Big Apple's grande dame to get face-lift

NEW YORK - It's goodbye for now to the grand Art Deco lobby and celebrities crossing paths en route to "The Towers" at the Waldorf Astoria: one of the world's most luxurious hotels is closing for renovation.

Nazi's son returns art looted by family

WARSAW - The son of a Nazi official has returned three artworks that his family had looted from the southern Polish city of Krakow during World War II.

Fishermen tackle clam theft and pollution

ALAPPUZHA, INDIA - Flocks of storks and cormorants perched on bamboo stilts peer into the blue-black depths of Vembanad Lake in India's southwest Kerala state, searching hungrily for food.

Bumblebees create a buzz after solving problems with soccer-playing skills

LONDON - Despite their tiny brains, bumblebees can be trained to score goals using a mini-ball, revealing unprecedented learning abilities, according to a study by scientists from the Queen Mary University of London.

Ride-hailing bikes hit Hanoi streets, easing commute

HANOI, VIETNAM - "The job is not too tough and brings me a rather good income," Dao Van Dung, a 23-year-old citizen in Vietnam's capital of Hanoi, told Xinhua about his job as a motorbike taxi driver using the ride-hailing app GrabBike.

Children's sexting tops British parents' worries

LONDON - A strategy aimed at ensuring Britain becomes the safest place in the world for young people to go online was announced on Monday by the government. It follows a study showing four out of five parents were concerned about their children sexting, a higher proportion than parents who fear their offspring will smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.

Trump eyes jump in military spending

WASHINGTON - On the eve of his first congressional address on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump offered a taste of his upcoming budget, announcing he would ask Congress for a nearly 10 percent rise in military spending and a large cut in foreign aid.

Park branded as criminal suspect

SEOUL - Special prosecutors of the Republic of Korea on Tuesday branded impeached President Park Geun-hye as a criminal suspect for bribery charge in collusions with her friend Choi Soon-sil, who is at the center of the corruption scandal.

Pyongyang seeks return of citizen's body

KUALA LUMPUR - A high-level delegation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea arrived in Malaysia on Tuesday to seek the repatriation of the body of a citizen, who was killed during an incident at Kuala Lumpur's airport on Feb 13.

UK 'needs more charm' for good Brexit deal

LONDON - The UK government needs to approach divorce talks with the European Union with more charm and less "cheap rhetoric" if it wants to get a good deal, former Conservative prime minister John Major said on Monday.

Germany sees 'alarmingly high' number of anti-migrant crimes

BERLIN - Migrants and their homes in Germany faced more than 3,500 attacks in 2016, a number that is "alarmingly high and cause for concern," a German official said on Monday, while adding that the crimes are being aggressively prosecuted and the numbers of such attacks are now falling.

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