WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is suggesting China will ease trade barriers "because it is the right thing to do" and Washington and Beijing can settle disputes that have rattled financial markets, consumers and businesses.A new Trump tweet doesn't explain why he's optimistic about resolving an escalating trade clash between the world's two biggest economies.Trump says he and Chinese President Xi Jinping "will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade."President D

North and South Korea on Saturday held talks over establishing a telephone hotline between their leaders and other communication issues ahead of a rare summit between the rivals later this month.The closed-door talks between working-level officials at a border village were part of preparatory discussions to set up the April 27 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The meeting, only the third summit between the Koreas since the end of the 1950-53 K

TOKYO -- As the US-North Korea summit looms, President Donald Trump‘s maximum pressure policy on North Korea may be working -- thanks to China.Beijing appears to have gone well beyond UN sanctions on its unruly neighbor, reducing its total imports from North Korea in the first two months this year by 78.5 and 86.1 percent in value -- a decline that began in late 2017, according to the latest trade data from China. Its exports to the North also dropped by 33 percent to 34 percent both months. The

MUENSTER, Germany -— A van crashed into people drinking outside a popular bar Saturday in the German city of Muenster, killing two people and injuring 20 others before the driver of the vehicle shot and killed himself inside it, police said.A top German security official said there was no indication of an Islamic extremist motive but officials were investigating all possibilities in the deadly crash that took place at 3:27 p.m. on a warm spring day.Witnesses said people ran away screaming from t

SAN BRUNO, CA — A woman opened fire Tuesday at YouTube headquarters, wounding three people before fatally shooting herself as terrified employees huddled inside, police and witnesses said.After receiving multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire, officers and federal agents swarmed the company’s suburban campus sandwiched between two interstates in the San Francisco Bay Area city of San Bruno.YouTube employee Dianna Arnspiger said she was on the building’s second floor when she heard gun shots, ran t

WASHINGTON -- Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he‘s glad John Bolton will serve as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser going into talks with North Korea because of his "very healthy skepticism." A US-North Korean summit is slated for May. Hopes have been raised that Kim Jong-un may be willing to discuss his nuclear weapons program and other measures to reduce the threat of war, possibly in exchange for security guarantees and an easing of the international san

The United States said Friday it has secured the support of the UN Security Council for a new package of sanctions designations that target smuggling at sea by North Korea.Ambassador Nikki Haley said the North Korea Sanctions Committee, which comprises all members of the UN's most senior decision-making body, unanimously approved designations of 21 shipping companies, one individual and 27 ships. She said it was the largest-ever set of UN designations against the North. United States Ambassador

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles judge ruled that California law requires coffee companies to carry an ominous cancer warning label because of a chemical produced in the roasting process.Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle wrote in a proposed ruling Wednesday that Starbucks and other coffee companies failed to show that the threat from the chemical was insignificant.The Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a nonprofit group, sued Starbucks and about 90 other companies, including grocery stores

RICHFIELD -- President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to hold up the trade agreement his administration finalized this week with South Korea in an effort to gain more leverage in potential talks with North Korea.Speaking on infrastructure in Ohio, Trump highlighted the recently completed renegotiation of the Korea-US free trade agreement. But he warned: "I may hold it up until after a deal is made with North Korea." The announcement comes as the two Koreas have announced plans to hold bilat

NAYPYITAW -- Myanmar's parliament on Wednesday elected Win Myint, a loyalist of Aung San Suu Kyi, as new president, while she retained her executive authority over the government. The vote comes as Suu Kyi's civilian government has struggled to implement peace and national reconciliation, with the powerful military still embroiled in combat with ethnic rebels and under heavy international criticism for its brutal counterinsurgency campaign against the Muslim Rohingya minority. Myanmar's military

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s surprise visit to Beijing makes clear what has been easily forgotten amid the whirlwind of diplomatic developments in past months: China still plays a major role in efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear program.Just how much is still open to debate, but the visit shows Kim Jong Un hasn’t forgotten his only major ally despite recent antipathy between the countries and bombshell announcements that the young North Korean leader will hold summits with his foes in Was

When North Korea's leaders need to travel, they've got a train that's unlike any other.  The arrival of the deep green train with yellow piping used exclusively by the ruling Kim family generated much speculation before the official confirmation Wednesday that it had carried leader Kim Jong Un on his first trip outside of North Korea since taking power upon the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011. Here's a look at what's known about the North Korean ruling family's personal versio

Unions at South Korea's two-largest automakers, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., have blasted plans to revise a free trade deal with the United States, saying the amended deal will prevent local automakers from entering the fast-growing US pick-up truck market.  "It is a humiliating deal that accepts Trump's strategy to preemptively block South Korean pick-up trucks," Hyundai Motor's labor union said in a statement.  (Yonhap)As part of talks on revamping a free trade deal that took effect

HELSINKI (AP) -- Finland's foreign minister says denuclearization is not on the agenda as North Korean envoys meet with their South Korean colleagues and former US diplomats in the Nordic country.Foreign Minister Timo Soini said Tuesday in an interview with Finnish broadcaster MTV3 that nuclear weapons are not expected to be discussed at the tripartite talks.Senior North Korean diplomat Choe Kang-Il, who handles North American affairs in Pyongyang, arrived in Helsinki on Sunday for talks with So

MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin rolled to a crushing re-election victory Sunday for six more years as Russia's president, and he told cheering supporters in a triumphant but brief speech that "we are bound for success."There had been no doubt that Putin would win in his fourth electoral contest; he faced seven minor candidates and his most prominent foe was blocked from the ballot.His only real challenge was to run up the tally so high that he could claim an indisputable mandate.With ballots from 80 pe