TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian man convicted of throwing acid in the face of a female student who was to have been blinded himself on Sunday in retribution was pardoned by his victim, the state-run television website said. "With the request of Ameneh Bahrami, the acid attack victim, Majid (Movahedi) who was sentenced for 'qesas' ('eye for an eye'-style justice) was pardoned at the last minute" after...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Were the Neanderthals simply crowded out by the ancestors of modern humans? That's the theory of a pair of British researchers, who say early modern humans outnumbered Neanderthals by 10-to-1 in a region of southwestern France they studied. Scientists have long debated the circumstances in which modern people replaced Neanderthals across Europe about 40,000 years ago. Leading ...

Residents of mountainside villages hit by multiple landslides from Mount Umyeon may sue local authorities, claiming that their neglect led to the calamity which claimed the lives of 18. Kwak Chang-ho, who represents tenants of Raemian Art Hill Apartment in Bangbae-dong, in Seoul’s southern ward of Seocho, said Sunday that he will work to form an emergency committee of tenants in order to prepare...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House and Republican congressional leaders made significant progress late Saturday toward a deal to avert a government default threatened for early next week, according to officials familiar with the talks. Under the plan, the nation's debt limit would rise in two steps by about $2.4 trillion and spending would be cut by a slightly larger amount, the officials said. ...

Four people were killed and 16 others injured during a fight between two groups of workers after one faction detonated explosives in northwestern Gansu Province on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported. The blast occurred at around 2:30 p.m. near a railway tunnel at a construction site in the Wudu District of the city of Longnan. Workers from the Wuguan highway construction crew, a section of the ...

HONG KONG (AFP) - Apple and Samsung have overtaken long-time leader Nokia for the top two spots in the global smartphone market, a report said Friday, underscoring the Finnish handset maker's ongoing struggles. US-based research firm Strategy Analytics said the US and Korean smartphone makers outpaced Nokia in the second quarter, with the sector posting record quarterly shipments of 110 million ...

TOKYO (Yonhap News) -- Three Japanese lawmakers vowed Saturday they will go ahead with their trip to a Korean island next week, a day after Seoul formally informed Tokyo that it will bar them from entry. Korea quickly reaffirmed its stance on Saturday that immigration officials will deny entry to the lawmakers upon their planned arrival at an airport on Monday and send them back to Japan. The l...

YEONCHEON (Yonhap News) -- A Korean worker was slightly injured Saturday after an unidentified explosive device went off near the heavily fortified border with North Korea, military officials said. The accident happened around 9:40 a.m. when the 40-year-old, identified only by his family name Cho, was overseeing excavation work near a military base. Cho is currently being treated for debris inj...

Asiana Airlines Co. remained tight-lipped as it was revealed on Saturday that one of the two still-missing pilots of its crashed cargo plane had taken out a number of different life and property insurance policies a month before the accident. The Boeing-747 aircraft, operated by South Korea's second-largest air carrier, crashed into waters about 107 kilometers west of the southern resort island ...

Korea's prosecution said Friday that it detained five Koreans on charges of spying for North Korea by forming an underground anti-state organization. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said five locals were imprisoned on suspicions of violating the country's national security law as they allegedly set up an anti-state organization, ordered by North Korea's ruling Workers' Party. A 4...