BANGKOK / AP At least 25 people have died in severe flooding in southern Thailand since New Year’s Day, leaving businesses paralyzed, schools closed and thousands of tourists stranded, the government said on Tuesday. Twelve provinces have been hit by unseasonal rains and surface runoff since January 1, affecting more than 1 million people, the Interior Ministry said, adding …

  WASHINGTON / AP President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, is set to be questioned by his peers in a high-visibility Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. Sessions is likely to stress his conservative legal credentials even as he works to persuade Democrats on the panel that he can be fair and even-handed as the country’s top …

  SEOUL / AP Disgraced South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s longtime friend at the center of a massive corruption scandal refused to testify at Park’s impeachment trial on Tuesday, with lawmakers alleging that it was a stalling tactic. The Constitutional Court had expected to hear from Choi Soon-sil, a confidante of Park who’s currently jailed and on trial herself for …