WASHINGTON -- Satellite imagery shows North Korea razed some facilities used for testing ballistic missiles last month after declaring it was suspending nuclear explosions and missile launches, a US website reported Wednesday.A stand used for missile ejection tests was demolished near Kusong in the country’s northwest, according to North Korea expert Joseph Bermudez. Ejection tests are to test the initial launch of a missile from a canister and firing up its first-stage engine rather than a full

SAN JOSE, CA -- Apple will offer more ways for people to limit the time they spend on iPhones while introducing features designed to make its products even more indispensable.The paradox emerged Monday as Apple executives previewed new versions of free software due out this fall.The forthcoming controls are aimed at addressing criticism that devices are becoming increasingly addictive and distracting, especially for children. Experts worry that all the flashy colors and beeps give users short-te

Most women with the most common form of early-stage breast cancer can safely skip chemotherapy without hurting their chances of beating the disease, doctors are reporting from a landmark study that used genetic testing to gauge each patient's risk.The study is the largest ever done of breast cancer treatment, and the results are expected to spare up to 70,000 patients a year in the United States and many more elsewhere the ordeal and expense of these drugs. "The impact is tremendous,'' said the

North Korea's state-run news agency reported Sunday that Syria's President Bashar Assad is interested in visiting North Korea and meeting leader Kim Jong-un.North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Yonhap)The KCNA report said Assad made the comments May 30 while receiving the credentials for the North Korean ambassador."I am going to visit the DPRK and meet HE Kim Jong-un," Assad was quoted saying, using the acronym for the North's official name.There was no indication that such a trip had been planned.

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump’s lawyers composed a secret 20-page letter to special counsel Robert Mueller to assert that he cannot be forced to testify while arguing that he could not have committed obstruction because he has absolute authority over all federal investigations.The existence of the letter, which was first reported and posted by The New York Times on Saturday, was a bold assertion of presidential power and another front on which Trump’s lawyers have argued that the presiden

The leaders of Japan and Vietnam agreed Thursday to bolster cooperation in maritime safety and defense, and expressed shared concerns over China's growing activity in the South China Sea. Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed during talks in Tokyo to strengthen defense cooperation in areas including military training, equipment and technology.Quang is in Japan on a state visit marking the 45th anniversary of the countries' diplomatic ties.  (Yonhap)In

LIEGE, Belgium (AP) -- A knife-wielding man stabbed two police officers Tuesday in the Belgian city of Liege, stole their weapons and shot them and a bystander to death in an attack that prosecutors fear could be terror-related.The man, who was later killed by police, approached two police officers from behind carrying a knife and stabbed them several times, said Philippe Dulieu, spokesman for the Liege prosecutor's office. Belgian Special Police at the scene of a shooting in Liege, Belgium, Tue

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un committed in the rivals' surprise meeting to sitting down with President Donald Trump and to a "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." The Korean leaders' second summit in a month Saturday saw bear hugs and broad smiles, but their quickly arranged meeting appears to highlight a sense of urgency on both sides of the world's most heavily armed border. At the White House, Trump said negotiations over a

WASHINGTON -- Even if conciliatory rhetoric revives US-North Korea summit plans, President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un must overcome a gaping disconnect over what a deal on the North’s nuclear weapons would look like. Observers of the soap opera-style Trump-Kim summit drama could be forgiven for thinking that a fragile courtship is underway, where the tenor of each side’s statements will determine whether the two can agree to sit down together. At the heart of the North’s negative rhetoric that

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Saturday for the second time in a month, exchanging a huge bear hug and broad smiles in a surprise summit at a border village to discuss Kim's potential meeting with President Donald Trump and ways to follow through on the peace initiatives of the rivals' earlier summit. Following a whirlwind 24 hours that saw Trump cancel the highly anticipated June 12 meeting with Kim before saying it's potentially back on, the Korean l

NEW YORK -- Prize-winning children’s author Richard Peck, who drew upon his Illinois roots for such favorites as “A Long Way from Chicago” and “A Year Down Yonder,” has died.Peck died on Wednesday at his home in New York City at age 84. His publisher, Penguin Young Readers, told The Associated Press, that he died after a battle with cancer.A native of Decatur, Illinois, and graduate of DePauw University, he was a prolific author who wrote dozens of books, but didn’t start until his mid-30s when

WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump is canceling the planned June 12 summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, citing the "tremendous anger and open hostility'' in a recent statement from North Korea. (AP file photo)Trump says in a letter to Kim released Thursday by the White House that based on the statement, he felt it was "inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting.''The president says the North Koreans talk about their nuclear capabilities, "but ours are so massive and power

PUNGGYE-RI, North Korea -- North Korea carried out what it said is the demolition of its nuclear test site Thursday, setting off a series of explosions over several hours in the presence of foreign journalists.The explosions at the nuclear test site deep in the mountains of the North's sparsely populated northeast were centered on three tunnels into the underground site and a number of observation towers in the surrounding area.The planned closing was previously announced by leader Kim Jong Un a

NEW YORK -- Philip Roth, the prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, from the comic madness of "Portnoy's Complaint" to the elegiac lyricism of "American Pastoral," died Tuesday night at age 85.Roth's literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said that the author died in a New York City hospital of congestive heart failure.Author of more than 25 books, Roth was a fierce satirist and uncompromising realist, confronting readers in a bold, direct style that scorned fa

GWANGJU —- He’s spent nearly six decades trapped on enemy soil, surviving 29 years in a prison where he was tortured by South Korean guards before being released to a life of poverty and police surveillance. Now, 89 years old and bedridden with illness, former North Korean spy Seo Ok-yeol just wants to go home.“People have a need to die in a place where they are respected,” Seo said, though he worries it could be too late to finally be reunited with the wife and children he left behind. Seo is a