BUENOS AIRES (AP) -- Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer great who scored the “Hand of God” goal in 1986 and led his country to that year’s World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity, has died. He was 60. Maradona’s spokesman, Sebastián Sanchi, said he died Wednesday of a heart attack, two weeks after being released from a hospital in Buenos Aires following brain surgery. The office of Argentina’s president said it will decre

NEW YORK (AP) -- Competence is making a comeback. President-elect Joe Biden has prized staying power over star power when making his first wave of Cabinet picks and choices for White House staff, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy. With an eye in part toward making selections who may have to seek approval from a Republican-controlled Senate, Biden has prioritized choosing qualified professionals wh

MIAMI (AFP) -- A key facet of the global mad scramble by Pfizer, Moderna and other pharma groups to develop a viable coronavirus vaccine is the recruitment of tens of thousands of volunteers willing to participate in clinical trials. Agence France-Presse’s correspondent in Miami, Leila Macor, took part in such a trial organized by US biotech firm Moderna, which announced Monday that its experimental vaccine was nearly 95 percent effective. Why did Macor, who suffers from asthma, decide t

Unionized workers at Kia Motors Corp. began a partial strike Wednesday to demand higher wages and bonuses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the union said. The workers in the morning shift walked away from their production lines at 11:40 a.m. in a four-hour strike while those on the evening shift plan to put down their tools at 8:30 p.m. for another four-hour strike. The union will stage the partial strikes until Friday, after the company and the union failed to narrow differences over wages and pe

The largest umbrella labor group in South Korea is sticking to its plans to launch a general strike and nationwide rallies Wednesday, despite warnings from authorities about the COVID-19 situation. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said Tuesday that the one-day walkout will go ahead as previously announced, and striking members will take to the streets in small groups throughout the country. In the capital, rallies of nine people or fewer at various locations are planned in accordance

Soldiers based in the Greater Seoul area could see their vacation and off-base leave suspended under the military’s tightened antivirus measures that went into effect Tuesday. The military began enforcing tougher rules in the capital for two weeks through Dec. 3, in line with government-imposed Level 2 social distancing guidelines in the area. The country, in the onset of a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, reported 349 cases in 24 hours ending at midnight on Monday. All servic

North Korea said Monday that self-help is the way to power through the obstacles ahead, like the coronavirus pandemic, and no one should challenge that direction. “Self-help is the way of life we’ve maintained to this day and it’s in our blood. We display that and there is nothing we cannot overcome,” the official state newspaper said, urging Workers’ Party members to be a brigade moving forward to grab victory. The North still claims it has yet to report an infec

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha expressed hope Monday for South Korea and Latin American countries to strengthen cooperation in overcoming the new coronavirus and charting a path for a post-pandemic economic recovery. Kang delivered opening remarks during the 2020 Korea-LAC Future Cooperation Forum hosted by Seoul's ministries of foreign affairs and health to promote cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries. "We are in a situation that urgently calls for the entire world to

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The Group of 20 summit opened on Saturday with appeals by the world's most powerful leaders to collectively chart a way forward as the coronavirus pandemic overshadows this year's gathering, transforming it from in-person meetings to a virtual gathering of speeches and declarations. The pandemic, which has claimed more than 1.37 million lives worldwide, has offered the G-20 an opportunity to prove how such bodies can facilitate international cooperation in c

Pennsylvania officials can certify election results that currently show Democrat Joe Biden winning the state by more than 80,000 votes, a federal judge ruled Saturday, dealing President Donald Trump's campaign another blow in its effort to invalidate the election. US District Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, turned down the request for an injunction by Trump's campaign. In his ruling, Brann said the Trump campaign presented "strained legal arguments without merit and spec

UNICEF will direct $22.7 million in 2021 to aid projects in North Korea, where socioeconomic conditions are thought to be worsening due to the coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Friday. According to the Humanitarian Action for Children 2021-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea report released Wednesday, UNICEF calculated it would need a greater amount than this year’s $19.5 million initial budget for North Korea when physical access is again possible next year. UNICEF originall

South Korea's total virus caseload topped 30,000 on Friday, 10 months after its first confirmed case in late January, and its virus fight is facing another potential wave of outbreaks amid the nearing winter season. The country reported 363 new COVID-19 cases Friday, including 320 local infections, raising the total to 30,017, according to health authorities. It marked the third straight day that daily virus cases rose by over 300. Since the first case was reported on Jan. 20, the total number

A UN committee adopted a North Korean human rights resolution on Wednesday in the US for the 16th consecutive year. For the second consecutive year, South Korea participated in the resolution’s consensus passage but did not co-sponsor the resolution. The resolution, adopted by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, is expected to be put to the General Assembly next month. The resolution, drafted by the European Union, highlights human rights violations in North Korea, saying

As a tougher social distancing scheme took effect on Thursday in the greater Seoul area and some other areas where COVID-19 infections have soared recently, high-risk multiuse facilities, such as restaurants and movie theaters, face restrictions in operation. The South Korean government earlier decided to raise the five-tier social distancing scheme by one notch to Level 1.5 in the capital city; the surrounding Gyeonggi Province; Incheon; Gwangju, some 330 kilometers south of Seoul; and a regio

The US Central Intelligence Agency took the family of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after Kim Jong-nam was murdered in February 2017, although it is unclear where the family resides now, said a Korean American writer. The activist group that helped the bereaved family get out of Macao shortly after Kim Jong-nam was killed in Kuala Lumpur reportedly lost them to people who identified themselves as CIA officers at the Taipei airport. In an article in the New