BEIJING -- US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Beijing on Saturday for discussions focused on trade and North Korea, along with preparations for a visit by President Donald Trump in November. Tillerson is making his second visit in office to the world's No. 2 economy and chief American rival for influence in Asia, and increasingly, the world. He is scheduled to meet Saturday with top Chinese officials including senior foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Presid

Construction has been nearly completed on a controversial stadium that will host the opening and closing ceremonies for next year's Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games in South Korea.    The Pyeongchang organizing committee said Friday the pentagonal, 35,000-seat stadium would be finished on Saturday. It will be torn down after the Games, with the site to be used for a new museum and leisure facilities.     South Korea had considered using existing stadiums in other cities for the opening and closi

 U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is making his second trip to China since taking office in February, and relations between the two world powers have rarely mattered so much.    The standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons has entered a new, dangerous phase as its leader, Kim Jong Un, and President Donald Trump exchange personal insults and threats of war with no sign of a diplomatic solution.    Even as Washington and Beijing grapple with that security crisis, Trump wants action from Ch

Playboy founder Hugh M. Hefner, the pipe-smoking hedonist who revved up the sexual revolution in the 1950s and built a multimedia empire of clubs, mansions, movies and television, symbolized by bow-tied women in bunny costumes, has died at age 91. Hefner died of natural causes at his home surrounded by family on Wednesday night, Playboy said in a statement.  This Oct.13, 2011 file photo shows American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises, Hugh Hefner at h

BANGKOK -- A Thai court on Wednesday sentenced former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ousted in a 2014 military coup, to five years in prison in absentia for alleged negligence in a money-losing rice subsidy program.Yingluck, who has said the charges are politically motivated, is believed to have fled the country last month before the verdict originally was to have been delivered. Her lawyers said on Wednesday that they have no idea where she is.Yingluck's conviction had

The new CEO of Uber offered contrition for past mistakes on Monday, just days after London's transport authority said it would scrap the company's operating license. Dara Khosrowshahi issued a letter to London's Evening Standard newspaper acknowledging that the company ``has got things wrong along the way'' as it expanded. He confirmed the company will appeal the London decision but will do so ``with the knowledge that we must also change.'' ``We won't be perfect, but we will listen to you; we w

Iraqi Kurds cast ballots on Monday in their autonomous region and in a wide sweep of captured territories on whether to seek independence from Baghdad, a historic vote that has also raised tensions and fears of instability. The referendum is non-binding and will not immediately bring independence, but it would mark a definitive stance by the Kurds to break away, and Kurdish leaders say they will use a ``yes'' vote to press for negotiations with Iraq's central government to win statehood. From An

MADRID -- Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has sent a message of solidarity to the family of a young fan killed in Mexico’s earthquake.　 Ronaldo twitted a photo of himself holding a Real Madrid jersey with the message “To my No. 1 fan, Santiago.”　  Real Madrid`s Cristiano Ronaldo closes his eyes during Spanish the La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Real Betis at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. Betis won 1-0. (AP)Spanish media said the message written on

MEXICO CITY -- A strong new earthquake shook Mexico on Saturday, killing at least two people, toppling already damaged homes and a highway bridge, and causing new alarm in a country reeling from two even more powerful quakes that together have killed more than 400 people.The US Geological Survey said the new, magnitude 6.1 temblor was centered about 11 miles (18 kilometers) south-southeast of Matias Romero in the state of Oaxaca, which was the region most battered by a magnitude 8.1 quake on Sep

BEIJING -- China announced Saturday that it will limit energy supplies to North Korea and stop buying its textiles under UN sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile development, further reducing support from Pyongyang’s last ally.Exports of refined petroleum to the North will be limited to 2 million barrels per year, effective Jan. 1, the Commerce Ministry said. Sales of liquefied natural gas are banned outright. A North Korean solder stands guard near barrels stacked up near the river ban

WASHINGTON — Would exploding a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific, as North Korea has threatened, push the current war of words between the US and North Korea closer to actual war?As with much that has transpired lately in the US-North Korea nuclear crisis, no one can be sure where this would lead or whether the North will even carry out its threat. It does, however, raise many questions, including: How would the North undertake such a nuclear test, what risks might it pose to Japan and how would th

President Donald Trump is again assailing North Korea Kim Jong Un, saying that he "will be tested like never before."In an escalation of the war of words between the United States and North Korea, Trump sent a predawn tweet Friday saying, "Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!"Trump's broadside follows a rare statement issued by Kim, branding the US president as "deranged" and warning he will "pay

In a rare if not unprecedented move, North Korea released a statement directly from its leader in response to President Donald Trump's criticism in his speech to the United Nations earlier this week. The response, transmitted by North Korea's state news agency KCNA, reads as follows:___Respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, released a statement on Thursday.(KCNA-Yonhap)The full text of the statement reads:The speech made by the US president in

MEXICO CITY -- Police, firefighters and ordinary Mexicans dug frantically through the rubble of collapsed schools, homes and apartment buildings early Wednesday, looking for survivors of Mexico’s deadliest earthquake in decades as the number of confirmed fatalities climbed to 248.Adding poignancy and a touch of the surreal, Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake struck on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands. Just hours earlier, people around Mexico had held earthquake drills

Was it a bluff? A warning that Washington would shoot down North Korea's next missile test? A simple restatement of past policy? Officials and pundits across Asia struggled Wednesday to decode President Donald Trump's threat to "totally destroy North Korea'' if provoked. There was, however, no immediate comment from the focus of Trump's belligerence: North Korea held its tongue in the hours after the US president's speech.In a region well used to North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons generati