BAGHDAD (AFP) - A wave of attacks, most of them car bombs targeting Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, killed 33 people on Wednesday in the latest bout of deadly violence to hit Iraq.The bombings and shootings, which left more than 70 people wounded in all, come amid a protracted surge in bloodletting just months ahead of general elections that has forced Iraqi officials to appeal for international help in combating the country's worst unrest since 2008.At least eight explosions, including seven c

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was found to have ordered an intensified propaganda war against the Park Geun-hye administration last month in a possible policy shift, a South Korean government official said Wednesday.The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said South Korean authorities picked up intelligence that Kim ordered Kim Yang-gon, the head of United Front Department of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, to lash out at Park and her government.The United Front and its head

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused the Palestinians of creating "artificial crises" as he met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is striving to rescue the fragile peace process.The premier's remarks were made at the start of a meeting with Kerry at a Jerusalem hotel that lasted nearly three hours and came shortly after the Palestinians threatened to bolt the talks over a fresh row about settlements. Kerry arrived in Israel late on Tuesday as rumors swirl

BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union's executive Commission is backing plans to cultivate a genetically modified maize despite the objections of environmental groups which considers it dangerous. Wednesday's approval now sends the plans to approve Maize 1507 to the EU's 28 member nations for consideration and could lead to a decision on the issue as soon as next month. EU member states have sharply diverging views on the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms, commonly known as GMOs. The EU

BEIJING (AP) – A series of small explosions killed one person and injured eight others Wednesday outside the provincial headquarters of the ruling Communist Party in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, officials said.Officials gave no word on the target or perpetrators of the blasts, which state media said were caused by homemade bombs. The explosions came during heightened security following a suicide car crash at Tiananmen Gate in Beijing that killed the car's three occupants and two bystand

North Korea accused South Korean President Park Geun-hye of "moral vulgarity" Wednesday after she suggested she was ready to hold a summit with its leader Kim Jong-un at any time.The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea accused Park of talking about a summit with Kim while making provocative remarks against Pyongyang."Park's remark about 'summit talks' does not deserve even a passing note and is just a last resort to tide over the political crisis inside and outside," the st

North Korea has "very serious nuclear capabilities" and it is able to conduct another round of nuclear tests "any time," South Korea's nuclear envoy said Tuesday.The communist country has restarted a nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear center, a provocative move that would provide Pyongyang with enough plutonium to build one atomic bomb a year, according to Seoul's spy agency. Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February. "The assessment on North Korea's nuclear capabilities is ver

NEW YORK (Yonhap News) -- South Korea's top central banker on Tuesday stressed the need to build up global financial safety nets to promote financial stability as an absence of such scheme would deepen global imbalances.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo said in a forum hosted by Economic Club of New York that the global financial system "needs an effective backstop for global liquidity shortage," expressing hopes that advanced economies should be more active in creating global financial sa

Google, Apple and other foreign firms should be taxed on profits generated from Korean-made contents, ruling Saenuri Party’s Rep. Nam Kyung-pil claimed Tuesday.Saying that the Broadcasting Communication Development Fund is dwindling due to the drop in terrestrial broadcasters’ advertising revenues, Nam said that Korea should seek out new sources for related revenues citing examples from Europe.According to Nam, the French government has been developing the plans to levy “culture tax” varying fro

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar police said Tuesday a makeshift bomb caused a blast at a luxury Yangon hotel that wounded an American woman, as they questioned several suspects following a series of explosions.Officials voiced fears that the incidents could be aimed at derailing democratic reforms as the country prepares to host a major regional sporting event in December and chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year.The American woman was taken to hospital with wounds to her thi

KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) - The Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday began in Iraq Tuesday with a bomb ripping through a crowd of worshippers as they left a Sunni mosque, killing 12 people.Three children, a policeman and an army officer were among the dead from the blast in the northern city of Kirkuk, which also wounded 26 people, police and a doctor said.Bodies, their clothes covered in blood, were placed in the back of a small police pickup truck to be taken away, an AFP journalist at the scene said.Angry and

South Korea's trade surplus in the industrial parts and materials sector rose to a new high in the first nine months of this year as the growth of its exports outpaced that of imports, the government said Tuesday.In the January-September period, the country's exports of industrial parts and materials came to some US$196 billion, up 3.7 percent from the same period last year, and its imports rose 1.4 percent on-year to reach some $123 billion, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Ener

BEIJING (Yonhap News) – The mother of an American man jailed in North Korea for nearly one year said Tuesday she is "more anxious than ever" to bring her son home after meeting him during her visit to the North. Kenneth Bae, a 45-year-old Korean-American known as a Christian missionary, was arrested in North Korea last November on charges of unspecified anti-government activities. In April, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.His mother, Bae Myung-hee, 68, flew to Pyongyang on Thursday to

Popular South Korean novelist Choi In-ho died of cancer on Wednesday at the age of 68. He started his career by winning a competition sponsored by the local daily Hanguk Ilbo in 1963 with his short novel "Through a Wall Hole."   He wrote a number of bestsellers since the 1970s, including "Whale Hunting," "Winter Wanderer" and "Deep Blue Night," with many of them used as originals for movies and TV dramas. (Yonhap News)

North Korea on Wednesday postponed scheduled talks to enhance communications links and ease access to and from the inter-Korean factory park in Gaesong.The Ministry of Unification in Seoul said Pyongyang called for a delay of the sub-panel meeting without giving a reason or setting up an alternate date. The meeting was set to take place at the Gaesong Industrial Complex on Thursday. Issues on communications links include building infrastructure, allowing Internet access to factories at the North

PARIS (AFP) - France said Wednesday its public debt would hit a record 95.1 percent of GDP in 2014, far higher than previous estimates, as it unveiled next year's draft budget for the embattled euro-zone economy.But the government said debt should fall back in 2015, and reiterated a pledge to meet its EU-mandated deadline to bring the public deficit below three percent that year.The draft budget was presented to the cabinet by Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici and Budget Minister Bernard Cazeneu

KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) - Militants attacked local government buildings in north Iraq on Wednesday with suicide bombers and mortar fire and clashed with soldiers, leaving 14 people dead, an army officer said.Seven civilians, three soldiers and four militants were killed in the violence in the town of Hawijah, west of Kirkuk, army Staff Major General Mohammed Khalaf al-Dulaimi said.One suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a police station while a second blew up another near a loc

THE HAGUE (AFP) - Dutch police closed two department stores and a restaurant in the city of Haarlem on Wednesday after someone tweeted threats of a "bloodbath.”Armed police were deployed outside V&D shops and a restaurant in the city to the west of Amsterdam after "threatening tweets" were made, police said in a statement.The tweets were made on Tuesday night saying there would be a bloodbath at a V&D shop on Wednesday at 11:50 a.m., with at least 10 dead, Dutch media reported.The author of the

South Korea has reviewed a five-year plan for fostering inter-Korean trust-building and sustainable relations that can achieve small breakthroughs critical for laying the foundation for eventual reunification down the line, the government said Wednesday. The plan, which defines the Park Geun-hye administration's policy towards Pyongyang, focuses on trust and "a small form of unification" as its two main objectives, the Ministry of Unification said.Trust is critical for the two Koreas to expand e

The unionists of the state-run broadcaster KBS on Wednesday pledged to strike, citing an ad hoc parliamentary committee's failure to work out measures to guarantee fair broadcasting and to improve its corporate governance structure. Following a vote on the issue, the union said they plan to walk off the job at 5 a.m., Thursday, and some 2,500 unionists are expected to take part in the strike.The union criticized a special committee on fair broadcasting for failing to make any noticeable headway,