KEY WEST, Florida (AP) _ The first commercial passenger flight from Key West to Cuba in more than 50 years landed Monday in Havana, capping several years of efforts to reunite the two islands, though regular air service still appeared a distant prospect. U.S. Customs and Border Protection gave the final approval for the flight Monday morning, and the nine-passenger aircraft departed 90 minutes l...

The price of natural gas will be raised an average 5.8 percent from Jan. 1 to reflect a recent hike in import prices, the government said Tuesday. The price of liquefied natural gas supplied by the Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) will be raised by 6.1 percent for the industrial sector, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "The rate hike comes as the country urgently needs to secure ...

SARASOTA, Florida (AP) -- Dr. Kenneth Edelin, a Boston physician at the center of a landmark abortion case in the 1970s, died Monday morning in Sarasota, Florida. He was 74. Edelin's wife, Barbara, confirmed that he died after suffering from cancer. She said that her husband was a great teacher and mentor, guiding many young doctors over his career. ``He was a great advocate for the rights of ...

North Korea may stage provocations against South Korea early next year as part of efforts to further ensure internal unity following the execution of leader Kim Jong-un's once-powerful uncle and his associates, a Seoul think tank said Tuesday. The North executed Jang Song-thaek on charges of treason, along with other officials in early December. The shocking series of purges sparked concerns ove...

The ruling and opposition parties reached an agreement Tuesday on a package of measures to reform South Korea's main intelligence agency, including a tougher punishment for agents involved in meddling in domestic politics under the pretext of psychological warfare against North Korea. The ranking members of the rival parties on the special parliamentary committee on reforming the National Intell...

Unionists of the state-run railway operator KORAIL on Tuesday ended a 22-day walkout and returned to their workplaces. However, they vowed to continue their struggle against the government's approval of the establishment of a KORAIL affiliate, which will run the new bullet train route out of Suseo in southwestern Seoul from as early as 2015. "All union members returned and resumed their work as...

A Seoul court acquitted an American soldier of raping his South Korean fiancee in 2011, court officials said Tuesday. The sergeant major of the U.S. Army, whose identity has been withheld, was indicted on charges of raping and assaulting his fiancee, whose identity remains anonymous, officials said. The Seoul Central District Court delivered a not-guilty verdict, citing lack of evidence, they a...

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's reformist president granted a pardon Monday to people convicted of or charged with a variety of political offenses, an apparent effort to fulfill his pledge to free all political prisoners by the end of this year. It wasn't immediately clear how many people are covered by President Thein Sein's pardon, which was announced on state television. The pardon covers p...

Two provincial banking firms won the bid Tuesday to each buy a regional bank unit of Woori Finance Holdings Co., giving a hand to the government's long-pending sale of South Korea's largest banking group, ank and regulatory sources said. The state-run Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. (KDIC), the controlling shareholder of Woori Finance, picked Busan-based BS Financial Group Inc. as the preferred bi...

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Friday issued a license for the state-run rail operator to establish an affiliate to run a new branch of the KTX line, despite fierce opposition from labor unions and others. The issuance is expected to increase pressure on the 27 percent of KORAIL’s 20,443 employees who have been on strike since Dec. 9 against what they claim to be a move to...

BEIRUT (AP) _ A powerful bombing rocked a central business district of central Beirut Friday, setting cars ablaze and killing five people, including a senior aide to former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, officials said. The National News Agency said Mohammed Chatah and his driver were both killed in the explosion, which wounded more than 70 others. Lebanon has seen a wave of bombings over...

Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, arrived here Sunday for talks with South Korean officials. King's trip comes as Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary, remains detained in the communist North since he was caught nearly a year ago. The Korean-American has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by a North Korean court for committing an unspecified crime agains...

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) _ Georgia on Sunday inaugurated a new president, 44-year-old philosopher and former university rector Giorgi Margvelashvili, who pledged to strengthen the former Soviet republic's ties with the West and maintain its commitment to NATO. His inauguration brings to an end the nearly decade-long presidency of Mikhail Saakashvili, who aligned this Black Sea nation with the Unite...

Investment banking giant JPMorgan Chase said Thursday it has sold all of its exposure to short-term U.S. government debt out of its money market funds, following a similar move by other money market mutual fund managers. The announcement comes a day after Fidelity Investments, the largest U.S. manager of money market mutual funds, said it no longer holds any U.S. government debt that comes due a...

WHO WON? The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international panel formed in 1997 to enforce a treaty banning the use of chemical weapons. FOR WHAT? Behind-the-scenes work in identifying whether all 190 nations that have signed the treaty adhere fully to terms of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. That treaty outlaws the production or use of chemical weapons; authoriz...