RANCHO MIRAGE (AFP) - South Korean rookie Kim Sei-Young birdied two of her final three holes to extend her lead at the LPGA Tour's ANA Inspiration event to three shots on Saturday.Kim fired a three-under 69 to finish 54 holes with a 10-under 206 in the first major championship of the season. American Stacy Lewis (68) is second while Thailand's Ariya Jutanugarn and former winners Morgan Pressel and Brittany Lincicome are tied for third at six-under par.Ariya's older sister Moriya shot her second

South Korea edged out Russia 1-0 in the two countries' women's football friendly match at home on Sunday.Striker Ji So-yun scored in the dying moments of the match at Incheon Football Stadium, located just west of Seoul, to lift the home side over the visitors in a prep match ahead of this year's FIFA Women's World Cup. South Korea and Russia will go head-to-head again on Wednesday in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul. Ji, who plays club football for Chelsea Ladies in England, only ar

President Park Geun-hye on Thursday sanctioned an anti-corruption bill that won parliamentary approval early this month despite controversy over its possible violation of an individual's constitutional rights, her office said. The so-called Kim Young-ran Law, named after the former Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission chief who proposed the legislation in June 2011, subjects public officials, journalists and private school faculty to a maximum penalty of three years in prison or five time

Suspended Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan will hold a press conference this week, his agency said Thursday, in what will be his first speech to the public following a 18-month suspension on an alleged anti-doping violation.   Team GMP, Park's agency, said the suspended swimmer will be speaking at a hotel in the southern Seoul district of Songpa at 3 p.m. on Friday.   The move comes after FINA, the international swimming governing body, on Monday handed down the ruling to Park, a four-tim

North Korea vowed to wage a "merciless, sacred war" against the United States on Thursday, days before the launch of annual joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises that have incensed Pyongyang."Nuclear weapons are not a monopoly of the U.S.," the ruling party's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, warned in an editorial carried by the state KCNA news agency."The U.S. is seriously mistaken if it thinks its mainland is safe," the editorial added.North Korea "will wage a merciless sacred war agains

BAGHDAD (AFP) -- The Islamic State group has suffered "devastating" blows in Syria's Kobane and on several Iraqi fronts, but analysts warn such victories in the fight against the jihadists cannot be replicated everywhere. Kurdish fighters backed by U.S.-led airstrikes this week ousted I.S. from most of Kobane, after a four-month battle whose symbolic importance had far outgrown the small Syrian town's military value. Simultaneously, Iraqi forces flushed the jihadists out of their last urban bast

ATHENS (AFP) - Greece's new Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said Wednesday he wants to see a pan-European deal to encourage growth. The new anti-austerity Syriza-led government wants "a pan-European 'New Deal' that will lead Europe to a reboot," Varoufakis told reporters as he took over the post.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the Federal Reserve ends its latest policy meeting Wednesday, it is widely expected to repeat the pledge it made in December: That it will be "patient" in raising interest rates from record lows. That pledge could endure well into 2015. The U.S. economy has steadily improved. Yet inflation has dipped further below the Fed's target rate, thanks to plunging oil prices and a surging dollar. The stronger dollar makes foreign goods cheaper in the United States. The statement tha

AMMAN (AP) -- Jordan said Wednesday it is willing to swap an Iraqi woman held on death row in Jordan for a Jordanian pilot captured in December by extremists from the Islamic State group. The statement by Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani made no mention of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, who is also being held by the Islamic State group.  Efforts to release the Jordanian pilot and the journalist gained urgency with the release late Tuesday of a purported online ultimatum claimin

 South Korea could thrive in the role of underdogs when they face hosts Australia in the Asian Cup final this weekend, says skipper Ki Sung-Yueng.Having reached the final for the first time in 27 years battered, bruised and held together by team spirit and sheer bloody-mindedness, the Swansea City midfielder told Korean reporters on Wednesday that the Red Devils had the steel to go all the way.  "I believe it will come down to mental strength," said Ki, who has been a calming influence on South

   A South Korean activist said Thursday he plans to launch a series of balloons across the border into North Korea carrying copies of a film which has enraged its leadership.    Former defector Park Sang-hak said the balloons would carry a total of 100,000 copies on DVDs and USB memory sticks of "The Interview," a comedy about a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.   The giant balloons, which are used by private groups in the South to float anti-regime material across the hea

BEIJING (AFP) - The US diplomat responsible for North Korea said Friday that Pyongyang is proceeding with its nuclear program and showing no clear sign of steps that would permit international talks on ending it to resume. The negotiations, known as the six-party talks, began in 2003 and consist of five countries - China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States - trying to convince North Korea to drop its atomic development in exchange for aid and incentives. Pyongyang walked out of the