JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused the Palestinians of creating "artificial crises" as he met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is striving to rescue the fragile peace process.The premier's remarks were made at the start of a meeting with Kerry at a Jerusalem hotel that lasted nearly three hours and came shortly after the Palestinians threatened to bolt the talks over a fresh row about settlements. Kerry arrived in Israel late on Tuesday as rumors swirl

BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union's executive Commission is backing plans to cultivate a genetically modified maize despite the objections of environmental groups which considers it dangerous. Wednesday's approval now sends the plans to approve Maize 1507 to the EU's 28 member nations for consideration and could lead to a decision on the issue as soon as next month. EU member states have sharply diverging views on the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms, commonly known as GMOs. The EU

BEIJING (AP) – A series of small explosions killed one person and injured eight others Wednesday outside the provincial headquarters of the ruling Communist Party in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, officials said.Officials gave no word on the target or perpetrators of the blasts, which state media said were caused by homemade bombs. The explosions came during heightened security following a suicide car crash at Tiananmen Gate in Beijing that killed the car's three occupants and two bystand

They came as a stark reminder of the seriousness of China’s pollution problem: grim reports of an 8-year-old girl with lung cancer, her disease attributed to the appalling state of the air she breathed.It was perhaps the most bleak in a flurry of recent reports that began when a network of coal-fired power stations was switched on in Harbin, a major city in China’s northeast, as temperatures dropped in the city.Smog days have led schools, roads and airports to close. Satellite pictures showed an

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan and Russia held their first high-level defense and diplomatic talks Saturday and agreed to step up cooperation between their militaries amid regional security concerns such as North Korea and China.Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, and their Russian counterparts Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu also agreed to hold joint military and anti-piracy exercises and establish a defense consultation framework. Their countries' defense ties a

TORONTO (AP) -- A lawyer for Toronto's embattled mayor accused the city's top cop of acting as "judge, jury and executioner" a day after police said they had obtained a copy of a long-rumored video that appears to show Rob Ford puffing on a crack pipe.Ford's lawyer Dennis Morris attacked Police Chief Bill Blair on Friday for saying he was ``disappointed'' in the mayor at a news conference announcing the video had been recovered from a computer hard drive during an investigation of an associate o

BEIJING -- China's propaganda minister pledged to deepen relations with North Korea during a meeting here with theNorth's media delegation, according to state media Saturday.Liu Qibao, chief of the publicity department of China's Communist Party, made the remarks on Friday when he met with the North Korean delegation led by Kim Won-sok, deputy editor of the North's ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, Xinhua news agency reported."It's an unswerving principle of the Chinese Party and government

South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator will visit the United States next week to discuss recent developments in efforts to restart the stalled six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Seoul's foreign ministry said Saturday.Cho Tae-yong, Seoul's chief envoy to the six-party talks, plans to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Glyn Davies, and other National Security Council officials during the five-day trip that kicks off on Sunday, the ministry said.Cho's trip comes after Dav

South Korea has become a formal partner with the United States under a multilateral treaty aimed at the prompt return of wrongfully removed or retained children, the U.S. government said Friday.The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction entered into force that day between the two nations, according to the State Department.The U.S. now has 72 partners under the treaty, also known as Hague Child Abduction Convention.It is the primary civil law mechanism for par

The most iconic place to commemorate the Korean War in the U.S. capital has gone electronic, enabling people anywhere to experience it anytime.A Pentagon team dedicated to honoring all veterans of the 1950-53 war on Friday unveiled the Korean War Veterans Memorial Virtual Walking Tour at a website, http://koreanwar60.com/kwm"Korean War veterans and individuals who want to learn more about the Korean War can now access a wealth of information, including videos, electronically regardless if they a

India will showcase its domestically developed guided missiles at a defense exhibition in South Korea next week in an effort to reach out to the global arms market, its state defense institute said Friday.A delegation from India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) visited South Korea ahead of the Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX) set to kick off Tuesday for a six-day run at the Korea International Exhibition Center (Kintex) in Ilsan, just north of Seoul.The Indian weapon

A Lao airplane crashed Wednesday in the Southeast Asian nation, reportedly killing all 49 passengers and crewmembers aboard, including three South Koreans.The plane crashed into the Mekong River while attempting to land in bad weather at Pakse Airport in Champassak Province in southern Laos, officials said.Lao authorities said there was no report of survivors.State-owned Lao Airlines confirmed the accident, saying its plane was carrying 44 passengers and five crewmembers."There were no news of s

GENEVA(AFP)- Iran and world powers will meet in Geneva in "a few weeks" to continue negotiations over Tehran's controversial nuclear drive, Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday.   "The continuation of the negotiations will be in Geneva in a few weeks," Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on his Facebook page.   Iran, the United States and five other world powers revived stalled nuclear talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with Tehran laying out a road map to end the showdown over its nuclear ambitions.   Negoti