China: Quake rocks region

BEIJING — A moderate earthquake rocked southwest China killing one person, injuring at least 324 others and collapsing some 18,000 homes, state media said.

The magnitude-6.0 temblor, centered in Yunnan province's Yao'an county, also damaged nearly 40,000 homes on Thursday, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Thirty people suffered severe injuries, Xinhua said.

S. Korea: 2 in guest house

SEOUL — North Korea has not yet sent two convicted U.S. journalists to a prison labor camp in a possible attempt to seek talks with Washington on their release, a scholar who visited the North said in an interview published Friday.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who work for former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media group, are being kept at a guest house in the North Korean capital and have not yet been sent to a prison camp as called for in their sentences, University of Georgia political scientist Han Park said.

Egypt: 25 arrested

CAIRO — Egyptian authorities arrested 25 people on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil pipelines and ships in the Suez Canal, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The group, which Egypt said had links to al-Qaida, was made up of two dozen Egyptians — most of them engineers and technicians — and their Palestinian leader. They also had contacts with militants in the Gaza Strip, the ministry said.

"They believe in takfiri and jihadi thought," a ministry statement said, referring to the radical Sunni Muslim ideology espoused by groups like al-Qaida.

The group planned to use explosives rigged with mobile phone-activated detonators against shipping in the busy Suez Canal, and learned about explosives from al-Qaida militants on jihadi Web sites, the statement said.

Costa Rica: Talks begin

SAN JOSE — Talks to resolve the leadership crisis in Honduras began Thursday, with both sides holding closed-door meetings with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to discuss a coup that has re-awoken fears of political instability in the region.

Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya appeared first, and left Arias' home in Costa Rica's capital shortly before the arrival of the man who replaced him after a military coup, his former friend and political ally Roberto Micheletti.

Afghanistan: Law revised