LONDON (AP) -- A helicopter crashed into a crane and fell on a street in central London during rush hour Wednesday, sending black plumes of smoke into the air as it smashed into a crowded street. Two people were killed and nine others injured, officials said. The helicopter crashed just south of the River Thames near the Underground and mainline train station at Vauxhall, and near the British sp...

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -- Islamist militants from Mali attacked a natural gas field partly operated by BP in southern Algeria early on Wednesday, killing a security guard and kidnapping at least eight people, including English, Norwegian and Japanese nationals, an Algerian security official and local media said. Algerian forces, however, caught up with and surrounded the kidnappers and negotiatio...

South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Wednesday they are aiming to increase their combined sales in China by 10 percent to 1.47 million units this year. The sales target represents 20 percent of the carmakers' total global sales of 7.41 million units planned for this year, they said. The Chinese car market is expected to grow 9.6 percent to 13.94 ...

South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Kang Chang-hee and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra agreed Wednesday to boost their countries' cooperation in the field of water resources management, a spokesman said. Kang, now on a 13-day trip through Southeast Asia, paid a courtesy call on the Thai leader in Bangkok earlier in the day and the two sides discussed ways to deepen their economic tie...

The foreign minister of Australia vowed Wednesday that his government will make utmost efforts to track down those suspected of attacking South Korean nationals in his country and bring them to justice. In a Korean-language statement provided by the Australian embassy in Seoul, Bob Carr said investigations have been under way to trace suspects in four assault cases against South Korean nationals...

Heavy snowfall that hit the central part of South Korea disrupted dozens of domestic and international flights on Wednesday, the state-run airport operator said. At least 15 international flights and two domestic flights bound for the Incheon International Airport were canceled as the weather agency issued a warning for snow earlier in the day, the Korea Airports Corporation (KAC) said. Heavy s...

President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner spoke for the first time in days Wednesday in a telephone discussion over the fiscal cliff, following several days of political sparring over steps to prevent a looming year-end series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts. The call, disclosed by a Boehner spokesman, raises the possibility that negotiations will soon...

Rapper Psy's international smash single "Gangnam Style" has been certified by the United States record association as "double-platinum" for more than 2 million digital sales, his agency here said Saturday. Since its release in July, Psy's digital singles have been purchased more than 2 million times in the U.S., which earned him the certification by the Recording Industry Association of America,...

An ad hoc inspection team of prosecutors on Saturday began its investigation into their disgraced colleague who has been under a police probe for allegedly taking tens of millions of won in bribes from a notorious swindler and a mid-sized conglomerate, which renewed tension between police and the prosecution. The senior prosecutor, identified only by his surname Kim, has been under police invest...

COLOMBO (AFP) -- Sri Lankan troops found 11 bodies of convicts Saturday raising the death toll in an overnight prison riot in the capital to 27, prisons minister said. Minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera told parliament that 27 people were killed in Friday's rioting at Colombo's maximum security Welikada prison where inmates fought gunbattles with elite police commandos who carried out a search. "Si...

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) -- China's trade surplus widened in October from the previous month as exports grew faster than imports, the Chinese customs office said Saturday. The world's second-largest economy posted a trade surplus of US $32 billion last month, compared with $27.7 billion in September, according to the General Administration of Customs. Exports went up 11.6 percent on-year to $175...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- David Petraeus, the retired four-star general credited for salvaging the U.S. war in Iraq and later taking charge of the military campaign in Afghanistan, abruptly resigned Friday as director of the CIA, admitting to an extramarital affair. Petraeus' resignation shocked Washington's intelligence and political communities. It was a sudden end to the public career of the best-kn...

The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said Saturday they've accepted the highest of sealed bids by a Major League Baseball (MLB) club for their star pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin, clearing the path for the left-hander to reach the big leagues in 2013. The Eagles said the bid was worth about US$25.7 million. It is the highest amount of bid ever for a South Korean player attempting to ...

North Korea said Friday it will hold talks with Japan later this month in Mongolia to discuss ways to mend their relations. "The DPRK and Japanese governments will hold talks in Ulan Bator of Mongolia on November 15 and 16 under the mutual agreement reached in the wake of the contacts between section chiefs of foreign ministries of the two countries in August 2012," the North's state-run Korean ...