Seoul: NKorea says it'll reopen cross-border communications

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has announced it will reopen a cross-border communication channel in another sign of easing animosity between the rivals.

The announcement Wednesday comes a day after South Korea offered high-level talks with rival North Korea to find ways to cooperate on next month's Winter Olympics in the South. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday suggested that the North might send a delegation to the Pyeongchang Games.

The South's Unification Ministry says the North's state-run radio station made the announcement in a broadcast Wednesday.

The ministry says the North's radio said there were plans to restore the communication channel at the border village of Panmunjom later Wednesday.

North Korea didn't say whether it would accept the South Korean offer for talks.

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Trump boasts of bigger 'nuclear button' than North Korea's

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump boasted Tuesday that he has a bigger and more powerful "nuclear button" than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The president's Tuesday evening tweet came in response to Kim's New Year's address, in which he repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. He said he has a "nuclear button" on his office desk and warned that "the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike."

Trump mocked that assertion, writing, "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

Earlier Tuesday, Trump sounded open to the possibility of an inter-Korean dialogue after Kim made a rare overture toward South Korea in a New Year's address. But Trump's ambassador to the United Nations insisted talks would not be meaningful unless the North was getting rid of its nuclear weapons.

In a morning tweet, Trump said the U.S.-led campaign of sanctions and other pressure were beginning to have a "big impact" on North Korea. He referred to the recent, dramatic escape of at least two North Korean soldiers across the heavily militarized border into South Korea. He also alluded to Kim's comments Monday that he was willing to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics, which will be hosted by South Korea next month.

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Trump threatens to cut off US aid to Palestinian Authority

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acknowledging his push to broker peace in the Middle East has stalled, President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to threaten to cut off U.S. aid money to the Palestinian Authority, asking why the U.S. should make "any of these massive future payments" when the Palestinians are "no longer willing to talk peace."

Trump, in a pair of tweets, said the U.S. pays "the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect."

"They don't even want to negotiate a long overdue ... peace treaty with Israel," he wrote.

Trump infuriated Palestinians and Muslims across the Middle East when he announced late last year that the U.S. would consider Jerusalem the capital of Israel and move its embassy there, upending decades of U.S. policy and igniting protests.

While the Palestinians haven't closed the door to a potential deal with Israel, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the announcement had destroyed Trump's credibility as a Mideast peace broker, calling the decision "a declaration of withdrawal from the role it has played in the peace process."

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Homeland chief: Wait and see on citizenship for immigrants

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Trump administration would consider immigration legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young people, the U.S. Homeland Security secretary said Tuesday, while emphasizing no decision on that issue has been made and a border wall remains the priority.

Congress is considering three options, including citizenship or permanent legal status for people who were temporarily shielded from deportation, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in an interview.

Details on qualifying for citizenship, including on how many years to wait and other requirements, would have to be addressed.

Asked whether the president would support citizenship, she said, "I think he's open to hearing about the different possibilities and what it means but, to my knowledge, there certainly hasn't been any decision from the White House."

In September, Trump said he wouldn't consider citizenship for DACA recipients — an Obama-era program that Trump said last year he was ending. He gave Congress until March to deliver a legislative fix.

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Sen. Hatch to retire, opening door for possible Romney run

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said Tuesday he will not seek re-election after serving more than 40 years in the Senate, opening the door for 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to run for his seat.

The 83-year-old Hatch, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, opted for retirement despite a full-court press from President Donald Trump to stay in Washington, particularly as Romney's ambition for the seat became apparent.

Romney was a vocal critic of Trump's during the 2016 election and could be a potential thorn in the president's side in the Senate. He also has drawn the ire of Trump's former White House adviser, Steve Bannon, who recently derided Romney as a draft dodger who "hid behind" his Mormon religion to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.

Hatch said he decided to retire at the end of his seventh term after "much prayer and discussion with family and friends" over the holiday break. He said he's always been a fighter, "but every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves."

"Only in a nation like ours could someone like me — the scrappy son of a simple carpenter — grow up to become a United States Senator," he added.

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Iran protests: Supreme leader blames 'enemies' for meddling

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Breaking his silence over nationwide protests that included calls for his ouster, Iran's supreme leader on Tuesday blamed the demonstrations on "enemies of Iran," saying they were meddling in its internal affairs.

The remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the demonstrations — the largest seen in Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election — came after a bloody night that saw protesters try to storm a police station and the first deaths among its security forces. The unrest has killed at least 21 people in the past six days.

The protests began Dec. 28 in Mashhad over the weak economy and a jump in food prices. They have since expanded to cities and towns in nearly every province. Hundreds have been arrested, and a prominent judge warned that some could face the death penalty.

Speaking to black-chador-clad women who were relatives of veterans and war dead, the 78-year-old Khamenei warned of an enemy "waiting for an opportunity, for a crack through which it can infiltrate."

"Look at the recent days' incidents," he said. "All those who are at odds with the Islamic Republic have utilized various means, including money, weapons, politics and (the) intelligence apparatus, to create problems for the Islamic system, the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution."

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Bitter cold tests winter-wise, delivers shock to South

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Bitterly cold temperatures gripped much of the nation on Tuesday, testing the mettle of even winter-wise northerners and delivering a shock to those accustomed to far milder weather in the South.

The cold has been blamed for at least a dozen deaths, prompted officials to open warming centers in the Deep South and triggered pleas from government officials to check on neighbors, especially those who are elderly, sick or who live alone.

In St. Louis, where temperatures dipped 30 degrees below normal, Mayor Lyda Krewson warned it was "dangerously cold."

"It's important that people look out for anyone in need of shelter," she said.

The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and freeze warnings covering a vast area, from South Texas to Canada and from Montana to Maine. The arctic blast was blamed for freezing a water tower in Iowa, halting a ferry service in New York and even trapping a swan in a Virginia pond.

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Get a pencil: California marijuana-tracking system not used

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California's legal pot economy was supposed to operate under the umbrella of a vast computerized system to track marijuana from seed to storefronts, ensuring that plants are followed throughout the supply chain and don't drift into the black market.

But recreational cannabis sales began this week without the computer system in use for pot businesses. Instead, they are being asked to document sales and transfers of pot manually, using paper invoices or shipping manifests. That raises the potential that an unknown amount of weed will continue slipping into the illicit market, as it has for years.

For the moment, "you are looking at pieces of paper and self-reporting. A lot of these regulations are not being enforced right now," said Jerred Kiloh, a Los Angeles dispensary owner who heads the United Cannabis Business Association, an industry group.

The state Department of Food and Agriculture, which is overseeing the tracking system, said in a statement it was "implemented" Tuesday. However, it conceded that growers and sellers are not required to use it yet and training on how to input data will be necessary before it becomes mandatory, apparently later in the year.

The slow rollout of the tracking system is just one sign of the daunting task facing the nation's most populous state as it attempts to transform its long-standing medicinal and illegal marijuana markets into a multibillion-dollar regulated system. Not since the end of Prohibition in 1933 has such an expansive illegal economy been reshaped into a legal one.

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Ex-hostage Boyle charged with sex assault, confinement

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife and their children endured a long captivity in Afghanistan before being rescued last fall and returned to Canada. Now he's facing 15 charges including sexual assault, forcible confinement and administering a noxious drug.

Boyle, his wife and three children were freed in October in Pakistan, five years after the couple was abducted by a Taliban-linked militant group while on a backpacking trip in neighboring Afghanistan. The children were born in captivity.

The purported acts allegedly occurred between Oct. 14 and Dec. 30 after the family returned to Canada. A publication ban bars reporting any information that could identify the alleged victims.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday, but police have declined to comment on Boyle, who is in custody.

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Arizona fires Rodriguez amid hostile workplace claim

Arizona has fired football coach Rich Rodriguez after a notice of claim was filed with the state attorney general's office alleging he ran a hostile workplace.

The Arizona Daily Star revealed the notice of claim on Tuesday after making a public-records request. The paper said the claim was filed last Thursday by a former employee. A notice of claim is a legal document that signals a lawsuit will be filed.

The Daily Star reported that the notice was filed after the University's Office of Institutional Equity retained outside counsel to investigate allegations of sexual harassment from a former employee. The investigation, which concluded last week, did not find enough to fire Rodriguez, but the university became concerned with the "climate and direction" of the program.

Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke announced Rodriguez's firing in a statement issued by the school and said the separation terms of his contract will be honored.

"After conducting a thorough evaluation of our football program and its leadership, both on and off the field, President Robbins and I feel it is in the best interest of the University of Arizona and our athletics department to go in a new direction," Heeke said. "We'll move through the coaching search in an effort to identify a head coach that will build a solid foundation for our program and create an identity of Arizona football that the university, Tucson and southern Arizona communities can be proud of. We're excited about the future of our football program and we look forward to introducing our new head coach at the completion of the search process."