Seoul - South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Wednesday urged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to make "further efforts" to dissuade North Korea from conducting a fresh nuclear test, warning of serious repercussions for regional stability.

- The search for scores of passengers still missing from South Korea's ferry disaster entered a second week Wednesday, to the deepening distress of their grieving, angry and frustrated families.

South Korea's president said Monday that the captain and some crew members who escaped a ferry that sank with hundreds of vacationers had committed acts "tantamount to murder."

- The confirmed death toll from South Korea's ferry disaster rose sharply to more than 120 Tuesday as divers speeded up the grim task of recovering bodies from the submerged ship and police took two more of its crew into custody.

Seoul - North Korea could well be preparing to carry out a fourth nuclear test, South Korea said Tuesday, citing increased activity at its main test site, just days ahead of a visit to Seoul by US President Barack Obama.

Ansan - Divers recovered more than a dozen bodies Sunday from a sunken ferry believed to still contain more than 250 passengers, mostly South Korean high school students on vacation who died Wednesday when the boat they were riding in capsized in the Yellow Sea.

Gwangju - Panic-stricken and fumbling for a response, the crew of a South Korean ferry dithered over the evacuation of passengers in the crucial final moments before it sank, a transcript released Sunday revealed, as divers began retrieving bodies from the vesse...

Jindo - An assistant principal from the high school attended by hundreds of students aboard the South Korean ferry that sank in the Yellow Sea this week committed suicide Friday outside a gymnasium where parents of the presumed victims had gathered.

- Divers began to locate bodies Saturday inside a submerged South Korean ferry as the detained captain defended his decision to delay evacuation of the ship when it capsized nearly four days ago with 476 people on board.

- South Korean prosecutors sought arrest warrants Friday for the captain and two crew members of the ferry that capsized two days before with hundreds of children on board, a coastguard official said.

- Investigators sought arrest warrants Friday for the captain of a South Korean ferry that capsized two days ago, as divers overcame strong currents and near zero visibility to enter the submerged vessel for the first time.

Seoul - Heart-wrenching messages of fear, love and despair, sent by high school students from a sinking South Korean ferry, added extra emotional weight Thursday to a tragedy that has stunned the nation.

- The pin-drop silence as the student's name was read out was broken by a piercing scream of anguished recognition as her shattered parents clutched each other in the cold, harbour gymnasium.

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Reports from South Korea are contradictory but it now appears that up to 300 passengers, most are high-school students, are unaccounted for on a ferry that sank Wednesday. Only four are confirmed dead but that number is expected to rise.

Seoul - South Korea and Japan held rare high-level talks Wednesday on the extremely sensitive issue of wartime sex slavery, which has contributed to a virtual freeze in diplomatic ties.

Seoul - Two bodies have been recovered and 368 people rescued from a South Korean ferry that capsized at sea Wednesday with 477 passengers and crew on board, a senior government official said.

Seoul - South Korea has blocked the newly launched Korean version of the global adultery hook-up site Ashley Madison, saying Wednesday that it threatened family values in a country where marital infidelity is a crime.

Seoul - South Korea's coastguard said Wednesday one person had been killed as it struggled to rescue 476 people -- mostly high school students -- aboard a ferry that ran aground and sank off the southern coast.

Seoul - South Korean police said Tuesday they had arrested a man for allegedly allowing his infant son to starve to death while spending days playing online games at Internet cafes.