Only an hour's drive from the Winter Olympics venues in South Korea, a stained mattress lies in an abandoned ski resort, a possible harbinger of the gleaming new facilities' fate.The Alps Ski Resort was one of the country's first winter sports destinations, attracting tens of thousands of skiers every year until it abruptly shut its doors in 2006.Now South Korea has spent $800 million on the sporting facilities for next month's Winter Olympics, but the International Olympic Committee has express

A Taiwanese businessman who has been investigated and sanctioned by authorities on suspicion of selling oil to North Korea attempted suicide on Friday, prosecutors said. Chen Shih-hsien was rushed to hospital in southern Kaohsiung city where he lives and was later discharged."We are aware of Chen's attempted suicide. We will consider his health state before deciding on the date for his next questioning," said Ke Kuang-hui, a spokesman for the Kaohsiung district prosecutor's office.An emotional C

Dandong, China -- China has ramped up security along its border with North Korea, installing new surveillance cameras, deploying extra security forces and operating radiation detectors as it braces for a potential crisis.Bellicose rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang has raised fears in China of a conflict that could send millions of North Korean refugees across the 1,420-kilometre (880-mile) border, and of nuclear fallout that could hit Chinese towns.While authorities have been coy about p

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Russia of undermining international sanctions against North Korea and weakening efforts to curb Kim Jong-Un‘s nuclear weapons program.“Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea,” Trump told the Reuters news agency. “What China is helping us with, Russia is denting.”Last month, Trump had already denounced Russia for “not helping” global efforts to pressure Pyongyang to halt the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile

BEIJING -- China on Tuesday dismissed an international meeting on the North Korean nuclear crisis hosted by Canada and the United States as illegitimate, as major players like Beijing were not present.The absence of Russia and China from the two days of talks in Vancouver, which began on Monday, shows the holes in Washington's bid to form a unified global front against North Korea's nuclear threat."The most important relevant parties of the Korean peninsula issue haven't taken part in the meetin

PARIS (AFP) - The referee who kicked a player during a French Ligue 1 game and then sent him off has been suspended "until further notice", the French Football Federation said on Monday.   Tony Chapron kicked Diego Carlos of Nantes towards the end of Sunday's game against Paris Saint-Germain after being knocked over when the pair collided in a bizarre incident.   Chapron then showed the player a second yellow card.(Yonhap-EPA)  The FFF's technical committee of referees said Chapron had been "wit

Spain is expected to replace the United States as the world's second tourism destination while France has retained the top spot, the UN World Tourism Organization said Monday."It is expected" that Spain will take the second position with some 82 million visitors last year, UNWTO chief Zurab Pololikashvili told reporters, adding however that definitive figures would be published in the spring.He did not give any details about the United States, nor did he explain why Spain took the second spot de

Authorities faced anger and demands for answers Sunday after a false alarm about an incoming ballistic missile caused panic in Hawaii, a Pacific archipelago already on edge over fears of a North Korean attack.The notification was sent out just after 8:00 am (1800 GMT) on Saturday, lighting up phones with a disturbing alert urging people to "seek immediate shelter."Emergency management officials later admitted "the wrong button was pushed" during a shift change. But it took nearly 40 minutes for

 A South Korean has been arrested for the suspected murder of his wife and child on Sunday at the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel on Hong Kong's harbourfront, officials said.Police rushed to the hotel after receiving a report on Sunday morning that a man and a woman were fighting.The woman and a young boy were found dead at the scene while the man was arrested on suspicion of murder and taken to hospital, police said.Police did not confirm the relationship between the three but told AFP they were all

LAUSANNE - Officials from North and South Korea will meet at the International Olympic Committee's headquarters on January 20 to hammer out the details of the North's participation at next month's Winter Games, the IOC said Wednesday. "The participants will be a delegation from the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee and delegations from the (Olympic committees) of the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), all led by their respective presidents, as well

 LONDON (AFP) - Britain's trade deficit has risen to a five-month high, official data showed Wednesday, sparking concern over looming Brexit talks.   The deficit in goods and services, the gap between exports and imports, widened in November by ?0.5 billion to a five-month high of ?2.8 billion, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.   However, the ONS also revealed that industrial output rebounded 0.4 percent in November compared with activity in October, aided by a strong

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - A woman in South Africa bit the penis of a man who raped her in front of her five-year-old child, police said Wednesday as they searched for the "severely injured" attacker.   The pregnant woman was hitch-hiking with her child in the northeastern province of Mpumalanga on Monday when two men gave her a lift, pointed a gun at her and drove their car into bushes.   "One of the men forcefully raped her at knifepoint in front of her child", Mpumalanga police said in a statement.

South Korea on Tuesday proposed holding reunions during next month's Winter Olympics for families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War, as the two sides held their first official talks in more than two years. (Yonhap)The issue is one of the most emotive legacies of the conflict and the South urged that the meetings be held at the Lunar New Year, which falls in the middle of the Pyeongchang Games, the South's vice unification minister Chun Hae-Sung told journalists. (AFP)

Intel chief Brian Krzanich said Monday the impact of a recently discovered vulnerability in computer chips has been limited due to "remarkable" collaboration by the tech industry.Krzanich took the unusual step of addressing the security issue as he delivered a keynote ahead of the opening of the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an industry event expected to draw some 180,000 people from the sector. Intel chief Brian Krzanich (AFP)As yet, Krzanich said, there is no information to sugg

A high-level South Korean delegation left Tuesday for rare talks with North Korea after months of tensions over the North's nuclear weapons programme, with Seoul's chief delegate vowing to work towards improving long-strained ties.The talks come after the North's leader Kim Jong-un indicated in his New Year's speech that Pyongyang was willing to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in the South.Seoul responded with an offer of a high-level dialogue, and last week the hotline between the neig

The leaders of Turkey and Bulgaria on Sunday reopened the Bulgarian St Stephen's Church in Istanbul after seven years of restoration,  a gesture of harmony in an often turbulent relationship between the two neighbours.The Bulgarian Orthodox church in Balat, a historic Istanbul neighbourhood on the shores of the Golden Horn traditionally home to Christians and Jews, was built in 1898 after its original wooden structure was destroyed in a fire. Made out of cast iron, the iconic ornate building has

Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced optimism as she opened talks Sunday with Germany's second biggest party on renewing their alliance, in a new attempt at shaking Europe's biggest economy out of paralysis after September's inconclusive elections.The week of meetings between Merkel's conservative alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD) will examine whether both sides have enough common ground to begin formal coalition negotiations towards a new government by March or April."I am going into these tal

CAMP DAVID -- US President Donald Trump said Saturday he would be willing to speak directly with Kim Jong-un, voicing hope that rare talks between North and South Korea could help deescalate the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear drive.Trump's remarks were a further pivot from his often-bellicose rhetoric on North Korea and Kim, with whom he has engaged in a war of words that raised fears of nuclear war as Pyongyang carried out missile and nuclear tests."I always believe in talking," Trump said at

STOCKHOLM (AFP) -- Danish police are investigating the theft of what is claimed to be "the world's most expensive" bottle of vodka, in what the bar owner says could be an inside job.The bottle, made from white and yellow gold and containing a diamond-encrusted replica of the Russian Imperial Eagle on its cap, is said to be worth $1.3 million (one million euro).A CCTV recording sent to AFP shows a masked man grabbing the Russo-Baltique vodka and fleeing Cafe 33 bar in Copenhagan early on Tuesday.

WARSAW, Poland -- Around 400 North Koreans are still working in Poland but the EU member has not issued any new work permits since August last year in compliance with a UN resolution, the Polish labor minister said Wednesday.New UN sanctions passed against North Korea last month ban the supply of nearly 75 percent of refined oil products to Pyongyang, cap crude deliveries and order all North Koreans working abroad to be sent back by the end of 2019.  (AP)“Since Aug. 5, 2017, Poland has issued no