SEOUL, South Korea - 179 people are presumed dead following a fiery plane crash just off the tarmac at the Muan International Airport in South Korea, approximately 288 kilometers southwest of the capital, Seoul.
A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 airliner carrying 181 people, including 175 passengers
NORFOLK, Virginia: Hundreds of sailors and their loved ones got an early Christmas present when the USS Cole docked at its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, after seven months at sea.
This week, the USS Cole returned to Naval Station Norfolk, greeted by a cheering crowd wrapped in coats and blankets. Families shed tears of joy and shared long hugs, and sailors embraced smiling children. Some people held flower bou
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Joe Biden signed into law legislation that gave an overdue honor to the bald eagle as it officially became the country's national bird.
For more than 240 years, the bald eagle has been a symbol of the United States' power and strength.
President Joe Biden signed a law officially naming the bald eagle the national bird of the United States, fixing an oversight that had been unno
WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Joe Biden this week vetoed a once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal district judgeships, claiming that the House's "hurried action" left critical queries unanswered about the positions.
A proposed law aimed to create new federal trial court judgeships over more than a decade, giving three presidential administrations and six Congresses the opportunity to appoint judges. This biparti
HONG KONG: Hong Kong police announced arrest warrants on December 24 for six overseas-based activists, each accused of national security offenses, including secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces.
Authorities set bounties at HK$1 million for information leading to their capture.
Among those targeted is Tony Chung, the former leader of the now-disbanded pro-independence group Studentloca
BOSTON, Massachusetts: Conservationists are working to restore the defining features of a 294-year-old church in Boston, which includes painted angels with round, childlike faces and wings.
Straddling the scaffolding high up in a historic Boston church, murals conservator Gianfranco Pocobene has been working to uncover eight angels hidden under layers of paint for more than a century.
The painted angels
Israel Air Force pilots have bombed numerous infrastructure targets across Yemen, including in the capital Sanaa.
Among the targets was the Sanaa International Airport where bombs narrowly missed a plane World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was about to board. One of the crew members on board the UN plane was injured in the attack.
"As we were about to board our flight fro
WASHINGTON, D.C.: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on December 22 that he would rename Denali, Alaska natives' name for North America's tallest mountain, after William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president who was assassinated in 1901.
In 2015, former President Barack Obama officially renamed the mountain Denali, siding with Alaska and ending a long debate over its name. The mountain had been called Mount McKi
WASHINGTON, D.C.: In the coming weeks, the IRS will automatically deposit special payments of up to US$1,400 each with approximately one million taxpayers.
The money will be sent to eligible people's bank accounts or their mail by a paper check.
The IRS is sending out about $2.4 billion to taxpayers who didn't claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns. This credit was available to people
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Late last week, U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to provide US$571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House said.
The State Department also approved the potential sale to the island of $265 million worth of military equipment.
The United States is legally required to help Taiwan defend itself, even though Washington doesn't have formal diplomatic ties with Taipei, which an
SIMFEROPOL, Crimea: Efforts to clean up the Kerch Strait near Russian-occupied Crimea intensified a week after at least 3,700 tons of low-grade fuel oil spilled from two Russian tankers damaged during a storm.
Russian media reported that more than 7,500 people, many of them volunteers, worked to rescue wildlife and clean oil-contaminated shorelines. By December 22 afternoon, more than 12,000 tons of polluted soi
An Azerbaijani airliner carrying 67 people crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing at least 38 who were on board, according to Kazakh authorities.
In a sprawling rescue operation, 29 survivors including two children were pulled from the wreckage, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said, adding that 11 were in critical condition.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243
ST. PAUL, Minnesota: A Minnesota judge who ruled that a Democratic candidate is ineligible to serve in the state House because he didn't meet the residency requirement for his suburban district could give Republicans a majority in the Minnesota House for the start of the 2025 legislative session.
Judge Leonardo Castro determined that Curtis Johnson did not live in the Roseville-area district for the required six
SILVER CITY, New Mexico: Joseph Shepard, president of Western New Mexico University (WNMU), resigned following an audit that uncovered improper use of public funds.
The resignation is part of a deal that secures Shepard a new teaching position and a $1.9 million payment.
The resignation comes after a New Mexico state auditor's investigation revealed that Shepard and other top university officials had fai
LYONS, Georgia: Twisted equipment and fallen trees still litter Chris Hopkins' farm in rural Toombs County, Georgia, more than two months after Hurricane Helene tore through the South.
The storm, which made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on September 26, wreaked havoc across Georgia and neighboring states, leaving farmers like Hopkins grappling with devastating losses.
"I have wrestled wit