WASHINGTON — Snubbing Canada, the Trump administration reached a preliminary deal Monday with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement — a move that raised legal questions and threatened to disrupt the operations of companies that do business across the three-country trade bloc.President Donald Trump suggested that he might leave Canada, America’s No. 2 trading partner, out of a new agreement. He said he wanted to call the revamped trade pact “the United States-Mexico Trade Agre

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber is teaming up with Toyota to build self-driving cars for its ride-hailing service after its efforts to do it alone were derailed by a fatal collision and allegations of high-tech theft.Toyota, based in Japan, is also investing $500 million in Uber as part of the alliance announced Monday.The deal aims to combine the best features from the two companies’ work on autonomous technology into cars that will be picking up Uber’s customers by 2021. (AP)By the time that happens, Ube

TOKYO (AP) -- She was one of the more than 90,000 Koreans and their relatives in Japan who went to North Korea decades ago seeking what the country promised: “paradise on earth.”As North and South Korea make reconciliatory gestures and hundreds of war-separated relatives are reunited, Eiko Kawasaki and others like her feel forgotten.Kawasaki, 76, who was born in Japan and lived for 43 years in North Korea before defecting, has not seen her children, still in North Korea, for years.She and four o

Kim Kyung-jae will probably never be chosen in the government lottery that would allow him to reunite one last time with his relatives in North Korea. But that’s no problem, he said this week in an interview, even as a small group of the lucky South Koreans who won the lottery met with their loved ones in North Korea.The 86-year-old Kim is one of a dwindling number of elderly South Koreans who, frustrated with North Korea’s reluctance to allow more frequent reunions and by the small chance that

DUBLIN (AP) -- Pope Francis faced a lukewarm reception and scattered protests Saturday on his trip to Ireland, with even his vow to rid the church of the “scourge” of sexual abuse and his outrage at those “repugnant crimes” dismissed as a disappointment by some of Ireland’s wounded victims.But others who met with him in private left heartened that he would respond to their plight, including two of the thousands of children who were forcibly put up for adoption for the shame of having been born t

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain, who faced down his captors in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp with jut-jawed defiance and later turned his rebellious streak into a 35-year political career that took him to Congress and the Republican presidential nomination, died Saturday after battling brain cancer for more than a year. He was 81.McCain, with his irascible grin and fighter-pilot moxie, was a fearless and outspoken voice on policy and politics to the end, unswerving in his defense of democra

The international bracket final Saturday at the Little League World Series will be a rematch of the two teams that have looked the best so far on that side the tournament _ Kawaguchi, the representative of defending champion Japan, and Seoul, South Korea.The twist is that Japan, the LLWS team of the decade, may be the underdog.The winner gets either Hawaii or Georgia, the teams in the US final, in the championship on Sunday. South Korea’s Ji Hying Choi (17) is greeted by teammates Han Kyeol Kim

For the first time in three years, elderly North and South Korean relatives separated during the chaos of the 1950-53 Korean War are meeting at the North’s scenic Diamond Mountain, where they’ll embrace their loved ones after decades apart. Here are several things to know about the reunions, which will only last a few days and will likely be the last time these people see each other:  South Korean Lee Keum-seom, 92, left, hugs her North Korean son Ri Sang Chol, 71, during the Separated Family Re

Dozens of elderly South Koreans crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea on Monday for heart-wrenching meetings with relatives most haven't seen since they were separated by the turmoil of the Korean War. The weeklong event at North Korea's Diamond Mountain resort comes as the rival Koreas boost reconciliation efforts amid a diplomatic push to resolve a standoff over North Korea's drive for a nuclear weapons program that can reliably target the continental United States. The tempora

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Glitz won over guns as the gilded romance “Crazy Rich Asians” debuted at No. 1 in North American theaters this weekend, surpassing industry expectations and beating out action-packed fare like “Mile 22.”Warner Bros. estimates that the film earned $25.2 million over the weekend and $34 million since its opening Wednesday. It’s a surefire win for the film, which cost $30 million to produce and went into the weekend with months of buzz and a 93 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten T

Kofi Annan left the United Nations far more committed than it had been to combating poverty, promoting equality and fighting for human rights _ and until his death Saturday he was speaking out strongly for nations working together to solve problems and worried about the rise of nationalism. As secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006, Annan saw as his greatest achievements the programs and policies he put in place to reduce inequality within and between countries, to combat infe

WASHINGTON  — The Defense Department says the Veterans Day military parade ordered up by President Donald Trump won’t happen in 2018.Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said Thursday that the military and the White House “have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.”The announcement came several hours after The Associated Press reported that the parade would cost about $92 million, according to US officials citing preliminary estimates more than three times the price first suggested by

ANKARA, Turkey  — Turkey and the United States exchanged new threats of sanctions Friday, keeping alive a diplomatic and financial crisis that is threatening the economic stability of the NATO country.Turkey’s lira fell once again after the trade minister, Ruhsar Pekcan, said Friday that her government would respond to any new trade duties, which US President Donald Trump threatened in an overnight tweet. A general view of Istanbul, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. Turkey’s finance chief tried to reassu

NEW YORK -- Aretha Franklin, the undisputed "Queen of Soul" who sang with matchless style on such classics as "Think," "I Say a Little Prayer" and her signature song, ``Respect," and stood as a cultural icon around the globe, has died from pancreatic cancer. She was 76. Publicist Gwendolyn Quinn told The Associated Press through a family statement that Franklin died Thursday at 9:50 a.m. at her home in Detroit.A professional singer and pianist by her late teens, a superstar by her mid-20s, Frank

North Korea marked the anniversary of the end of World War II and its liberation from Japanese colonial rule with a series of ceremonies ahead of what is expected to be a much bigger event next month -- the 70th anniversary of its national foundation day. The celebrations Wednesday were decidedly low-key. A group of war veterans from the former Soviet Union participated, and thousands of people cheered their soccer team to victory over a South Korean squad in the opening match of an under-15 you