North Korea held a national meeting Tuesday to mark the 17th anniversary of late leader Kim Jong-il's election as general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. The communist nation's leader, Kim Jong-un, however, was absent from the annual event to commemorate his father. Kim has been out of public sight since Sept. 3 amid news reports that he appears to be suffering a health problem. Atte...

MADRID (AP) -- Three more people were placed under quarantine for Ebola at a Madrid hospital where a Spanish nurse became infected, authorities said Tuesday. More than 50 other possible contacts were being monitored. The nurse, who had cared for a Spanish priest who died of Ebola, was the first case of Ebola being transmitted outside of West Africa, where a months-long outbreak has killed at lea...

The Defense Ministry on Tuesday replaced the head of its key intelligence organization, apparently holding him accountable for failing to give timely and appropriate advice with regard to a series of recent fatal incidents in the barracks. The ministry appointed Lt. Gen. Cho Hyun-chon to lead the Defense Security Command, replacing Lt. Gen. Lee Jae-soo, who took the post just a year ago. It wa...

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- A Franciscan priest and several other Christians have been seized by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front in a village in northwestern Syria, the Franciscan mission to the Holy Land said Tuesday. "On the night of October 5th, Father Hanna Jallouf of the Custody of the Holy Land, parish priest at Qunyeh, Syria, was taken by some brigades linked to Jabhat Al-Nusra," a statement fro...

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and U.S. scientist Shuji Nakamura won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for the invention of blue light-emitting diodes, a breakthrough that spurred the development of LED technology used to light up computer screens and modern smartphones. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says their invention is just 20 years old, “but it has a...

South Koreans forgot decades-long political tensions, at least for 90 minutes, on Monday, cheering not only their compatriot footballers but those from North Korea waging a battle for a spot in the Asiad final. The inter-Korean showdown in the semifinal match in South Korea's western port city of Incheon was fierce; South Korea was bent on the seemingly elusive goal of clinching the first-ever A...

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- The European Union said it will unveil on Tuesday details of investigations into sweetheart tax deals for Apple amid reports it will accuse the U.S. tech giant of getting illegal state aid. The probe into Apple's tax affairs in Ireland, where it has for years enjoyed an effective rate of less than 2.0 percent, found the schemes gave the company an unfair competitive advantage, ...

A U.S. special envoy condemned North Korea Monday for being increasingly recalcitrant about international calls to honor its denuclearization pledges but stressed that Washington and Beijing have "firmly" agreed on the importance of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Ambassador Glyn Davies, who serves as Washington's special envoy for North Korea policy, met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei i...

BEIRUT (AP) -- U.S.-led coalition strikes targeted Islamic State group positions overnight across in northern and eastern Syria, including one that hit a grain silo and reportedly killed civilians, activists said Monday. Washington and its Arab allies opened their air assault against the extremist group last week, going after its military facilities, training camps, heavy weapons and oil install...

South Korean tennis duo of Lim Dong-kyu and Chung Hyeon clinched gold in the men's doubles at the Asian Games on Monday, ending the country's 28-year gold medal drought in the event. Lim and Chung beat Saketh Sai Myneni and Sanam Krishan Singh 7-5, 7-6 (2) in the men's doubles tennis final at Yeorumul Tennis Courts. The eighth-seeded pair had beat the fourth seed Indian team of Divij Sharan and...

North Korea said Sunday it had sentenced detained American Matthew Miller to six years' hard labour for "hostile" acts against Pyongyang. The sentence came some two weeks after Miller and two other detained Americans made a highly unusual televised plea to Washington to negotiate their release. The North's Supreme Court passed the sentence on Miller in a trial earlier Sunday, the state-run Kore...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia warned Saturday that it would react if the European Union imposed tougher economic sanctions against it over the situation in Ukraine. "As for the new list of sanctions from the European Union, if they are passed, there will undoubtedly be a reaction from our side," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Moscow criticised the European Union for drawing up the to...

TOKYO (AFP) - A top North Korean diplomat left Saturday for a tour of Europe amid signs reclusive Pyongyang has started to adopt a more active approach to foreign relations, a report said. Kang Sok-Ju, a secretary of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party, is scheduled to visit Belgium, Switzerland and other European countries, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported from the North Korean...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia on Saturday sent six ships carrying personnel and equipment to a Soviet-era military base in the Arctic that it is reopening to bolster its presence in the region, Russian news agencies reported. Moscow is ramping up its military presence in the pristine but energy-rich region as other countries such as Canada and Norway are also staking claims to access its resources. Pre...

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Heavy monsoon rains and flash floods washing across Pakistan have killed 110 people and injured 148, a government official said Saturday, as authorities warned of more rain in the coming days and troops raced to evacuate people from deluged areas. Ahmad Kamal, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, said at least 61 people died in the eastern Punjab province ...