KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- An Afghan official said Wednesday his government is examining claims that reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar is dead. The Taliban could not be immediately reached on the government's comments about Omar, who has been declared dead many times before. Omar, the one-eyed, secretive head of the Taliban and an al-Qaida ally, led a bloody insurgency against U.S.-led forces after they toppled him from his rule in Afghanistan in 2001. Zafar Hashemi, a deputy spokesman for Af

The main opposition party reignited a heated political debate Monday by suggesting as part of its electoral reform plan to raise the number of lawmakers from the general elections next year. The proposal prompted different reactions and interpretations from main and minor parties, cautiously tiptoeing around a potential rise in the number of parliamentary seats and the negative public opinion over lawmakers’ prerogatives.Kim Sang-kon, head of the reform committee of the New Politics Alliance for

The main opposition party on Wednesday appointed software mogul-turned-politician and former presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo to lead its own investigation into alleged wiretapping of citizens by the nation’s spy agency.Ahn, founder of antivirus software company AhnLab, accepted a request by New Politics Alliance for Democracy chairman Moon Jae-in to form an interparty committee to probe the fresh allegation against the National Intelligence Service, the party said. The committee will consis

President Park Geun-hye on Monday indicated she would grant special pardons next month to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule."The people are struggling with their lives now, and I believe that special pardons are needed to be carried out to mark the 70th anniversary of Liberation Day as well as to achieve the national growth and forge national reconciliation,” she said at a meeting with her senior secretaries. President Park Geun-hye (Yonhap)The

President Park Geun-hye’s new top political aide faces the daunting challenges of restoring the frozen relationship between her and her party and putting her reform drive back on track by normalizing communication with the parliament.Hyun Ki-hwan, a former Saenuri lawmaker and one of the Park’s faithful retainers, was named as the new senior presidential secretary for political affairs Friday. Though his parliamentary career has been relatively short, Park appointing the one-term lawmaker as her

At least 10 South Korean government officials who were on an overseas trip to China were killed on Wednesday afternoon as a bus that carried them fell off a bridge in Jian, in the northeastern province of Jilin, an official said.The bus, headed to the Chinese border town of Dandong, was carrying about 25 South Korean officials and a travel guide.The accident took place around 2 p.m., said the official at the South Korean Consulate in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. A picture posted on

A Korean teenager who went missing in Turkey last month is training to become a member of the Islamic State militant group, the National Intelligence Service said Tuesday. The 18-year-old tourist from Seoul, surnamed Kim, vanished on Jan. 10 after leaving a hotel in the border town of Kilis. He initially arrived in Istanbul on Jan. 8 and flew to the southern city of Gaziantep before reaching Kilis by car the next day, a typical route locals say is taken by aspiring IS jihadists.  In this June 23