PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea's highest court sentenced an American tourist to 15 years in prison with hard labor on Wednesday for subversion.

Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial in North Korea's Supreme Court.

He was charged with subversion under Article 60 of North Korea's criminal code. The court held that he had committed a crime "pursuant to the U.S. government's hostile policy toward (the North), in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist."

Before the trial, the 21-year-old from Wyoming, Ohio, said he had tried to steal a propaganda banner as a trophy for an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church. That would be grounds in North Korea for a subversion charge.

Trials for foreigners facing similar charges in North Korea are generally short and punishments severe. Warmbier was arrested as he tried to leave the country in early January. He was in North Korea with a New Year's tour group.

U.S. tourism to North Korea is legal. Arrests of tourists are rare but the U.S. State Department strongly advises against it.

North Korea announced Warmbier's arrest in late January, saying he committed an anti-state crime with "the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation." It remains unclear how the U.S. government was allegedly connected to Warmbier's actions.

Warmbier had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel. It is common for sections of tourist hotels to be reserved for North Korean staff and off-limits to foreigners.

In a tearful statement made before his trial, Warmbier told a gathering of reporters in Pyongyang he tried to take the banner as a trophy for the mother of a friend who said she wanted to put it up in her church.

He said he was offered a used car worth USD$10,000 (350, 000 baht) if he could get a banner and was also told that if he was detained and didn't return, USD$200,000 ( 7 million baht) would be paid to his mother in the form of a charitable donation.

In this Feb. 29, 2016, file photo, American student Otto Warmbier speaks as he is presented to reporters in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: Kim Kwang Hyon / Associated Press

Warmbier said he accepted the offer because his family was "suffering from very severe financial difficulties."

Warmbier also said he had been encouraged by the university's "Z Society," which he said he was trying to join. The magazine of the university's alumni association describes the Z Society as a "semi-secret ring society" founded in 1892 that conducts philanthropy, puts on honorary dinners and grants academic awards.

In previous cases, people who have been detained in North Korea and made a public confession often recant those statements after their release.

North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies to overthrow its government to enable the U.S.-backed South Korean government to take control of the Korean Peninsula.

Tensions are particularly high following North Korea's recent nuclear test and rocket launch, and massive joint military exercises now underway between the U.S. and South Korea that the North sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion.

Further complicating matters, Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang acts as a go-between in consular issues when U.S. citizens run afoul of North Korean authorities.

In the past, North Korea has held out until senior U.S. officials or statesmen came to personally bail out detainees, all the way up to former President Bill Clinton, whose visit in 2009 secured the freedom of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

In November 2014, U.S. spy chief James Clapper went to Pyongyang to bring home Matthew Miller, who had ripped up his visa when entering the country, and Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, who had been incarcerated since November 2012.

Jeffrey Fowle, another U.S. tourist from Ohio detained for six months at about the same time as Miller, was released just before that and sent home on a U.S. government plane.

Fowle left a Bible in a local club hoping a North Korean would find it, which is considered a criminal offense in North Korea.

Story: Jon Chol Jin and Eric Talmadge / Associated Press

Related Stories: North Korean Follows Path to Freedom in Bangkok

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump scored victories Tuesday in three states, including the big-prize Florida, but lost Ohio to the state's governor, John Kasich, as the billionaire's rivals desperately tried to stop his march to the Republican presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton won at least three states, dealing a severe blow to Bernie Sanders' bid to slow her march toward the Democratic nomination.

Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who staked his once-promising campaign on winning in his home state, dropped out of the presidential race shortly after the polls closed. That leaves Kasich as the last true establishment candidate running against Trump and arch-conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks during a Republican primary night celebration rally at Florida International University in Miami, Fla., Tuesday, March 15, 2016.Photo: Paul Sancya / Associated Press

Trump, the brash and controversial reality TV star, has upended the political establishment by winning most of the state-by-state competitions for delegates who will choose the Republican nominee. He has seized on Americans' anger with Washington politicians, attracting voters with his simply worded promise to make America great again.

Tuesday's votes in five states had been viewed as a pivotal moment in the Republican presidential campaign. For the first time, two states — Ohio and Florida — had winner-take-all contests. A Trump sweep could have given him an insurmountable lead in the delegate count.

But the contests brought little clarity. Trump won the biggest prize — all 99 Florida delegates — as well as winning North Carolina and Illinois, and was locked in a tight race with Cruz in Missouri. He told a victory rally in Florida, "This was an amazing night."

But Kasich's win, capturing all of Ohio's 66 delegates, was crucial to keeping alive the hopes of those trying to stop Trump.

While Trump had amassed the most delegates going into Tuesday, he's won fewer than 50 percent of them. If that pace continues, he would fall short of the majority that he would need to assure him the nomination at the party's convention in July. The result could be a contested convention, creating an unpredictable outcome.

This was the first victory for Kasich, whose upbeat message and long record of government service has had little resonance as his rivals seized on voters' anxiety and disdain for Washington. While he could benefit from Rubio dropping out, he remains a longshot for the nomination. He is unlikely to overtake Trump, though he could help keep Trump below the 50 percent threshold.

Cruz said at a Houston rally that the battle for the Republican presidential nomination battle was a "two-person race" between himself and Trump. He did not mention Kasich by name.

Trump now has 619 delegates. Cruz has 394, Kasich 136 and Rubio left the race with 167. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

In the Democratic race, Clinton's victories in Florida and North Carolina were expected, but Sanders, a Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist, had hoped to take the industrial state of Ohio, which Clinton won. He has criticized the former secretary of state for her past support for trade deals. Sanders is unlikely to overtake Clinton in the delegate count, but his victory last week in Michigan underscored the unease that many party voters have about her candidacy.

With her wins Tuesday, Clinton put herself in a commanding position to become the first woman in U.S. history to win a major party nomination.

Overall, Clinton has at least 1,488 total delegates including superdelegates, who are elected officials and party leaders free to support the candidate of their choice. Sanders has at least 704 delegates when the count includes superdelegates. It takes 2,383 to win the Democratic nomination.

At a victory rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, Clinton pivoted quickly to the November election by assailing Trump's hardline immigration positions and support for torture. "Our commander-in-chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it," she declared.

Trump has alienated many Republicans and Democrats alike with his disparaging remarks about Mexicans, Muslims and women, among others. He entered Tuesday's primaries embroiled in one of the biggest controversies of his contentious campaign. He has encouraged supporters to confront protesters at his events and is now facing accusations of encouraging violence after skirmishes at a rally last week in Chicago that he ended up cancelling.

"I don't think I should be toning it down because I've had the biggest rallies of anybody probably ever," Trump said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." ''We have had very, very little difficultly."

Rubio and Kasich have suggested they might not be able to support Trump if he's the nominee, an extraordinary stance for intraparty rivals. All of the Republican candidates had earlier pledged to support the nominee.

Rubio implicitly rebuked Trump throughout a speech in Miami announcing he was dropping out of the race, imploring Americans to "not give in to the fear, do not give in to the frustration."

Now thrust into the center of a campaign that has been bitingly personal, Kasich vowed to cheering supporters in Berea, Ohio, that he would "not take the low road to the highest office in the land."

Trump has been the target of millions of dollars in negative advertising in recent weeks, including one ad campaign that highlights his statements that appear to encourage violence — among them, "I'd like to punch him in the face."

Story: Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina's navy announced Tuesday that it used gunfire to sink a boat Chinese-flagged boat that was fishing illegally in national waters.

China's government said it expressed its serious concern to Argentina and called for an investigation

The navy statement said the boat was intercepted Monday off the coast of Puerto Madryn, about 907 miles (1,460 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires.

The statement said the boat did not heed warning calls and instead tried to ram an Argentine naval vessel. Sailors then shot holes in different parts of the fishing boat, causing it to sink, the navy said.

Four people on board were rescued and arrested. They remained in custody and were to go before a federal judge in southern Chubut province, the statement said.

The navy said it had been 15 years since one of its vessels last sank a foreign vessel fishing illegally in Argentina's waters.

In Beijing, Lu Kang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, posted a statement on the ministry's website saying the boat had been fishing in Argentine waters and was chased for several hours before Argentine naval fire holed the vessel. It said four Chinese were picked up by the Argentines and 28 more were rescued by a nearby Chinese vessel.

The statement did not directly address the question of whether the boat was fishing illegally or tried to ram the Argentine navy vessel.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Embassy to Argentina have lodged urgent representations with Argentina, expressing serious concern, urging Argentina to carry out a full investigation immediately and to inform China of the details, to protect the safety and lawful rights of Chinese sailors, and to take effective measures to avoid similar incidents," the statement said.

Story: Dong Tongjian / Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — Fans of H.P. Lovecraft's writings are trying to use the growing fame of the early 20th century fantasy-horror writer to promote Providence's weird side.

Lovecraft so identified with Rhode Island's capital city that he wrote "I am Providence" in a letter. His headstone bears the phrase. Some of Lovecraft's best-known works are set in Providence.

Tuesday marks the 79th anniversary of his death. A light rain fell as about 20 people gathered where Lovecraft's childhood house once stood for the unveiling of a marker.

The nonprofit Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council placed the marker as part of a broader effort to foster the weird fiction and art community in Providence and highlight Lovecraft and other writers and artists. It's working to publicize local historic sites, weird events and unique destinations.

The council wants to use Lovecraft to present Providence as a capital for weird, fun and imaginative events, said Niels Hobbs, the director.

"That's something even Lovecraft would appreciate," Hobbs said. "He adored Providence."

A marker noting the childhood home of writer H.P. Lovecraft is unveiled, near where his home once stood, following a ceremony Tuesday on the 79th anniversary of the fantasy horror writer's death in Providence, Rhode Island. Photo: Jennifer McDermott / Associated Press

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in Providence on Aug. 20, 1890. He spent a brief period in New York, then returned and lived in Providence until his death on March 15, 1937.

An obscure pulp fiction magazine writer in his lifetime, Lovecraft was rediscovered in the decades following his death, inspiring a new generation of horror, fantasy and science-fiction writers. While considered one of the great American horror writers, Lovecraft is considered controversial because some of his writings include his racist beliefs.

In detailed, dense prose, Lovecraft combined horror with science fiction and developed what is commonly referred to as cosmicism, the idea that man is insignificant in the universe. He writes about creatures such as Cthulhu, (ka-THOOL-hoo), part octopus, dragon and human. The story, "The Call of Cthulhu," features sites in Providence and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," is set in the city.

Providence native Thomas Broadbent has been raising awareness of Lovecraft since being drawn to the bizarreness of his stories as a teenager.

"I was reading other horror writers but Lovecraft was in a whole universe of his own. It was very intimate because there weren't that many fans," he said. "It was just me and him. He was like my best friend."

"I'm glad he has finally reached his epoch. I do miss the intimacy."

Thousands of people visit an online archive of Lovecraft stories daily, which webmaster Donovan Loucks attributes to a fascination with the fiction and Lovecraft himself.

Lovecraft aficionados, drawn to Providence, leave trinkets and notes at the author's gravesite in Swan Point Cemetery. The Lovecraft council has a store downtown and holds conventions and events to celebrate Lovecraft's work and influence.

An annual Lovecraft tribute draws crowds to his gravesite and the Ladd Observatory in Providence, where Lovecraft, an amateur astronomer, often visited. This year's is planned for April 10.

Carl L. Johnson, the organizer, recalled strange occurrences during the graveside ceremonies, from sudden changes in weather to a group of crows, known as a murder, cawing during readings. Some devotees have even reported feeling icy fingers on their arms and wrists, as if an occult hand had grabbed them.

Though Johnson, a paranormal investigator, chalks most of this up to good timing and coincidence, he considers Lovecraft the "master spirit" of Providence.

"Whatever is arcane and forbidden and mysterious in Providence, H.P. Lovecraft is at the head of it," Johnson said. "His spirit lingers that way."

Story: Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press