South Korea, India sign nuclear cooperation pact

South Korea and India signed an agreement Monday to cooperate in nuclear power, providing a legal basis for the South's future participation in atomic plant projects in India.The agreement was signed after a summit between President Lee Myung-Bak and his Indian counterpart Pratibha Patil, Lee's office said in a statement.South Korea operates 20 nuclear plants that generate some 35 percent of its e

July 25, 2011

S. Korea, China to hold inaugural defense strategic talks this week

South Korea and China will hold their inaugural defense strategic talks this week in Seoul, the defense ministry here said Monday.The first strategic dialogue is scheduled for Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement. Lee Yong-gul, the South's vice defense minister, and Air Force Gen. Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese Army, will lead each delegation, the ministry added."

July 25, 2011

IAEA team finds S. Korea's nuclear safety regulations adequate

An international team of nuclear safety experts said on Friday that South Korea has strong regulations on operating atomic energy facilities safely and preventing accidents, concluding their two-week mission here.The special review, called the Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS), by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came at the request of the South Korean government.“This was t

July 22, 2011

S. Korea, Japan to begin consultations on return of looted royal books

South Korea and Japan will start working-level consultations early next month on the return of more than 1,200 volumes of ancient Korean royal archives that Japan took during its 1910-45 colonial rule, foreign ministry officials said Monday. The planned consultations, which will come about nine months after Japan promised to hand them over to South Korea in a goodwill gesture, are aimed at discuss

July 18, 2011

U.S. Senate sets hearing on Sung Kim's nomination

The U.S. Senate plans to hold a confirmation hearing for Sung Kim, the nominee to become ambassador to South Korea, next week, a related committee announced Thursday.The hearing will be held on Thursday at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, presided over by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said. He is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Aff

July 15, 2011

China probes ConocoPhillips over oil spill

BEIJING (AFP) - China said Tuesday it was investigating U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips‘ role in a spill off its eastern coast that authorities kept hidden from the public for nearly a month.ConocoPhillips’s China unit in a partnership with the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) operates the oil field in Bohai Bay, where the spill was detected on June 4 but only made public

July 6, 2011

Number of mobile phone users in N. Korea tops 500,000: operator

The number of mobile phone users in North Korea has topped 500,000, according to a cell phone service provider's data disclosed Friday, in a sign of growing mobile penetration in the isolated country.Egypt's Orascom Telecom has been providing mobile services in North Korea since 2008 through Koryolink, a joint venture set up with the North.The number of subscribers in the North jumped to more than

June 17, 2011

IMF chief released from jail under house arrest

AP -- Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from jail Friday to house arrest in a landmark apartment building near ground zero after the luxury apartment where he had arranged to stay fell through because the neighbors objected to the media frenzy.Prosecutors said he would stay temporarily in lower Manhattan while his family and lawyers look for more permanent housing for him to awa

May 21, 2011

Al-Qaida vows revenge for Osama bin Laden's death

CAIRO (AP) -- Al-Qaida has vowed to keep fighting the United States and avenge the death of Osama bin Laden, which it acknowledged for the first time Friday in an Internet statement apparently designed to convince followers that it will remain vigorous and intact even after its founder's demise.Al-Qaida's plots are usually large-scale and involve planning over months or even years. But Western int

May 7, 2011

Obama calls for more investment in clean energy to catch up with South Korea

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama Friday urged his nation to invest more in the development of clean energy technology in order not to lag behind South Korea and other countries."We're in a competition all around the world, and other countries -- Germany, China, South Korea -- they know that clean energy technology is what is going to help spur job creation and economic growth for years to

May 7, 2011

U.S., China to discuss Korean tension reduction: State Dept.

WASHINGTON -- The United States and China next week will discuss ways to improve inter-Korean ties and reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the State Department said Friday.Speaking to reporters, spokesman Mark Toner expressed hope that the Security and Economic Dialogue between the U.S. and China, slated to be held in Washington Monday and Tuesday, will serve as a venue to discuss the tension

May 7, 2011

Gadhafi OK but NATO strike kills youngest son

A NATO missile strike killed Moammar Gadhafi's youngest son and three grandchildren on Saturday but the Libyan leader survived, a government spokesman said.Gadhafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house of his 29-year-old son, Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, when it was hit by at least one bomb dropped from a NATO warplane, according to Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.``The leader himself is in good health,

May 1, 2011

Powerful earthquake strikes off Solomon Islands

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A powerful earthquake struck in waters off the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, and no tsunami was expected.The magnitude-6.9 quake struck about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of the Solomon Islands' capital, Honiara, at a depth of 50 miles (80 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey s

April 23, 2011

U.S. lawmakers ask Apple about tracking feature

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2011 (AFP) - U.S. lawmakers are seeking an explanation from Apple following claims that iPhones and iPads constantly log the location of the devices and store the information in a hidden file.Senator Al Franken, a Democrat from Minnesota, sent a letter to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Wednesday, while Democratic Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts sent Jobs a

April 23, 2011

Robots in Japanese reactors detect high radiation

TOKYO (AP) -- Readings Monday from robots that entered two crippled buildings at Japan's tsunami-flooded nuclear plant for the first time in more than a month revealed a harsh environment still too radioactive for workers to enter.   Nuclear officials said the radiation data for Unit 1 and Unit 3 at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi plant _ collected by U.S.-made robots that look like draftin

April 18, 2011

Russia permanently switches clocks to summer time

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia permanently switched its clocks to summer time on Sunday in a change backed by President Dmitry Medvedev, who has said people and even cows suffer stress from getting up at a different time.The move means that Moscow will be permanently four hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but experts said people suffer no ill effects from changing clocks and questioned the need for

March 27, 2011

Sydney’s Mardi Gras pride of Aussie tourism

SYDNEY (AFP) ― “I want to see glitter and sequins and feathers,” shouts American actress Lily Tomlin as she pumps up revelers ahead of Sydney’s famous and irreverent Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.“I want to see you basking in your own glory!” she yells as the gay pride parade, an annual event which has enjoyed a growing international profile in recent years, kicks off under rainy skies.Comedian Tomlin was a celebrity guest at this month’s Mardi Gras and one of thousands of foreigners joining what h

March 23, 2011