BEIJING (AP) -- Two top Shanghai judges and another court official caught on a videotape apparently taking prostitutes to hotel rooms after dining with a contractor have been stripped of Communist Party membership and will likely lose their jobs.The case, exposed by a disgruntled defendant in a civil case, has aggravated public distrust of the court system and shed new light on continued wrongdoing by officials despite the Chinese leadership's vow to crack down on all corruption.``They slept wit

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al-Qaida's core leadership remains a potent threat, and experts say it has encouraged the terror network's spread into more countries today than it was operating in immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.President Barack Obama, who ordered the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, has described al-Qaida's headquarters as ``a shadow of its former self.'' White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday called it ``severely diminished.''That bravado didn't match

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- President Barack Obama has confronted Russia over its granting of asylum to fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden and its new anti-gay law, saying Moscow occasionally displays a "Cold War mentality."During an appearance on a late-night talk show Tuesday, Obama said Moscow was still being helpful in Afghanistan and on counter-terrorism but spoke of "underlying challenges that we've had with Russia lately.""There have been times where they slip back into Cold War thinking

On a windy island 500 miles north of Tokyo, Japan is about to experiment with a battery designed to transform the way electricity is supplied and at the same time boost Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic rescue plan.The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is investing 20 billion yen ($203 million) on a Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. device to be used by Hokkaido island’s utility to store excess solar and wind power, stabilizing flows to consumers.Since the earthquake in 2011, Japan has

CAIRO (AFP) -- Western and Arab efforts to mediate an end to Egypt's political deadlock have failed, the presidency said Wednesday, signalling a possible crackdown on Islamists that has sparked fears of more carnage.The statement came hours after US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns left Cairo, having made no headway in finding a compromise between the army-installed government and supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi."The phase of diplomatic efforts has ended today," th

Jeff Bezos’s purchase of the Washington Post may look like a steal, yet it came at a rich valuation that newspapers such as the New York Times Co. may only dream of obtaining. The founder of Amazon.com Inc. plunked down $250 million for the Post newspaper division, about 17 times adjusted profit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That multiple implies a valuation for the New York Times of about $4 billion -- more than double its current market value. Major metropolitan newspapers should f

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- Israeli and Palestinian negotiators' stated goal of reaching a comprehensive peace deal inside nine months is realistic, the European Union's top diplomat said Wednesday, painting the bloc as a "reliable friend" to both sides."I firmly believe that a final end to this conflict is within reach," Catherine Ashton said in a statement."I call on all those who wish to see a negotiated solution to support those now engaged in talks so that the opportunity for peace can be seized."Isr

TOKYO (AFP) -- Japan's gaffe-prone deputy prime minister has said Tokyo could learn from Nazi Germany when it comes to constitutional reform, prompting a rebuke from a Jewish human rights group.In a statement on its website late Tuesday, the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Center called on Taro Aso to clarify his comments that Tokyo, which is mulling a change to its pacifist constitution, should look to the way the Nazis quietly adopted reforms."First, mass media started to make noises (about Japan's

Iran may achieve the “critical capability” to process low-enriched uranium into material for a nuclear weapon without detection by international inspectors by mid-2014, according to a report by a research group.Iran would reach this capability by acting on plans to install thousands of additional enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz and Fordow sites, according to David Albright, a former nuclear inspector, and Christina Walrond of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Secu

The Senate’s second-ranking Democrat said he would “have a lot of questions” if former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is chosen to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.Senator Richard Durbin’s comments in an interview at the Capitol reflect anxiety within the Senate that President Barack Obama may nominate Summers. Durbin is among 19 Democratic senators and one independent who signed a July 26 letter to the White House praising Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen and urgi

Germany’s unemployment rate held near a two-decade low, potentially buoying support for the government before September elections, while the rate in the euro area stayed at a record high. The number of people out of work in Germany decreased by a seasonally adjusted 7,000 to 2.93 million in July and the adjusted jobless rate was unchanged at 6.8 percent, according to the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency today. The rate in the 17-nation euro area was 12.1 percent in June, unchanged from a rev

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian government troops launched an assault Wednesday to regain control of a northern village that was the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack earlier this year, activists said.The push on Khan al-Assal, a village on the southwestern outskirts of the embattled city of Aleppo comes just over a week after it was captured by the rebels.The capture was a rare success for the rebels on the battlefield as opposition forces recently suffered two major setbacks during a wide-rangi

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. senators are questioning top Obama administration officials about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs for the first time since the House narrowly rejected a proposal last week to effectively shut down the NSA's secret collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records.The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday will include testimony from the No. 2 officials at the Justice Department, FBI and NSA, plus the top lawyer for the Office of the

Creditors of troubled STX Offshore & Shipbuilding have agreed to provide fresh liquidity to the shipbuilder in a bid to help resolve its cash crunch, industry sources said Wednesday.The creditors have submitted a written consent for the liquidity supply worth about 2.15 trillion won ($1.92 billion) to the company's main creditor Korea Development Bank, according to the sources.The supply of fresh liquidity includes 1.85 trillion won in emergency funds, leading the total volume of liquidity injec

The first United Nations commission on human rights abuses in North Korea began its official investigation by interviewing defectors in South Korea, sources said Wednesday.The sources at Free the NK Gulag said officials from the United Nations Commission of Inquiry for North Korea carried out interviews with people who escaped from the communist country.It said the two officials met eight people from Tuesday onwards and received testimonies that they had been personally subjected to human rights