North Korean media stepped up their rhetorical attacks on South Korea and joint military exercises with the United States, warning Tuesday that a budding detente could be in danger.An article published by North Korea's state-run Korea Central News Agency. (Yonhap)State media unleashed three strongly worded commentaries slamming Seoul and Washington for the maneuvers and demanding Seoul take action against defectors it claimed were sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border.Th

CANNES, France -- A tumultuous Cannes Film Festival concluded Saturday with the Palme d’Or awarded to Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters,” a tender portrait of a poor, impoverished family, while Harvey Weinstein accuser Asia Argento vowed justice will come to all sexual predators.At the closing ceremony for the 71st edition of the French Riviera extravaganza, the Cate Blanchett-led jury selected one of the festival’s most acclaimed entries, one hailed as a modest masterpiece from

 Veteran spy Gina Haspel will become the first female director of the CIA after six Democrats joined Republicans in a Senate confirmation vote that overrode concerns about her role in the spy agency's harsh interrogation program after 9/11.    Thursday's 54-45 vote split both parties, and the margin was the closest for a CIA nominee in the nearly seven decades that a nod from the Senate has been required. Haspel, who has spent nearly all of her 33-year CIA career in undercover positions, is the

MOUNT OLIVE, New Jersey -- A school bus taking children on a field trip to a historic site collided with a dump truck on Thursday, ripping the bus apart and killing a student and a teacher.The crash left the bus lying on its side on the guardrail of Interstate 80 in Mount Olive, its undercarriage and front end sheared off and its steering wheel exposed. Some of the victims crawled out of the emergency exit in the back and an escape hatch on the roof. More than 40 people were taken to hospitals.F

Betsy Davis threw herself a party before becoming one of the first people to use a California law allowing her to take her own life in 2016.Her sister and other advocates fear others won't have the same choice after a Riverside County judge threw out the law Tuesday because he said it was unconstitutionally approved by the Legislature.Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia ruled lawmakers illegally passed the law during a special session devoted to other topics, but he gave the state attorney gener

Police are investigating whether a Tesla sedan's semi-autonomous Autopilot feature was engaged when it rear-ended a fire department truck in Utah. The Tesla Model S crashed into the truck at 60 mph (97 kph) apparently without braking before impact, according to police in South Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The fire department mechanic truck had been stopped at a red light.The crash comes as federal safety agencies investigate the performance of Tesla's semi-autonomous driving system. The T

North Korea said Saturday that it will dismantle its nuclear test site in less than two weeks, in a dramatic event that would set up leader Kim Jong Un's summit with President Donald Trump next month. Trump welcomed the "gracious gesture."In a statement carried by state media, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said all of the tunnels at the country's northeastern testing ground will be destroyed by explosion, and observation and research facilities and ground-based guard units will also be removed.

South Korea said Friday it will look closer into the circumstances surrounding the arrival of a dozen North Korean restaurant workers in 2016 after a television report suggested some of the women might have been brought to the South against their will. Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun did not provide a clear answer on whether the women could be returned to North Korea if it‘s confirmed they didn’t want to come to South Korea. Seoul had previously said it sufficiently confirmed the wo

Edwin Montoya's family carved their farm on the slopes of the Kilauea volcano out of "raw jungle," transforming it into a fertile collection of gardens, animal pens and fruit trees. Now the property is imperiled by the very land it stands upon. A couple of miles up the hill, lava has destroyed dozens of homes and his daughter's farm is in an evacuation zone. Despite the nearby danger, Montoya plans to stay unless he is forced to leave. "I'm going to go ahead and stick it out," he said. "If

CLEVELAND -- Once the sweeping was done, LeBron James peeled off his jersey and headed toward the locker room. He stopped on the way to share a moment with his two sons, who held basketballs while patiently waiting to take some shots.James hugged his kids and rubbed their heads. He treated the Toronto Raptors the same way.Child’s play.James ended Toronto’s season for the third straight season with a second consecutive four-game sweep as Cavs advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the four

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupted Thursday, sending lava shooting into the air in a residential neighborhood and prompting mandatory evacuation orders for nearby homes. Hawaii County said steam and lava poured out of a crack in Leilani Estates, which is near the town of Pahoa on the Big Island.  Footage shown on local television showed lava spurting into the sky from a crack in a road. Aerial drone footage showed a line of lava snaking through a forest.Lava fountains were shooting 150 feet (46 me

SAN FRANCISCO -- WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum is breaking ties with his company’s parent, Facebook, amid a privacy scandal that has dogged the social network for weeks.Koum confirmed his departure from WhatsApp Monday on his Facebook page . The Washington Post reported that Koum also plans to resign from Facebook’s board of directors. Facebook wouldn’t comment on that report.Facebook has been trying to defuse questions about whether it can be trusted with the reams of personal information it collects t

At the height of North Korea’s torrid run of nuclear and missile tests last year, I was constantly joking with my Associated Press colleague Kim Hyung-jin about how we could be writing about something entirely different once the calendar turns to 2018.North Korea was being unusually provocative, and its nuclear threats had become genuine. There was also a new president in Washington who seemed serious about using military force against the North, even at the risk of triggering a full-blown war.E

After a summit high on theatrics, emotional displays of Korean reconciliation and some important but familiar sounding plans to boost bilateral relations, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has safely returned to Pyongyang and South Korean President Moon Jae-in to his official residence in Seoul.But is buyer’s remorse about to set in?Despite its feel-good emphasis on relationship-building, the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade left a lot of question marks around the biggest and most c

An influential young sister. North Korea's 90-year-old nominal head of state. A man believed to be behind attacks that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010. And the top foreign policy and military affairs strategists. A list of high-profile North Korean officials accompanying leader Kim Jong Un to a border village to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in shows how serious Kim is about the Koreas' third-ever summit and what will likely be discussed. A brief look at the makeup of Kim's entourage