Chinese banks in the northern border city of Dandong have suspended the transfer of the yuan currency to North Korean banks, Chinese financial sector officials told Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday. The move comes as the U.N. Security Council is set to vote on new sanctions against North Korea's fourth nuclear test and rocket launch this year. Employees of the Dandong branch offices of China's top four state-owned banks, including Agricultural Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of C

The main opposition party ended its vote-blocking marathon filibuster Wednesday, opening the door for the normalization of parliament that has been paralyzed due to the political standoff over a government-backed anti-terrorism bill.Lee Jong-kul, floor leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, stood at the podium of the National Assembly chamber as the last speaker, putting an end to the marathon monologues that started on Feb. 23."Everyone participated with enthusiasm," Lee said, rei

BAGHDAD (AP) _ Continuous violence has left at least 670 Iraqis dead in February, of whom about two-thirds were civilians, the United Nations said. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, known as UNAMI, put the number of the killed civilians at 410, a figure which according to U.N. methodology includes the federal police, civil defense forces and personal security details. The rest were security forces, including Kurdish peshmerga and paramilitary troops.   It ad

North Korea should expect to see the world not only issue strong condemnations, but also take action to punish the regime if it conducts a long-range rocket launch, a senior U.S. nonproliferation official said.Concerns have grown that the North could carry out a long-range rocket launch in coming weeks, with satellite imagery of the country's rocket site showing what were believed to be preparation activities. A rocket launch would represent a serious act of defiance just a few weeks after a nuc

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- President Juan Manuel Santos would like the United States to remove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia from its list of terrorist organizations and suspend drug warrants against guerrilla commanders if he seals a peace deal with Latin America's oldest leftist insurgency. In an interview days before a key visit to the White House, Santos made his most-sweeping remarks in three years of peace talks about Washington's important role at the negotiating table. His Feb

An Iranian firm has filed an investor-state dispute claim against the South Korean government for not refunding its down payment on the takeover of a local electronics firm, claiming that Seoul violated a bilateral investment guarantee agreement, a government source said Monday.In April 2010, the Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO), the state-run company dealing with non-performing loans, picked Iran's Entekhab Industrial Group as the preferred bidder for acquiring a controlling stake in Daewoo

The military chiefs of South Korea and the United States resolved on Saturday to launch powerful counterattacks against additional provocations by North Korea, the military said as inter-Korean tension soars over the North's threats of further attacks.South Korean Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Adm. Choi Yoon-hee and his U.S. counterpart Gen. Martin Dempsey also agreed to seek various measures "to deter North Korea from launching additional threats," an official from the South Korea

Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq are engaged in the "most brutal, systematic'' destruction of ancient sites since World War II, the head of the U.N. cultural agency said Friday _ a stark warning that came hours after militants demolished a monastery with ancient foundations in central Syria. The world's only recourse is to try to prevent the sale of looted artifacts, thus cutting off a lucrative stream of income for the militants, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova told The Associated Press.Rec

A heavily-armed man opened fire in a "terrorist attack" on a high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, injuring at least two people before being overpowered by two American passengers.The motives for the shooting were not immediately known, although French prosecutors said a probe was being launched by counter-terrorism investigators.The suspect, who was arrested at a railway station in northern France, was identified as a 26-year-old from Morocco or of Moroccan origin who w