South Korea's government team sent to investigate the Asiana jet crash returned home on Wednesday and vowed continued efforts to reveal the cause of the deadly accident.Six officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport have been in San Francisco since July 7 participating in a joint investigation with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Asiana Flight 214. Three Chinese teens died and over 180 people were injured after the passenger jet crash landed at San

MOSCOW (AFP) – U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has applied for temporary asylum in Russia, does not rule out applying for Russian citizenship, a lawyer assisting him said on Wednesday."He does not rule out the possibility of asking for Russian citizenship," prominent lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who helped Snowden put together his asylum bid on Tuesday, told reporters. "He told me: 'I am not going to go anywhere from Russia.'"  

BERLIN (AFP) - Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone was on Wednesday charged with bribery by German prosecutors.The 82-year-old motor racing magnate has been charged by state prosecutors in Munich in relation to a $44 million payment he made to German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, which was linked to the sale of the Formula One rights in 2006.Last month, Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail in Munich and Ecclestone has always denied bribing the German to avoid a British tax inqu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said he expects an overhaul of immigration rules to become law by the end of the year, but that the Senate's version "doesn't go far enough" to secure the U.S. border with Mexico or enforce the proposed new system."I've got real concerns about the Senate bill, especially in the area of border security and internal enforcement of the system. I'm concerned that it doesn't go far enough," Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, t

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to retake an Istanbul protest square on Tuesday as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned he would show "no more tolerance" for the unrelenting mass demonstrations against his Islamic-rooted government.   Hundreds of police stormed the city's Taksim Square, the epicentre of nearly two weeks of deadly unrest, in the early morning and brought bulldozers to clear the makeshift barriers erected by demonstrators after police p

KABUL (AFP) - The Taliban have said they are willing to discuss how to reduce civilian casualties in the ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan, a top UN envoy said on Tuesday.Jan Kubis, the UN special representative for Afghanistan said that the militants had agreed to hold talks with the UN and discuss the issue of civilian deaths, which rose by 24 percent in the first half of 2013 compared to last year."I can confirm that we sent publicly and also through our channels a signal of our willingness t

An international hacking group that had previously claimed it hacked North Korean Web sites said on Sunday it launched more cyber attacks into about a dozen sites based in the communist state.The group called "Anonymous" said on its Twitter account (@AnonyOpsKorea) that it successfully hacked the Web site for the North Korean radio station called "Voice of Korea." Anonymous released the photo of the opening page of the Web site, with the "VOK" logo at the top right-hand corner and the word "Hack

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Pope Francis on Sunday created the first saints of his reign, canonizing some 800 Italian martyrs who refused to convert to Islam in the 15th century, as well as a Colombian and a Mexican who founded congregations.Thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter's Square to attend the mass in which he formally bestowed the sainthoods, which had been approved by Francis's predecessor Benedict XVI.The new saints include Italian cobbler Antonio Primaldo, who was killed along with an

CAIRO (AP) – In his first comments to the media by since he was detained more than two years ago, Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak said he is dismayed at the country's state of affairs and particularly the plight of the poor.The 85-year old Mubarak spoke to Al-Watan newspaper after a session of his retrial for his role in the killing of hundreds of protesters during the popular uprising that forced him to step down in 2011. His comments were published Sunday, a day after he appeared in the

PARIS (AP) – The French Health Ministry says a second case of a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS has been confirmed.A ministry statement issued Sunday said a hospital roommate of the 65-year-old man who initially contracted the virus has tested positive.The two shared a room for a few days in late April at Valenciennes hospital in northern France, and hence were in ``prolonged and close contact.'' Both are now hospitalized in nearby Lille.Four suspected cases, all people who had cont

The former presidential spokesman who was dismissed over sexual assault accusations admitted last week to touching the buttocks of the alleged victim during an internal investigation by the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, an action he later denied, officials said Sunday.According to Cheong Wa Dae officials, Yoon Chang-jung contradicted himself at Saturday's press conference, where he denied all sexual harassment allegations that led to his dismissal.Yoon was fired on Thursday in Los Angeles,

DAMASCUS (AFP) - Israeli warplanes have targeted a Syrian weapons shipment headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon, media quoted U.S. officials as saying Saturday, as Sunnis were fleeing a city for fear of a massacre.The news came as U.S. President Barack Obama, under mounting criticism that he has allowed Bashar al-Assad's regime to cross his own declared "red line" on using chemical weapons, came close to ruling out deploying U.S. troops to Syria.CNN said U.S. and Western intelligence agencies were re