Regulators have decided to extend a set of deregulations on mortgages or housing-collateralized loans -- introduced on Aug.1, 2014 -- by a year from the scheduled expiry date of end-July.The Financial Supervisory Service on Tuesday said in a statement that it would extend the eased home loan-application rules by another year until the end of July 2016.But the extension of eased rules is raising questions about the consistency in policies as only weeks ago authorities pledged to curb the record h

July 28, 2015

HEMPSTEAD, Texas (AP) - Authorities have released dashcam video of a white Texas police officer stopping a black motorist later found dead in a jail cell in what has become the latest case to cast national attention on the interactions between police and minorities in the United States.Authorities say Sandra Bland, 28, hanged herself in her cell three days after her arrest, a contention her family and supporters dispute. The video doesn't reveal what happened while she was in custody, but it dep

World News July 22, 2015

ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey briefly blocked access to Twitter on Wednesday to prevent images of Monday's deadly bombing from being broadcast and to stop Twitter users from calling for protests against the government, which they blamed for not doing enough to prevent the attack, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.Access was restored a few hours later. A government official said Turkey had asked Twitter to remove 107 URLs with images of the aftermath of the bombing Monday in southeast Turkey, which

World News July 22, 2015

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom (AFP) - A Koran manuscript has been carbon dated to close to the time of the Prophet Mohammed, making it one of the oldest in the world, a British university said Wednesday.The two leaves of parchment, filled with "surprisingly legible" text from Islam's holy book, have been dated to around the early seventh century, the University of Birmingham said."The tests carried out on the parchment of the Birmingham folios yield the strong probability that the animal from which

World News July 22, 2015

LONDON (AFP) - Five Chelsea fans have been banned from all football matches for up to five years over an incident of racism in Paris in February, in court proceedings that concluded Wednesday.The men, including former police officer Richard Barklie, were involved in an incident in which a black Frenchman was repeatedly shoved off a metro train carriage ahead of Chelsea's Champions League match against Paris Saint Germain."This was an abhorrent, nasty, offensive, arrogant and utterly unacceptable

World News July 22, 2015

MADRID (AP) - Spain said Wednesday that it is trying to establish what happened to three Spanish freelance journalists who went missing around the embattled northern Syrian city of Aleppo as news emerged that a fourth journalist, a Japanese national, has gone missing in the war-torn country.Justice Minister Rafael Catala told Spain's Cadena SER radio the government had no news regarding the three Spaniards and will contact the government in Damascus over the case. He could not say if authorities

World News July 22, 2015

President Park Geun-hye's chief of staff met with top government officials and leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party Wednesday to discuss the reform of the labor market, the parliamentary passage of the extra budget and other pending political issues.The meeting between Lee Byung-kee and Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung and floor leader Won Yoo-chul began at 6:30 p.m. Also attending were Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan.The three-way policy consultation involvin

National July 22, 2015

BERLIN (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she was not aware of any new EU debt deal proposal to Greece after European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker raised the prospect of a last-minute solution.Asked about an 11th-hour offer to Athens, Merkel told reporters: "The only thing I know is that the last offer I am aware of is the one from last Friday. There is nothing more I can say."Juncker revealed his surprise proposal just hours before Greece's bailout program expires at 2

World Business June 30, 2015

In a historic event, a South Korean candidate was elected for the first time to head the U.N. maritime body, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.Lim Ki-tack, president of Busan Port Authority, which operates the port facilities in South Korea's second largest city, was elected to head the International Maritime Organization.The International Maritime Organization is the leading global authority on safety, security and environmental issues in the international shipping industry. It is tasked with cre

National June 30, 2015

ATHENS (AP) - Greece is set to become the first developed nation to not pay its debts to the International Monetary Fund on time, as the country sinks deeper into a financial emergency that has forced it put a nationwide lockdown on money withdrawals.Greece owes the IMF about 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by the end of Tuesday but has run out of money and after five months of talks with creditors, has no prospect of getting new rescue loans. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, asked whether Gr

World Business June 30, 2015

MONROVIA (AFP) - Liberia announced the return of Ebola on Tuesday following the death of a 17-year-old boy, dealing a worrying blow to the country's recovery three months after its last known case.Deputy health minister Tolbert Nyensuah told AFP the teenager had tested positive and died in Nedowian, a village beside the international airport, about an hour's drive from the capital Monrovia."We are investigating to know the origin of this new case. We ask all Liberians and all other nationals liv

World News June 30, 2015

BEIRUT (AFP) - The Islamic State group seized territory from both Syrian government forces and rival rebels over the weekend further expanding the caliphate it has proclaimed straddling Iraq and Syria.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that following gains in both Homs province in the centre and Aleppo province in the north, IS now controlled half of the country's land area.Geographer and analyst Fabrice Balanche said that across Iraq and Syria, the jihadist group now controlled nearly

World News June 1, 2015

GENEVA (AFP) - The United Nations said Monday that more than 6,400 people had been killed in conflict-wracked Ukraine, and despite a slowdown in fighting, millions more are suffering from abuses and hardship.In its latest report, the UN human rights office noted that an overall decrease in indiscriminate shelling since a fragile truce was agreed in Minsk in February had resulted in a decrease in civilian casualties.But nonetheless, at least 6,417 people perished from the beginning of the conflic

World News June 1, 2015

NEW YORK (AFP) - Microsoft on Monday announced that the latest version of its Windows operating system will be available July 29 for computer and tablet users.The new Windows 10 software will come as a free upgrade to people who already use Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and will be available in 190 countries.Windows 10 will come pre-installed on Microsoft-compatible computers and tablets from July 29 and will be available for purchase later in the year.The move marks a major launch for Microsoft, aft

World News June 1, 2015

SANAA, Yemen (AP) - A French woman held hostage in Yemen appeared for the first time in a video that surfaced on Monday, appealing for her release.Isabelle Prime, who works as a consultant with ties to the World Bank, was abducted from Sanaa along with her Yemeni translator in February. The translator was released shortly afterward, but there was no word until now on Prime.In her first video since her disappearance, Prime appeared to be under severe duress - sitting in the desert dressed in a bl

World News June 1, 2015