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 …

  MANILA / AP Eight Filipino fishermen were fatally shot by at least five suspected pirates who boarded their boat in the southern Philippines, officials said Tuesday. Seven other crewmembers survived the attack Monday night in waters near Zamboanga City by jumping off the boat and swimming away when the attackers began tying up their colleagues, said Commodore Joel Garcia, …