HONG KONG (AP) ― The World Bank held its East Asian growth forecast steady but warned of growing risks including Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and uncertainty about Thai manufacturing’s recovery from widespread flooding.In a half-yearly report on the outlook for the region, the bank on Tuesday forecast economic growth of 8.2 percent this year and 7.8 percent in 2012, practically unchanged from an earlier prediction in April.Growth in East Asia’s economic lynchpin, China, is expected to ease to

President Lee Myung-bak returned home Tuesday wrapping up his 2011 round of East Asian diplomacy conducted through a series of summit talks in mostly duplicating regional frameworks. After attending the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Honolulu, Hawaii, the president took part in three ASEAN-based summit sessions in Bali, Indonesia, and then held talks with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III in Manila on Monday.The president’s diplomatic circuit also included attendance at

Oh Kil-nam met Marzuki Darusman, the special U.N. envoy on North Korean human rights, in Seoul Monday to seek his help in getting the return of his wife and two daughters now in captivity in North Korea. Last week, the 69-year-old retired economist was in Washington, D.C., to appeal to a meeting of legislators from around the world in his desperate efforts to be reunited with his family, which he had taken to the North from Germany in 1985 and was left behind when he returned to Europe a year la

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― The man tasked with ending Belgium’s record political crisis, by finally putting a government together, threw in the towel Monday after talks collapsed over budget cuts to counter the eurozone debt crisis.As Belgium hit 526 days without a government, Socialist leader Elio Di Rupo offered his resignation to King Albert II, who delayed any decision and exhorted politicians to find a rapid solution for the sake of the kingdom.The king “recalls the gravity of the current situation a

BEIJING (AFP) ― Ai Weiwei fans have again rallied behind the outspoken Chinese artist after he revealed he is being investigated on pornography charges ― by posting naked pictures of themselves online.Supporters of Ai ― who disappeared into custody for 81 days earlier this year ― raised money when he was saddled with a 15-million-yuan ($2.4 million) bill in alleged back taxes, a move he called politically motivated.Their online drive to send him money totaled nearly nine million yuan, enabling A

NEW YORK (AP) ― Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese’s longtime editor, warmly greets a reporter outside their Manhattan offices ahead of a screening of Scorsese’s new 3-D fairy tale, “Hugo.”Around the corner is Schoonmaker’s editing bay, where she and Scorsese keep Turner Classic Movies running silently on a nearby screen while they work. Inside is a screening room where Scorsese often runs old films, familiar classics and newfound gems. At one time, they gathered with Elia Kazan every Saturday

BERLIN (AP) ― An American university returned a 15th century painting to a Berlin museum on Monday, more than six decades after the valuable piece was stolen in the chaotic aftermath of World War II.The Flagellation of Christ was one of more than a dozen paintings that disappeared from Berlin’s Jagdschloss Grunewald museum during the summer of 1945, looted by British and Russian soldiers.The painting, which originally formed a wing of an altarpiece, was later sold and ended up in the Indiana Uni

BERLIN (AFP) ― U.S. superstar Sylvester Stallone has teamed up with heavyweight boxing legends Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko for what is billed as the world’s first musical version of “Rocky,” producers said Monday.Stallone said he had always envisaged creating a musical version of the 1976 Oscar-winning rags-to-riches story of Rocky Balboa, a down-at-heel amateur boxer who bravely fights the world champion in a bruising and bloody bout.“I always had the idea of Rocky as a musical. At the end of

NEW YORK (AP) ― Christopher Eccleston and Julie Walters garnered the main acting awards as British TV productions won five International Emmys on Monday, including two for the BBC crime anthology “Accused.”“Accused,” written and created by Jimmy McGovern, received the Emmy for best drama series at the 39th Annual International Emmy Awards ceremony at the Hilton New York Hotel. The anthology tells the stories of people accused of crimes as they sit in holding cells beneath the courtroom awaiting