South Korea's major discount store chains have again raised the prices of eggs as the nation is struggling to contain its worst outbreak of bird flu, according to company officials on Saturday. Eggs have been in short supply after the country culled a record 30 million poultry following the first confirmation on Nov. 18 last year. Starting Saturday, Homeplus raised the retail price of 30 eggs by 9.6 percent to 7,990 won ($6.67) at its 142 stores. Homeplus has increased the egg prices five times

Special prosecutors on Saturday grilled a former vice culture minister and an ex-presidential secretary as they accelerated their probe into suspicions the presidential office created a blacklist of cultural figures deemed critical of the government. Former Vice Culture Minister Chung Kwan-joo and ex-presidential aide Shin Dong-churl appeared before the office of the investigation team looking into an influence-peddling scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and her friend.There have been a

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- South Korean Deputy National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong met with US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Friday for talks about strategies to deal with North Korea.Friday's talks came a day after the No. 2 diplomats of South Korea, the US and Japan held a trilateral meeting and agreed that intensifying pressure on Pyongyang is the best way to get the communist regime to move toward denuclearization.This week's meetings took place after North Korean

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The US Agriculture Department said Friday it is working with South Korea to give American egg producers access to the Korean market suffering from a shortage of supplies in the wake of a massive outbreak of avian influenza."The recent HPAI (High Path Avian Influenza) outbreak in Korea has resulted in short supplies of eggs in Korea and rising egg prices. Consequently, the United States and Korea are engaged in technical discussions to provide access for US egg producers to

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Citing increasingly sophisticated cyber bad actors and an election infrastructure that's "vital to our national interests," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Friday that he's designating U.S. election systems critical infrastructure, a move that provides more federal help for state and local governments to keep their election systems safe from tampering."Given the vital role elections play in this country, it is clear that certain systems and assets of election

The man police say opened fire with a gun from his checked baggage at a Florida airport had a history of mental health issues _ some of which followed his military service in Iraq _ and was receiving psychological treatment at his home in Alaska, his relatives said Friday after the deadly shooting.  "Only thing I could tell you was when he came out of Iraq, he wasn't feeling too good," his uncle, Hernan Rivera, told the Bergen Record newspaper (http://bit.ly/2j04ghF ). Esteban Santiago, 26, depl

Donald Trump asserted Friday that hacking by foreign powers did not sway the US election, after being briefed on an intelligence report pinning blame on Russia's Vladimir Putin for a cyber-campaign to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.After weeks of rejecting the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia interfered in the election, the president-elect accepted the possibility that Moscow was involved in hacking US targets including the Democratic National Committee.In a statement

Turkey’s military deployed tanks and guns on the Syrian border as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged joint action with the Trump administration against Islamic State in its de facto capital, Raqqa.The deployment, including long-range guns and armored personnel carriers, followed Erdogan’s remark on Saturday that Turkish troops fighting to capture the jihadists’ stronghold of al-Bab in northwest Syria could move first to the town of Manbij and then to Raqqa. The artillery reinforcements were se

VATICAN CITY (AFP) -- Pope Francis urged peace around the world in his traditional Christmas address on Sunday, calling for weapons in Syria to fall silent and offering comfort to victims of terrorism.As Europe ramped up security for the holiday just days after the truck attack that left 12 dead at a Berlin Christmas market, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics said he hoped for "peace to those who have lost a person dear to them as a result of brutal acts of terrorism".Addressing ten

DARAGA, Philippines (AFP) -- Babies, toddlers and old people were loaded onto military trucks in pouring rain in the Philippines on Sunday as tens of thousands fled the path of a powerful typhoon barrelling towards the disaster-prone archipelago. Officials warned of large coastal waves of up to 2.5-metres high, landslides and flash floods as Nock-Ten closed in on the Bicol peninsula and nearby islands.More than 100,000 people have left their homes in the face of the typhoon threat on one of the

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel pressed forward with promises of retaliation and damage control Sunday following a U.N. vote last week on an anti-settlement resolution that passed thanks to an abstention by the U.S., Israel's close ally.Israel's Foreign Ministry said it began summoning the ambassadors of countries who voted in favor of the resolution, including those from the permanent members of the Security Council _ Russia, China, the U.K. and France. The U.S. ambassador was not being summoned becau

FRANKFURT (AP) -- Thousands of people in the southern German city of Augsburg have left Christmas presents and decorations behind, forced to evacuate while authorities disarm a large World War II aerial bomb.The bomb was uncovered last week during construction work in the city's historic central district.  Police say Christmas Day is the best time to defuse it because there is less traffic and it is more likely people can stay with relatives. Police rang doorbells and used vans with loudspeakers

BEIJING (AFP) -- China's navy sent its sole aircraft carrier into the Pacific for the first time, state media reported -- a move likely to ratchet up regional tensions.The duration of the drill and the route of the flotilla were not known. But the Soviet-made carrier is based in the northeastern city of Dalian, suggesting the fleet would enter the Pacific through a disputed island chain between Taiwan and Japan. "A Chinese navy formation, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, headed towards t

MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian plane headed to an air base in Syria with 92 people aboard, including members of the world-famous Russian army choir, crashed into the Black Sea on Sunday minutes after taking off from the city of Sochi, Russia's Defense Ministry said. There appeared to be no survivors.President Vladimir Putin went on television to declare a nationwide day of mourning Monday.By Sunday afternoon, rescue teams had already recovered several bodies from the site of the crash of the Tu-154, w