Toyota says it is recalling about 437,000 Priuses and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems -- the latest in a string of embarrassing safety lapses at the world's largest automaker.

The head of Iran's atomic agency said the Islamic Republic would not enrich uranium to a higher level if the West provides the fuel it needs for a research reactor in Tehran.

A power plant explosion that killed at least five people left a section of the building too unstable for rescue crews to determine whether everyone was accounted for, a fire official said Monday.

The recruiting agency responsible for hiring and managing staff at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMFA) in Taichung was forced to stop asking female applicants to show proof that they were not pregnant after a lengthy dispute with the unions and the Council of Labor Affairs.

Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich on Monday pressed rival Yulia Tymoshenko to concede defeat after his slender victory in a presidential election that could tilt the ex-Soviet state back toward Moscow.

The average starting salary for female workers in Taiwan is about 18 percent lower than the average for their male counterparts, according to the results of a survey released yesterday.

Starting 12:00 p.m. today, two more lanes will be open to vehicles driving on the section between the Dazhu Interchange and the Dayuan Interchange of the No.2 national expressway leading to Taoyuan International Airport.

Taiwan's High Court is extending by two months the detention of former President Chen Shui-bian as he appeals his bribery conviction.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) reiterated Monday what it sees as the importance of setting up a legislative task force to oversee cross-Taiwan Strait affairs, including a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.

Costa Ricans have elected their first woman president as the ruling party candidate won in a landslide after campaigning to continue free market policies in Central America's most stable nation.

North Korea warned South Korea on Monday that any attempt to bring down the communist country would draw "strong measures" from its military, a threat issued even as Pyongyang embarked on a flurry of diplomacy with Seoul, Washington and Beijing.

An explosion blew out the walls of an unfinished power plant and set off a fire during a test of natural gas lines Sunday, killing at least five workers and injuring a dozen or more.

China has found another 170 tons of tainted milk powder in an emergency crackdown that has made it increasingly clear many products discovered in the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of destroyed.

The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) said yesterday that patients who are unable to get medicines from pharmacies with doctors' prescriptions may seek assistance from bureau branch offices.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday ordered Iran's atomic chief to begin higher uranium enrichment, raising the stakes in a dispute with the West days after seeming to accept a U.N.-drafted nuclear deal.

The flakes had stopped falling, but residents in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. were faced yesterday with the prospect of digging out of more than two feet (60 centimeters) of snow in some areas.

"America is ready for another revolution," Sarah Palin declared as she assailed President Barack Obama in a speech before adoring "tea party" activists who would make a seemingly natural constituency if she runs for president.