JERUSALEM, (AFP) -- Israel's defence ministry has published plans for 170 new housing units and another 84 guest rooms in the West Bank settlement of Rotem in the Jordan Valley, anti-settlement activists said on Sunday.The settlement itself previously received government approval, but no building plan was set out, according to Hagit Ofran of the Peace Now organisation."Last week it was deposited for public review. It is talking about 200 units, 30 of them are already built. In addition, another

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Police said Sunday they have arrested six men in another gang rape of a bus passenger in India, four weeks after a deadly attack on a student on a moving bus in the capital outraged Indians and led to calls for tougher rape laws.Police officer Raj Jeet Singh said a 29-year-old woman was the only passenger on a bus as she was traveling to her village in northern Punjab state on Friday night. The driver did not stop at her village despite her repeated pleas and drove her to a des

BEIRUT (AP) -- Activists say Syrian fighter jets have bombed Damascus suburbs as part of a government offensive to dislodge rebels from strategic areas around the capital.  The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says warplanes carried out airstrikes Sunday on towns and villages around the capital, including Kfar Batna and Gesereen, while regime forces bombarded other neighborhoods with artillery and mortars.  The Observatory also says regime troops are battling rebels in the subur

Figure skating star Kim Yu-na will compete in the South Korean national championships this weekend, her first appearance at the tournament in seven years, as she tries to qualify for the world championships this spring.The Korea Skating Union (KSU) said Wednesday Kim will take part in the 2013 Korea Figure Skating Championships at Mokdong Ice Rink in western Seoul. The ladies' short program is set for Saturday and free skating is on Sunday.Kim, 22, last competed in the national championships as

A total of 24 South Korean nationals were killed or injured in a deadly bus crash on a rural highway of the U.S. state of Oregon, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.Five Koreans were among the nine people who died after the tour bus carrying 47 people slid off an icy highway and down an embankment Sunday morning in Oregon, the ministry said in a statement, identifying the Korean victims by name.Local news reports said the crash took place as the bus was returning to Vancouver, Canada from L

BERLIN,  (AFP) -- The Berlin film festival on Thursday unveiled its preliminary line-up for the February event including new releases from US director Gus Van Sant, South Korea's Hong Sang-soo and Ulrich Seidl of Austria.Van Sant will present "Promised Land", an ecological drama about fracking starring Matt Damon, Frances McDormand and John Krasinski at the 63rd Berlinale, taking place February 7 to 17.Organisers of the first major European film festival of the year said Hong Sang-soo, a critics

BERLIN,  (AFP) -- The Berlin film festival on Thursday unveiled its preliminary line-up for the February event including new releases from USdirector Gus Van Sant, South Korea's Hong Sang-soo and Ulrich Seidl of Austria.Van Sant will present "Promised Land", an ecological drama about fracking starring Matt Damon, Frances McDormand and John Krasinski at the 63rdBerlinale, taking place February 7 to 17.Organisers of the first major European film festival of the year said Hong Sang-soo, a critics'

Two prosecutors and four prosecution officials were referred to police Thursday for investigation for their alleged involvement in making and circulating a photo file of a female suspect accused of engaging in sex acts with a prosecutor during questioning, officials said.A special investigation team at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office sent the six-man list to police, paving the way for police to summon and question an incumbent prosecutor for the first time. No sitting prosecutor has ever been qu

BRUSSELS, (AFP) --Much-needed rescue funds for Athens "will be flowing to Greece as early as next week," the head of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday.Juncker spoke at a news conference after finance ministers of the 17-nation eurozone agreed to release a first 34.3 billion euros of aid to Greece, part of a rescue package held up for months due to worries over economic reform delays.

Describing the ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates for 19 months, a South Korean sailor said Sunday he and his three colleagues lived the lives of caged "animals" and didn't have access to clean water.The four South Korean crew members of the MT Gemini, a tanker operated by the Singapore-based Glory Ship Management, were freed Friday, 582 days after the tanker was seized by Somali pirates on April 30, 2011.The vessel was released in November 2011, but the pirates broke an agreement to release

North Korea will face way tougher sanctions than before if it presses ahead with a threatened rocket launch, a senior South Korean official said Sunday, as the communist nation has kept up preparations for a liftoff.Pyongyang said a day earlier that it plans to launch a rocket carrying a "working satellite" between Dec. 10 and 22, with much of the world suspecting it is in reality testing ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.The planned launch will be the North's second launch

BUENOS AIRES (AP) -- Lady Gaga's tweets were getting a lot of attention ahead of her Buenos Aires concert Friday night.The Grammy-winning entertainer has more than 30 million followers on Twitter and that's where she shared a link this week to a short video showing her doing a striptease and fooling around in a bathtub with two other women.She told her followers that it's a ``surprise for you, almost ready for you to TASTE.''Then, in between concerts in Brazil and Argentina, she posted a picture

South Korean handset maker LG Electronics Inc. said Saturday it spent more than 6 percent of its earnings on research and development through September of this year in a bid to develop high-end products.The company said it had allocated 2.26 trillion won (US$2.08 billion), or 6.06 percent of its sales of 37.4 trillion won earned during in the January-September period, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier.Market watchers said South Korea's No. 2 tech giant increased its research fund to d

SINGAPORE, (AFP) - The United States will push its economic interests more aggressively to preserve its global leadership after being tied down by two wars in the past decade, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday."We are shaping our foreign policy to account for both the economics of power and the power of economics," she said in a speech in Singapore en route to an Asia-Pacific summit in Cambodia to be attended by President Barack Obama.After a decade attending to "a war in Iraq tha

Almost nine out of 10 of the country's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) believe the rising local currency against the U.S. dollar will result in a weaker bottom line, data showed Saturday.According to a survey of 112 local SMEs by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, 88.2 percent replied the higher won will have an adverse impact on their earnings.The local currency closed at 1,092.20 won against the greenback on Friday, remaining below the 1,100 won mark since Oct. 25, wh

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - US President Barack Obama on Friday reiterated US support for Israel's right to defend itself during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the conflict in Gaza."The president reiterated US support for Israel's right to defend itself, and expressed regret over the loss of Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives," the White House said in a summary of the conversation.Netanyahu, who initiated the call, expressed his deep appreciation for US investment in the

KUALA LUMPUR,  (AFP) - Malaysia and Egypt have agreed to ask "international power brokers" to help stop escalating violence in the Middle East, the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country said.Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement from his office that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi called him late Friday to discuss the latest Israeli air strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza."Both countries agreed to ask international power brokers to influence Israel to stop its military aggress

The South Korean stock market is likely to be stagnant next week as uncertainties over the U.S. fiscal cliff continue to dent investor sentiment, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 1,860.83 this week, down 2.29 percent from the previous week, as shares lost ground across the board.Foreign investors went on a selling spree, unloading a net 520 billion won (US$476 million) on the main bourse, with retail investors scooping up a net 80 billion w

HAVANA (AP) -- Adela Hernandez, a biologically male Cuban who has lived as a female since childhood, served two years in prison in the 1980s for ``dangerousness'' after her own family denounced her sexuality.This month she made history by becoming the first known transgender person to hold public office in Cuba, winning election as a delegate to the municipal government of Caibarien in the central province of Villa Clara.In a country where gays were persecuted for decades and sent to grueling wo