President Donald Trump ratcheted up an increasingly hostile feud with the media Saturday, announcing he would skip a century-old annual correspondents’ dinner a day after a fierce row erupted over press access to the White House.　The Trump White House triggered widespread outrage on Friday by denying access to an off-camera briefing to several major US media, including CNN, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and Politico.　Smaller outlets that have provided favorable coverage of the Trump

Billed as Germany's “anti-Trump,” former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected Sunday as the new head of state, vowing to stand up to simplistic populist rhetoric.　The 61-year-old, who regularly polls as Germany’s most popular politician, will represent the EU's top economy abroad in the largely ceremonial post and act as a kind of moral arbiter for the nation.　His Social Democrats (SPD) hope the appointment will boost their fortunes just as their candidate Martin Schulz, the form

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen vowed Sunday she would be a president who puts France first as she formally launched a campaign echoing many of the themes that propelled Donald Trump to the White House.　With polls showing her now leading the first round of the election race, the head of the National Front (FN) attacked “mass immigration.” globalization and “Islamic fundamentalism” and said she wanted a country “which owes nothing to anyone.”　In a speech in the central city of Lyon less than three

While the team of independent counsel Park Young-soo is poised to question President Park Geun-hye later this week, investigators are closing in on another key target of their probe, Woo Byung-woo.　The team questioned Saturday the owner of a major gallery about Woo’s purchases of high-priced paintings. Investigators also summoned a police officer for the second time Sunday in connection with allegations that Woo exerted influence to secure a personnel-related favor for his son, who was serving h

Neil Gorsuch, named Tuesday as President Donald Trump's nominee to the US Supreme Court, has a solidly conservative pedigree that has earned him comparison to the combative justice he would replace, Antonin Scalia. 　Gorsuch clerked for two Supreme Court justices and worked in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department before being appointed to the federal bench and authoring a series of sharply written, conservative opinions. His mother, Anne, ran President Ronald Reagan's Environmental Prote

On his first full day in office, President Donald Trump on Saturday berated the media over its coverage of his inauguration, and turned a bridge-building first visit to CIA headquarters into an airing of grievances about ``dishonest‘’ journalists. But it was Trump who spread inaccuracies about the size of the crowds at his swearing in.　Standing in front of a memorial for fallen CIA agents, Trump assured intelligence officials, ``I am so behind you.‘’ He made no mention of his repeated criticism

Last year, the Earth sweltered under the hottest temperatures in modern times for the third year in a row, US scientists said Wednesday, raising new concerns about the quickening pace of climate change.　Temperatures spiked to new national highs in parts of India, Kuwait and Iran, while sea ice melted faster than ever in the fragile Arctic, said the report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.　Taking a global average of the land and sea surface temperatures for the entire year,

China‘s President Xi Jinping speaks in the Congress Hall on day one of the 47th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday. EPA-YonhapDAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) -- With Donald Trump about to get the keys to the White House and the political winds blowing a populist gale through Europe, Enter stage left Chinese President Xi Jinping, who in an hourlong speech Tuesday won over a crowd of ardent capitalists gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 　“I’

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- EU heavyweights Germany and France led a sharp European response to US President-elect Donald Trump Monday after he branded NATO “obsolete” and said more countries would leave the EU after Britain.　In a hard-hitting interview with two European newspapers, Trump unleashed a volley of verbal attacks on Europe and criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “catastrophic” decision to open Germany’s borders to Syrian refugees.　With fears growing in Europe over Trump’s commitment t

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with 10 Iridium NEXT communications satellites lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Space Launch Complex 4E at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Saturday. AP-YonhapMIAMI (AFP) -- SpaceX on Saturday successfully launched and landed its first unmanned Falcon 9 rocket since a costly and complicated launchpad explosion in September.　“Liftoff of the Falcon 9,” a SpaceX commentator said as the tall white rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Californi

The Ministry of Justice on Thursday sent a formal request to Denmark for the extradition of Chung Yoo-ra.　Chung is a high-profile suspect in the scandal involving her mother, Choi Soon-sil, and President Park Geun-hye. The only daughter of Choi went on the run in Europe after her mother presented herself to prosecutors in South Korea. Choi was jailed and is currently on trial.　　Chung was arrested Sunday night in the Danish town of Aalborg for overstaying her visa. A Danish district court Monday

For seven years, Republicans have yearned to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Now that they have the chance, they seem wholly unprepared to do it right. Much work is still needed to figure out how to avoid destabilizing the health-insurance system. Yet, in their hurry, leaders in Congress seem to want to skip that part. What’s the rush?　　Republicans are allowing themselves just three weeks to develop a budget bill that would scuttle “Obamacare” -- ending the tax penalties on people who don’t h

US President-elect Donald Trump is giving some clues to what his North Korea policy will be like. One positive thing coming through is that unlike his predecessor, he is expected to be make resolving the North Korean nuclear issue a priority. The problem is that the clues are not yet clear enough to predict how.    　In his first comment on North Korea since his election, Trump said Monday that North Korea wouldn’t be able to develop a nuclear arsenal capable of reaching the continental US. He al

The fall of Aleppo and the adjusted alignment of international parties involved in the Syrian conflict have important implications for the future of that country as well as for the United States’ overall role in the Middle East.　What should be -- but is not necessarily -- the primary concern of all parties with respect to the Syrian conflict is to bring it and the human suffering it has produced to an end, as soon as possible. The loss of Aleppo by the various rebel groups holding out there to t

Investigators from the independent counsel have raided an office of the National Pension Service, playing a part in a variety of allegations stemming from President Park Geun-hye’s scandal.　The state-run fund operator is suspected of having offered an irregular favor to Samsung Group in return for the conglomerate’s donation to shady foundations. The entities were reportedly backed by Park or her civilian confidante Choi Soon-sil.　Last year, the NPS -- as a large shareholder -- voted in favor of

It is too bad that holiday revelers have to look over their shoulders instead of focusing on the spirit of the season. However, that is the state of the world today, as was made clear by the truck attack Monday in Berlin that killed 12 people and injured dozens more at a Christmas market.　The so-called Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a tractor-trailer barreled into the well-known market by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, toppling a Christmas tree, tables a

The monthslong Choi Soon-sil scandal and subsequent parliamentary impeachment of President Park Geun-hye are costing the nation a lot. Foreign policy is one of the areas that suffers most dearly. 　Park missed the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held in Peru in November, sending instead Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn. She was the first South Korean leader to have skipped the annual forum since its launch in 1993.　The 21-member APEC forum usually offers a stage for vigorous summit diplomacy

Rep. Adam Schiff, the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is a measured politician not prone to hyper-partisanship.So it’s noteworthy that the former federal prosecutor is calling for a full investigation by members of the Senate and House of Representatives into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.“This investigation would serve the purpose of informing the public, developing a concerted response, deterring the Russians from further malignant cyber action and inoculating the

President-elect Donald Trump has already stepped back from his campaign pledge to entirely repeal Obamacare, saying he’ll keep a couple of the law’s popular insurance protections. Soon enough, certain governors in his own party can be expected to argue that it would also be smart to retain the law’s most successful component: the expansion of Medicaid. Trump should take that advice.　Thirty-one states -- 11 led by Republicans -- have accepted Obamacare funding to extend Medicaid to anyone earning

Citizens are closely watching the prosecution’s movements over its investigation into the Park Geun-hye scandal. The ongoing probe is offering a timely opportunity for the agency to regain some of its recently plummeted public credibility.　Some still criticize the prosecutors saying that they are pretending to work after succumbing to the public’s anger over its belated investigation into the influence-peddling involving the incumbent president and her civilian friend Choi Soon-sil. In contrast,