North Korea seeks apology, experts say

PYONGYANG, North Korea – The United States government must make a formal apology to secure the freedom of two Americans who remain imprisoned in North Korea after the release this week of Jeffrey Fowle, North Korean legal experts said Thursday.

Although North Korea released Fowle, getting Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae out of prison will likely require an official statement of apology and formal request for their release from Washington, according to the two North Korean law experts who spoke to The Associated Press.

Fowle, who had not yet been tried in a court, was flown out of North Korea on a U.S. military jet on Tuesday after being detained for six months for leaving a Bible in a nightclub in the city of Chongjin.

Group: AIrstrikes killed 500 in Syria

MURSITPINAR, Turkey – U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria have killed more than 500 people since they began last month, mainly Islamic militants, activists said Thursday, as fighting flared yet again in the northern Syrian border town of Kobani.

Despite the large death toll and international intervention to aid Kurdish forces fighting to defend Kobani, Islamic State forces on Thursday seized a hilltop overlooking the town along the Syria-Turkey border, activist said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground, said 553 people have been killed in airstrikes since they began Sept. 23, including 32 civilians. The civilians included six children and five women.

Associated Press