Lebanon parliament extends term to 2017 amid political paralysis

BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon's parliament on Wednesday extended its mandate until 2017, a parliamentary source said, once again postponing elections amid political paralysis and security concerns tied to the conflict in neighbouring Syria."The parliament voted by 95 votes out of 97 members present to extend its mandate until June 20, 2017," the source told AFP.

Nov. 5, 2014

Philippines to sue militants who seized Germans

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Philippine police say two German tourists who were freed last month by Abu Sayyaf militants after six months of jungle captivity have helped investigators identify at least five of their captors, who will face criminal complaints.   Police Senior Superintendent Roberto Fajardo said Wednesday that the Germans identified the leaders of their kidnappers when they were shown portraits of Abu Sayyaf militants. Criminal complaints will be filed soon against the alleged kidn

Nov. 5, 2014

Asia's richest man buys 60 aircraft in $2.5 billion deals

HONG KONG (AFP) -- A property flagship led by Asia's richest tycoon Li Ka-shing said on Wednesday it plans to buy up to 60 passenger jets in a series of transactions that amount to more than $2.5 billion. The Hong Kong businessman made his first major foray into the aviation industry in August by announcing plans to buy into Irish aircraft leasing group AWAS, and the new purchases expand his investments into a field that can yield stable and long-term cash flow, analysts have said.A filing writt

Nov. 5, 2014

Spacecraft for tourists breaks up on test flight

MOJAVE, California (AP) – A winged spaceship designed to take tourists on excursions beyond Earth's atmosphere broke up during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, killing a pilot in the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week.Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo blew apart Friday after being released from a carrier aircraft at high altitude, said Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the accident.One pilot was found dead inside the spacecraft and another parachuted out

Nov. 1, 2014

S. Korea holds send-off ceremony for U.N. mission to South Sudan

The South Korean Army on Thursday held a send-off ceremony for another batch of the contingent to be deployed to South Sudan to help the newly independent African nation's rebuilding efforts, officials said.The 270-member Korean contingent, consisting mostly of engineers and medics, will be dispatched earlier next month to serve the United Nations Missions in South Sudan.In accordance with parliamentary approval in September 2012, the contingent named the "Hanbit" unit was created in January 201

Oct. 23, 2014

APEC finance ministers to tackle worries over global slowdown

Pacific Rim finance ministers were to meet in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss ways on how to play a role in stimulating a global economy, which has shown signs of another slowdown. The meeting of the finance ministers or their deputies from the 21-member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum comes ahead of the APEC's annual summit meeting in November.Lou Jiwei, China's finance minister, said this week's meeting would highlight "policies and coordination needed to promote a rob

Oct. 22, 2014

Senior U.S. human rights official to visit Seoul next week

A senior State Department official handling human rights issues will visit South Korea next week for talks about how to address human rights abuses in North Korea, the department said Tuesday.During the Oct. 27-28 trip to Seoul, Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski will meet with government officials, civil society leaders, North Korean defectors, and democracy and human rights program implementers to "continue the international community's momentum to address the egregious human rights s

Oct. 22, 2014

China says Xi to hold talks with Park next month

Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a summit with his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye next month on the sidelines of a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Beijing, a former Chinese official said Tuesday.Former Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan made the comment in a meeting with Park at the presidential office. Tang described the planned summit as an "important" one.The planned summit comes four months after Xi visited Seoul and met with Park. The visit was widely seen as a snub to Nor

Oct. 21, 2014

Parliamentary speaker to visit Japan

South Korea's parliamentary speaker will visit Japan next week for talks with top Japanese politicians, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on ways to deepen the two countries' ties, his office said Tuesday.Chung Ui-hwa's three-day visit from Sunday comes at the invitation of Bunmei Ibuki, the speaker of Japan's lower house of parliament, according to the office.During Chung's visit, the two sides plan to discuss ways to resolve various historical issues stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial r

Oct. 21, 2014

S. Korean aid workers in West Africa exposed to Ebola: lawmaker

South Korean aid workers in West Africa have been exposed to the deadly Ebola virus due to a lack of protective wear and medical equipment, a lawmaker claimed Tuesday.A total of 102 South Korean aid workers have been living in West African countries, including Senegal and Cameroon, without proper protection from the epidemic, Rep. Kim Jae-won of the ruling Saenuri Party said, citing data from the government's official development assistance body, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA

Oct. 21, 2014

S. Korea extradites two fugitive Chinese suspects

South Korean police said Tuesday that they have deported two Chinese suspects in separate criminal cases back to China in the latest case of cooperation between the two nations' law enforcement authorities.South Korea's National Police Agency (NPA) said one of the suspects, a 42-year-old woman whose identity was been withheld, was apprehended on Sept. 30 in a motel in western Seoul.The woman had been wanted by Chinese police on suspicion of swindling 5 billion won (US$4.7 million) from a real es

Oct. 21, 2014

S. Korea builds Cameroon's first mechanized farming district

South Korea has completed building Cameroon's first mechanized rice farming district that is expected to help modernize the African state's overall agriculture industry and improve the country's food production, the South Korean government said Tuesday.The 2.3-billion-won (US$2.18 million) project began in late 2011 as part of South Korea's official development aid, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.For the project, the South Korean ministry readjusted 20 hectares

Oct. 21, 2014

S. Korea forges ties with Ghana in ICT

South Korea's ICT ministry said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ghana to assist the African nation with building a technology infrastructure.The agreement, signed during the 19th International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference being held here from Monday, is an extension of South Korea's official development assistance (ODA) to Ghana for IT projects. In 2008, South Korea provided digital multimedia broadcasting devices, and last year, it helped es

Oct. 21, 2014

S. Korea, China to hold talks on counterterrorism: Beijing

China said Monday it will hold talks with South Korea this week to discuss how to improve bilateral cooperation in counterterrorism. The talks will be held in Seoul on Tuesday and the two nations "will have an in-depth exchange of views on the regional counterterrorism situation and bilateral cooperation in the field of counterterrorism," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters during a regular briefing. Hua said China expects to produce "some positive results" during th

Oct. 21, 2014

Seoul, Washington to hold foreign, defense chiefs' meeting this week

The foreign and defense minsters from South Korea and the United States are scheduled to have a meeting later this week to discuss an array of security issues, Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday.South Korea and the U.S. plan to hold a "two plus two" meeting of their foreign and defense ministers Thursday afternoon (Washington Time) in the U.S. capital, according to the foreign ministry.The planned meeting will bring together South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Defense Minister Han Min-

Oct. 20, 2014

Ex-President Lee to depart for Vietnam

Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will depart for Vietnam later Monday on a five-day visit aimed at boosting bilateral ties with the Southeast Asian nation, his aides said.Lee's visit comes at the invitation of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang. The two leaders are scheduled to meet later in the day to discuss ways to expand bilateral cooperation in business and culture, among other areas.Their meeting comes as South Korea and Vietnam have been pushing to conclude a free trade deal

Oct. 20, 2014

S. Korea calls for quick ratification of free trade deal with Australia

South Korea's presidential office called Sunday for a parliamentary ratification of a free trade deal with Australia by the end of this year.South Korea and Australia had signed a free trade agreement in April, which Seoul submitted to the National Assembly last month for approval.The move by the presidential office came more than two weeks after Australia's Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb asked South Korea to quickly ratify a free trade deal.Robb made the request during a meeting with

Oct. 20, 2014

China sentences 2 to death for cult-related murder

Two members of a Chinese cult group were sentenced to death and another to life imprisonment for beating a woman to death in a McDonald's outlet after they unsuccessfully tried to recruit her into their ``all-powerful spirit'' cult.The Yantai Intermediate People's Court in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong announced the verdicts against Zhang Fan, 29; her father Zhang Lidong, 55; Lu Yingchun, 39, and two others, weeks after holding the trial. The other two _ a younger sister of Zhang Fan

Oct. 11, 2014

Senior diplomats from Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo agree to ramp

Senior diplomats from South Korea, China and Japan agreed on Thursday to ramp up their trilateral cooperation to patch up relations strained over history and territorial rows, Seoul officials said.The meeting brought together Seoul's Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin and their Japanese counterpart, Shinsuke Sugiyama, they said.The high-level talks, the first since November, dealt with various cooperative projects to be pursued

Sept. 11, 2014