Hurricane Irma lashed Puerto Rico with heavy rain and powerful winds Wednesday night, leaving nearly 900,000 people without power as authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands already devastated by the historic storm.Florida rushed to prepare for a possible direct hit on the Miami area by the Category 5 storm with potentially catastrophic 185 mph winds. Nearly every building on the island of Barbuda was damaged when the eye of the storm passed almost directly overhead early Wedn

“The Golden House” by Salman Rushdie; Random House (400 pages, $29)If you read a lot of fiction, you know that every once in a while you stumble upon a book that transports you, telling a story full of wonder and leaving you marveling at how it ever came out of the author’s head.“The Golden House” is one of those books. The title refers to the lower Manhattan residence of the Golden family. It’s the home of Nero and his three sons, Apu, Petya and D. The narrator is a neighbor named Rene, an aspi

While both condemned North Korea over its latest nuclear test, the leaders of Russia and South Korea seemed far apart on stepping up sanctions against the country. Speaking after the meeting Wednesday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the Russian port city of Vladivostok, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for talks with North Korea, saying sanctions are not a solution to the country's nuclear and missile development. Moon had urged Moscow to support stronger sanctions against Nort

Hurricane Irma strengthened into a dangerous Category 5 storm Tuesday as it roared toward the northeast Caribbean on a path toward the US.  An image obatined from the NASA`s GOES Project shows Hurricane Irma on September 4. (AFP)The US National Hurricane Center said Irma had sustained winds of 175mph (280 kph) and was centered about 270 miles (440 kilometers) east of Antigua. It was moving west at 14 mph (22 kph). Irma's center was expected to move near or over the northern Leeward Islands late

Japanese Emperor Akihito’s oldest grandchild, Princess Mako, said Sunday she is getting married to a university classmate who won her heart with bright smiles and sincerity.Mako and fiance Kei Komuro, both 25, said at a news conference that their relationship started when the princess sat behind him at a campus meeting five years ago at Tokyo’s International Christian University, where they graduated.  “First I was attracted by his bright smiles like the sun,” Mako said, smiling shyly. They talk

The Latest on the tensions on the Korean Peninsula (all times local):1:40 p.m. South Korea's Yonhap news agency says a second quake was detected near North Korea's nuclear test site. The second quake measured 4.6. South Korea's military said earlier Sunday that North Korea is believed to have conducted its sixth nuclear test after it picked up seismic waves measuring 5.6. The US Geological Survey called the first quake an explosion with a magnitude 6.3.It came hours after North Korea claimed tha

Astronaut Peggy Whitson returned to Earth late Saturday, wrapping up a record-breaking flight that catapulted her to first place for US space endurance.Whitson's 665 days off the planet _ 288 days on this mission alone _ exceeds that of any other American and any other woman worldwide.She checked out of the International Space Station just hours earlier, along with another American and a Russian. Their Soyuz capsule landed in Kazakhstan shortly after sunrise Sunday _ Saturday night back in the U

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the loading of a hydrogen bomb into a new intercontinental ballistic missile, Pyongyang's state media said Sunday, a claim to technological mastery that some outside experts will doubt but that will raise already high worries on the Korean Peninsula.As part of North Korea's work to build an arsenal of viable nuclear ICBMs that can reach the US mainland, Kim inspected during a visit to the North's Nuclear Weapons Institute the loading of a "homemade" H-bo

North Korea on Thursday vowed to execute reporters from two South Korean newspapers, saying they insulted the country's dignity while reviewing and interviewing the British authors of a book about life in the isolated country.Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency carried a state court statement expressing anger over the descriptions of North Korean lives as increasingly capitalist. It also objected to the translated title of the South Korean edition as "Capitalist People's Republic of

The Kremlin on Wednesday confirmed that President Donald Trump's personal lawyer reached out to them during the 2016 presidential campaign, seeking help for a business project in Russia.In a statement to the House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen said Monday the president's company pursued a project in Moscow during the Republican pri

The language from North Korea on Wednesday is as familiar as it is chilling, a declaration to the world to expect more missile tests. But there are important clues about North Korea’s ambitious push to send its missiles farther into the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to make them an accepted part of life in the region, as leader Kim Jong Un expands the weapons program he sees as his country’s best chance of survival against encircling enemies. By firing a missile over Japan and putting the Asia-Pac

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for more weapons tests targeting the Pacific Ocean, Pyongyang announced Wednesday, a day after his nation for the first time flew a ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload over Japan.Tuesday's aggressive missile launch _ likely the longest ever from North Korea _ over the territory of a close US ally sends a clear message of defiance as Washington and Seoul conduct war games nearby. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said it was a

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Tuesday that "all options are on the table" in terms of a US response to North Korea's launch of a missile over Japan. In a terse, written statement Tuesday, Trump said that with the missile launch North Korea has "signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior.""Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the reg

North Korea fired an unidentified projectile from its capital Pyongyang that flew over Japan   before plunging into the northern Pacific Ocean, officials said Tuesday, an especially aggressive test-flight that will rattle an already anxious region. Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday said the missile traveled around 2,700 kilometers (1677 miles) and reached a maximum height of 550 kilometers (341 miles) as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The JCS said it is analyzing t

NEW DELHI (AP) -- India and China have agreed to pull back their troops from a face-off in the high Himalayas where China, India and Bhutan meet, signaling a thaw in the monthslong standoff, India's government said Monday. India's Ministry of External Affairs said India and China had diplomatic exchanges in recent weeks over the situation on Doklam plateau in the eastern Himalayas and both had agreed to "go back to the status quo" before the standoff. Both India and China said their troops would