WASHINGTON (AP) ― When racial tensions erupted midway through his first presidential campaign, Barack Obama came to Philadelphia to decry the “racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years.” Over time, he said, such wounds, rooted in America’s painful history on race, can be healed. Six years later, the stalemate suddenly seems more entrenched than ever. As Obama pleads for calm and understandi...

Five large underground hollows were discovered this week underneath one of Seoul’s road tunnels, city officials said Monday, adding to public concerns over safety sparked by similar discoveries in Seoul this month. The newly found cavities are large enough to contain stacks of cars. They are located only a few meters away from two similar cavities discovered earlier this month below the Seokchon...

Pope Francis consoled some of the most marginalized members of Korean society by holding their hands on Monday, the last day of his five-day visit to Korea. The pontiff officiated a Mass at Myeongdong Cathedral in downtown Seoul, praying for reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula. Before the Mass, the pope took a few minutes to talk to some 20 men and women sitting in the cathedral’s ...

Friction between the Education Ministry and local education offices over elite schools hinted at an escalation of conflict between Minister Hwang Woo-yea and progressive superintendents. The ministry announced Monday that it would not approve Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education’s attempt to strip the status of autonomous private high school from Dongsan Christian High School. Autonomous scho...

As afternoon turned into evening on March 13, 2013, in Vatican City, white smoke rose from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, signaling that a new pope had been elected. About an hour later, the identity of the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church was unveiled: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. He would be named Pope Francis, it was announced. Since that moment, Pope Francis ne...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams shot to fame for his madcap standup act and his offbeat alien Mork, but his most famous roles showed a depth of pain behind the comedian’s mask. The wildly popular 63-year-old funnyman, whose career spanned more than three decades, was known for rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness improvisations and impersonations. On screen, his characters...

ANKARA (AFP) ― Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will be Turkey’s next president after an easy election victory, climbed from a humble youth in Istanbul to become one of the most significant but controversial leaders in the Islamic world. Erdogan, who has served as premier since 2003, is lauded by his supporters as a transformative figure who modernized Turkey and delivered power ...

Korean prosecutors have opened an investigation into Sankei Shimbun over a report on President Park Geun-hye that raised questions about her whereabouts during the day of the ferry sinking. The Seoul bureau of the Japanese newspaper speculated in its Aug. 3 online edition that Park was not at Cheong Wa Dae when the ferry capsized on the morning of April 16. Citing rumors in the stock brokerage ...

PARIS ― The space probe Rosetta made a historic rendezvous with a comet on Wednesday, climaxing a 10-year, 6-billion-kilometer chase through the Solar System, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. “We’re at the comet,” Rosetta’s flight operations manager, Sylvain Lodiot, declared in a webcast from mission control in Darmstadt, Germany. It marks the first time a spacecraft has been sent into orb...

Two American aid workers infected with Ebola are getting an experimental drug so novel it has never been tested for safety in humans and was only identified as a potential treatment earlier this year, thanks to a research program by the U.S. government and the military. The workers, Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, are improving, although it's impossible to know whether the treatment is the ...

Period action flick “Roaring Currents” has set one box-office record after another since its opening last Wednesday. Previous period flicks have enjoyed notable successes, including “The King and the Clown” in 2005 and “Masquerade” in 2012. But none became box-office hits as quickly and sensationally as “Roaring Currents.” The film premiered on July 30, with the biggest-ever opening-day viewers...

Rep. Park Young-sun’s role within the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy is growing in the vacuum left by its moderate leaders. In the wake of NPAD co-chairmen Reps. Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Han-gil’s resignations, Park was made the party’s acting chair. She will also head the NPAD’s emergency committee. With the majority of the lawmakers in agreement, the committee will be tasked ...

President Park Geun-hye returns to office on Monday after her much-debated five-day summer vacation. As many expected, the president ended up staying in Cheong Wa Dae the whole time, saying she had no room left in her mind to go on a trip. On a rare occasion, Park expressed her thoughts on her Facebook account last Tuesday, describing the past months as “a difficult and a long period of time.” S...

BEIJING (AP) ― China’s ruling Communist Party announced an investigation into a feared ex-security chief, demonstrating President Xi Jinping’s firm grip on power and breaking a longstanding taboo against publicly targeting the country’s topmost leaders. If he goes to trial, Zhou Yongkang would be the highest-level official to be prosecuted since the 1981 treason trial of Mao Zedong’s wife and ot...