WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is asking Congress to hold off on enacting new sanctions against Iran. It says a pause in the push to impose new penalties would give negotiators flexibility in talks now under way to get Iran to comply with demands it prove its nuclear program is peaceful.Even as U.S. officials argue that tough sanctions are what brought Iran to the negotiating table in the first place, the White House and State Department said Friday the administration wants lawmaker

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Brazil said Friday it is working with other countries to draft a U.N. General Assembly resolution that would guarantee people's privacy in electronic communications. That follows a series of reports of alleged U.S. eavesdropping on foreign leaders and others that has surprised and angered allies.Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has been especially outspoken. She even took the rare step of canceling a state visit to Washington after classified documents leaked by former Na

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The National Security Agency's website went down for several hours Friday, but the US spy service known for hacking into computer networks blamed the outage on a technical mistake.The website, NSA.gov, went down in the afternoon, setting off speculation on Twitter that the site may have suffered a denial of service attack by hackers.But an NSA spokesperson denied the claims, saying they were "not true.""NSA.gov was not accessible for several hours tonight because of an intern

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- Defense lawyers for five men charged in the Sept. 11 attack appealed to President Barack Obama to declassify details of the CIA's secret interrogation program of terrorist suspects as the latest installment in the long-running proceedings came to an end Friday.The lawyers said in a letter to the president that the secrecy that cloaks the treatment of their clients in CIA custody is being used to cover-up what they say was torture and is now preventing them

JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay $5.1 billion to settle Federal Housing Finance Agency claims related to home loans and mortgage-backed securities the bank sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, resolving part of a $13 billion accord the company has been negotiating. The deal includes $4 billion to end a 2011 lawsuit accusing the bank of selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac faulty mortgage bonds, the FHFA said today in a statement. The remaining $1.1 billion settles claims that the bank sold the co

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian state-run TV reported Friday that the leader of a powerful al-Qaida-linked rebel group has been killed _ a claim that if confirmed would be a huge blow to fighters trying to topple President Bashar Assad. At least one rebel commander denied the report.Questions remained over whether Abu Mohammad al-Golani, head of  Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, had indeed died. State TV said he was killed in the coastal province of Latakia, but did not say when or give details. Later

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Two U.N. human rights investigators called for more transparency from the United States and other countries about their drone strikes program, saying their secrecy is the biggest obstacle to determining the impact pact on civilian casualties.Ben Emmerson and Christof Heyns, who presented two reports on the subject at the United Nations on Friday, also called on other countries to speak up about when deadly drone strikes are acceptable. They said the lack of consensus risks

TOKYO (AFP) -- Workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant were evacuated when a small tsunami hit Japan after a powerful undersea quake Saturday, highlighting the continued threat to the area devastated by the 2011 quake-tsunami.The government Meteorological Agency warned people to stay away from the Pacific coast for nearly two hours as the tsunami, which was recorded as being as high as 55 centimetres in one place, rolled ashore.Two workers who had been patrolling wells used to measure un

The South Korean stock market is expected to trade flat amid weak corporate earnings for the third quarter and the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting slated for next week, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index decreased 0.9 percent Friday from a week earlier.On Monday, Seoul shares remained almost unchanged as investors sat on the sidelines as the U.S. was scheduled to announce its jobs data for September before the next trading session.Analysts said the

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had a "productive exchange" with a visiting top South Korean presidential aide Friday on North Korea and other pending issues, the department said.Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for political affairs, joined the meeting between Kerry and Kim Jang-soo, chief of Cheong Wa Dae's national security office, according to department spokeswoman Jen Psaki."Both sides reaffirmed our intention to coordinate and closely cooperate with re

North Korea said Thursday it is committed to joining global efforts to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism.The statement came in response to a recent report by the Financial Action Task Force that accuses Pyongyang of failing to address its "significant deficiencies" in those areas.In the report, issued at the plenary session in Paris in mid-October, the FATF, a sister organization of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, also called on the international co

DAEGU (Yonhap News) -- The Doosan Bears defeated the Samsung Lions 5-1 in extra innings in Game 2 of the Korean Series on Friday, taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven affair.Visiting Daegu Stadium, Oh Jae-il launched a go-ahead solo home run off Oh Seung-hwan during the four-run 13th inning, as the Bears inched closer to their first Korea Baseball Organization championship since 2001.At five hours and 32 minutes, this was the longest postseason game in the KBO's 31-year history. The previous r

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Indignant at reports of U.S. electronic espionage overseas, the leaders of Germany and France said Friday they will insist the Obama administration agree by year's end to limits that could put an end to alleged American eavesdropping on foreign leaders, businesses and innocent citizens. German spy chiefs will travel to Washington shortly to talk with U.S. officials about the spying allegations that have so angered European leaders, including whether Chancellor Angela Merkel's ow

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's prime minister on Sunday urged the international community to step up the pressure on Iran, despite some optimism following the latest round of nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic.It was Benjamin Netanyahu's first public statement on last week's round of talks between Iran and global powers over its suspect nuclear program. Negotiators ended the talks on an upbeat note, though they gave no details on what proposals were exchanged.The talks have put Netanyahu in a t

PERTH, Australia (AFP) -- South Korea's Jin Jeong beat England's Ross Fisher in a playoff to win the European Tour co-sanctioned US$2 million Perth International at Lake Karrinyup on Sunday.Former leading world amateur Jeong and Fisher finished the tournament locked at 10-under 278 before the Korean claimed victory at the first playoff hole.Jeong, who carded a closing round of three under 69, held the upper hand when Fisher was left with a four-metre putt for par after fluffing his chip onto the