.In a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Park said she is pained by the deaths of Chinese nationals and offered deep condolences to the families of the victims and those injured in the accident, her office Cheong Wa Dae said.She also promised her government's fullest support to get to the cause of the accident and in handling its aftermath.South Korean carrier

Cambodia on Saturday denied it had banned foreign radio broadcasts in the run up to next month's election, after the US accused the government of violating freedom of expression.This week, local FM radio stations were ordered to provide "neutral" coverage of election campaigning and to temporarily suspend broadcasting Khmer-language programs made by foreign stations.But Chhum Socheat, an official at the information ministry, told AFP on Saturday "we do not ban broadcast by foreign radios".Foreig

South Korean police on Saturday stopped a planned launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets following a threat of violent retaliation by the North.A group of defectors from North Korea and US human rights activists had said they would use gas-filled balloons to drop 200,000 leaflets critical of Pyongyang over the tense border.But a contingent of plain-clothed policemen prevented the activists from unloading the pamphlets and other materials for the launch from a pickup truck at Imjingak, a tourist site

박근혜 대통령은 29일 중국 국빈방문 중 가진 칭화대 연설에서  "핵개발을 하는 북한에 세계 어느 나라가 투자를 하겠는가" 라며 "북한이 내건 핵무기 개발과 경제건설의 병행 노선은 애당초 불가능한 일이고 스스로 고립만 자초하는 길이 될 것"이라고 지적했다.박 대통령은 이날 오전 '중국의 MIT'로 불리는 이공계 최고 명문대이자 시진핑(習近平) 중국 국가주석의 모교인 북경 소재 칭화대(淸華大) 에서 '새로운 20년을 여는 한중 신뢰의 여정' 이란 주제의 강연에서 동북아의 상생과 평화를 위하여 "한반도에 진정한 변화를 가져오고 싶다"며 이같이 밝혔다.특히 박 대통령은 "만약 북한이 핵을 버리고 국제사회의 책임있는 일원이 되는 변화의 길로 들어선다면 한국은 북한을 적극 도울 것이고 동북아 전체가 상생하게 될 것"이라며  "그렇게 한반도에 평화가 정착되고 남북한 구성원이 자유롭게 왕래할 수 있게 된다면 동북 3성 개발을 비롯해 중국의 번영에도 도움이 될 것"이라고 말했다.또 그는 "그러려면

Violent attacks have spread this week in a tense minority region of western China, state media reported Saturday, just days before the anniversary of a bloody clash between minority Uighurs and the ethnic Han majority that left almost 200 dead and resulted in a major security clampdown.China's communist authorities have labeled some of the incidents -- including one which left 35 people dead -- as terrorist attacks, and President Xi Jinping has ordered that they be promptly dealt with to safegua

South Korean stocks are expected to gather ground next week after a steep decline, as fear of a sudden liquidity squeeze from an unwinding of the U.S. easy-money policy has waned, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 1,863.32 on Friday, up 2.22 percent from the previous week. The main index underwent a roller coaster trading, dipping more than 2 percent on the first two days before reverting back upon a strong rebound of 4.64 percent over the r

Alec Baldwin has apologized to a New York City-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights group for a series of tweets that could be interpreted as homophobic.Baldwin's messages were directed at a newspaper reporter who accused his wife of tweeting during the funeral for the former star of ``The Sopranos'' James Gandolfini. Baldwin says in a letter to GLAAD posted on its website Friday his tweets didn't have anything to do with "issues of anyone's sexual orientation."The former "30 Rock

North Korea warned Saturday that South Korea could face a "miserable fate" if it allows anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to be flown into its territory from across the border.The warning from Pyongyang came as a group of North Korean defectors and a U.S.-based human rights agency said last week that they jointly plan to fly leaflets with anti Pyongyang messages into the communist country later in the day from Imjin Pavilion, just south of the western inter-Korean border.The communist country w

The upcoming regional security summit in this tiny Southeast Asian sultanate is the sort of venue where North Korea has often managed to open up sideline discussions with Seoul and Washington. This time, while there will be plenty of talk about Pyongyang, there is little chance of substantive talk with it.North Korea has sought negotiations with the U.S. and South Korea but has ignored their demands that it first honor prior commitments to move toward nuclear disarmament. At high-level diplomati

The lead plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California's same-sex marriage ban tied the knot at San Francisco City Hall on Friday, about an hour after a federal appeals court freed same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses for the first time in 4 1/2 years.State Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier as hundreds of supporters looked on and cheered. The couple sued to overturn the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban along

President Park Geun-hye delivered a friendship address at the alma mater of Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday, calling for the two neighbors to build relations of "trust" based on the big strides they have made in just 20 years of diplomatic ties.Park began the 20-minute speech before students and faculty members at Tsinghua University in Beijing with about five minutes of greetings and opening remarks in the Chinese language, including an ancient Chinese maxim about the importance of edu

South Korea is mulling buying corporate bonds to be sold by troubled local industries including construction firms and shipbuilders in a bid to help ease their cash crunch, sources said Saturday.The Financial Services Commission (FSC), the financial regulator, is weighing measures to support the ailing corporate bond market as low-credit companies are facing difficulty in securing funds, sources said, adding that detailed plans are to be announced next week.The government is considering supporti

Barack Obama will express "profound gratitude" for Nelson Mandela Saturday, as his hero's battle for life adds a emotional edge to his first visit to South Africa as president.Obama said he did not need a photo-op with Mandela following speculation he could visit the anti-apartheid icon and his fellow Nobel peace laureate in the Pretoria hospital where he has been for more than three weeks.Fears for Mandela health, weighing heavily on Obama's three-nation Africa tour, eased slightly Friday, as t