A soon-to-be-released comedy film about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will likely be a "blockbuster" thanks to the strong protests Pyongyang has raised about it, the U.S. human rights envoy said Friday.The North has expressed strong anger about the movie, "The Interview," which tells the story of two Americans journalists who land an interview with the North's leader in Pyongyang but are then recruited by the CIA to kill him."It will probably be a blockbuster when it comes out t

The U.N. Security Council is expected to take up North Korea's human rights problem as early as later this month as 10 council members signed a letter calling for adding the issue to its agenda, the U.S. human rights envoy said Friday.Australia, the United States and South Korea were among the countries that signed the letter to the council's president earlier in the day, one more than the nine countries needed to put an issue on the 15-member council's agenda, Amb. Robert King said during a Woo

A fire occurred at Guryong village in Gaepo district, southern Seoul, at around 2 p.m., causing 139 residents to evacuate.Police said a 71-year-old resident was found dead around 7 p.m.Firefighter were able to contain most of the blaze at about 3:30 p.m., and are continuing to put out the last flames.The fire, which started at a junk shop, burned through some 900 square meters of the town, including some 60 residences in 16 unauthorized housing structures.Most residents evacuated to a nearby mid

BEIRUT (AFP) - More than 1,000 people, mostly jihadists, have been killed in Kobane since the Islamic State group launched an offensive on the Syrian town nearly two months ago, a monitor said Sunday.IS jihadists, who proclaimed a "caliphate" in June straddling territory captured in Iraq and Syria, launched their offensive for the town -- also known as Ain al-Arab -- in mid-September."At least 1,013 people have been killed in fighting in Ain al-Arab from the beginning of the offensive till last

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia opened polling stations on Sunday to hold an informal vote on independence that the central government has called illegal.The regional Catalan government pushed forward with the vote despite Spain's Constitutional Court ordering its suspension on Tuesday after it agreed to hear the Spanish government's challenge that the poll is unconstitutional.“`Despite the enormous impediments, we have been able to get out the ballot boxes and v

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hundreds of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters marched on Sunday to the Chinese government's offices in the semi-autonomous city, demanding direct talks with Beijing officials after six weeks of mass street rallies.Demonstrators have been camped out on three major road junctions across the financial hub since September 28, calling for free leadership elections in 2017.China insists that candidates for the city's top post must be vetted by a loyalist committee, which protesters

BEIJING (AFP) - China's president on Sunday reminded a senior Taiwanese envoy of Beijing's opposition to independence for the island, state media reported, after several recent disputes which have overshadowed improved ties.Xi Jinping met former Taiwanese vice president Vincent Siew on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing.Xi told Siew that relations should be based on "the common political commitment to upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing 'Taiwan indepen

Samsung Group said Sunday its chairman Lee Kun-hee is in stable recovery and undergoing rehabilitation six months into his hospitalization."(The chairman's) bodily functions, including cardiac function, have recovered to normal and are in stable condition. (He is) awake 15-19 hours a day and is receiving rehabilitation such as wheelchair exercise," the group said.Samsung's remark is the latest update from a month earlier, when group chief of communications Lee Jun confirmed that an elevator was

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The International Monetary Fund has slightly lowered its outlook for global economic growth this year and next, mostly because of weaker expansions in Japan, Latin America and Europe.The IMF says the global economy will expand 3.3 percent this year, one-tenth of a point below what it forecast in July. World growth should pick up to 3.8 percent in 2015, the IMF says in the latest installment of its World Economic Outlook.The global lending organization has a more optimistic vie

North Korea held a national meeting Tuesday to mark the 17th anniversary of late leader Kim Jong-il's election as general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea.The communist nation's leader, Kim Jong-un, however, was absent from the annual event to commemorate his father.Kim has been out of public sight since Sept. 3 amid news reports that he appears to be suffering a health problem.Attention is being paid to whether he will show up at a ceremony, slated for Oct. 10, to celebrate the 69th ann

MADRID (AP) -- Three more people were placed under quarantine for Ebola at a Madrid hospital where a Spanish nurse became infected, authorities said Tuesday. More than 50 other possible contacts were being monitored.The nurse, who had cared for a Spanish priest who died of Ebola, was the first case of Ebola being transmitted outside of West Africa, where a months-long outbreak has killed at least 3,500 people and infected at least twice as many.Her case highlighted the dangers that health care w

The Defense Ministry on Tuesday replaced the head of its key intelligence organization, apparentlyholding him accountable for failing to give timely and appropriate advice with regard to a series of recent fatal incidents in the barracks.The ministry appointed Lt. Gen. Cho Hyun-chon to lead the Defense Security Command, replacing Lt. Gen. Lee Jae-soo, who took the post just a year ago.It was part of the regular shake-up of generals. Many viewed it as a de facto dismissal of Lee from the post.The

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- A Franciscan priest and several other Christians have been seized by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front in a village in northwestern Syria, the Franciscan mission to the Holy Land said Tuesday."On the night of October 5th, Father Hanna Jallouf of the Custody of the Holy Land, parish priest at Qunyeh, Syria, was taken by some brigades linked to Jabhat Al-Nusra," a statement from the Custody of the Holy Land said.Qunyeh is a village of several hundred people in Idlib province, an

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and U.S. scientist Shuji Nakamura won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for the invention of blue light-emitting diodes, a breakthrough that spurred the development of LED technology used to light up computer screens and modern smartphones.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says their invention is just 20 years old, “but it has already contributed to create white light in an entirely new manner to the benefit of us all.''Scientist