World/Local News

SEOUL, South Korea—The number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea has surged in recent years because of economic suffering in the North, with more than 10,000 defections over the past three years, South Korea’s […] […]

PLAYA DE CARMEN, MEXICO—A powerful explosion that killed five Canadian tourists and two Mexican workers at a resort hotel on Mexico’s posh Riviera Maya was apparently caused by build up of gas from a nearby […] […]

A SUSPECTED gas explosion has ripped through a Mexican hotel, killing five Canadian tourists and two staff members. Seventeen people were injured in the blast, said officials who ruled out an attack. Army and police […] […]

HAMID Karzai has warned that the US military must scale back operations and reduce “intrusiveness” into Afghan life or risk fuelling the Taliban insurgency. The Afghan President’s comments, which appeared to contravene the US military’s counter-insurgency […] […]

CHINA overtook the US at the head of the world of supercomputing today when a survey ranked one of its machines the fastest on the planet. Tianhe-1, meaning Milky Way, achieved a computing speed of […] […]

MOSCOW—About 500 people came out on a rainy Sunday afternoon to protest the beatings of journalists and activists linked to a dispute over a forest just outside the Russian capital. The protesters on the square […] […]

KILKENNY, Ireland—Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams announced Sunday he intends to quit his political posts in Northern Ireland and seek election to parliament in the Republic of Ireland, a surprise gambit timed to capitalize on […] […]

A FORMER ally of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will deal him a crippling blow today. The new Future and Liberty party of Gianfranco Fini, Speaker of the lower house of parliament, said Mr Berlusconi […] […]

Thousands of wildly cheering supporters greeted Myanmar pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi as she arrived at the headquarters of her political party, a day after her unconditional release from seven years under house arrest. […] […]

BRITISH singer James Blunt said his refusal to obey orders from an American general helped avert an international incident, and a potential Third World War. The You’re Beautiful singer, a former captain in the Life […] […]