The US government said today that former vice president Al Gore and the families of two reporters imprisoned in North Korea had asked ex-president Bill Clinton to go to Pyongyang to seek their release.

Two American journalists freed from a North Korean labour camp were heading home today with their families “counting the seconds” until they met.

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Il has issued a “special pardon” for two American journalists and ordered their release at former US president Bill Clinton’s request, North Korean state media reported yesterday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned two American journalists and ordered their release today during the visit of former US president Bill Clinton, it was reported tonight.

Former US president Bill Clinton met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il today as part of a mission to free two American journalists from the secretive state’s notorious work camps.

Former US president Bill Clinton made a surprise trip to North Korea today amid an international stand-off over the country’s nuclear programme and concerns about two imprisoned American reporters.

North Korea might release two convicted American journalists if the US offers a gesture such as an official apology, a US-based scholar who visited Pyongyang said in interviews released today.

Senior US politicians were discussing a bid to negotiate the release of two American journalists sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour in North Korea as the women’s families made an emotional appeal today.

NORTH KOREA has convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years of hard labour for crossing into its territory, intensifying the reclusive nation’s confrontation with the US.

North Korea has convicted two US journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in a labour camp.

North Korea appears to be preparing to test an advanced missile designed to reach the United States, a US official said, ratcheting up tensions after its second nuclear blast.

US JOURNALIST Laura Ling, jailed for three months in one of the world’s most isolated nations, wrote to her family that she “cried so much” her first few days after being arrested by North Korean border guards.

North Korea decided to put two US journalists on trial following an investigation into allegations that they entered the country illegally and conducted "hostile acts," state-run media said.

An international media rights group has renewed a call for the release of two American reporters held in North Korea for the past month, as the US State Department said diplomats were continuing work to win their release.

North Korea intends to put on trial two American journalists over allegations of illegal entry and “hostile acts” amid ongoing tension between Pyongyang and Washington over a rocket launch.

Two Americans have been detained by North Korea for illegally crossing its border and are under investigation, the country’s official news agency said today.

THE support of the Irish community in Hong Kong was a huge encouragement to their Special Olympics officials to fight the Sars ban which threatened their involvement in the World Games in the opinion of the senior officers of their delegation.