South Korea will host an indoor multi-sport competition for Asian athletes starting this weekend, presenting some of the more unusual and exotic games over eight days.Incheon, a metropolitan city 40 kilometers west of Seoul, will be the host of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games from Saturday to July 6. Nine venues in and around Incheon will stage a dozen sports for some 2,400 athletes and officials from 43 countries.The Incheon event will mark the official merger of two separate competitio

More Sports June 28, 2013

Portugal and Nigeria won their final Group B matches to reach the last 16 of the Under-20 World Cup on Thursday, while third-place South Korea still has a chance of advancing.Portugal striker Bruma scored his fourth and fifth goals of the event to help the two-time champions beat Cuba 5-0 and top the group, while Nigeria defeated South Korea 1-0 after an early goal by Olarenwaju Kayode and overtook the Asians for second place.Ricardo, Aladje and To Ze also found the net for Portugal, while Bruma

Soccer June 28, 2013

A U.S. grand jury returned a 30-count indictment against the surviving suspect in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings on Thursday, with many charges carrying the possibility of life in prison or the death penalty.Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was indicted on charges including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use, resulting in death. Many of the charges were brought against him in April, but new charges cover the killing of a police officer and the carjacking of a motoris

World News June 28, 2013

The U.S. Treasury on Thursday imposed sanctions on a North Korean bank and its China-based representative in the latest step to disrupt Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs and pressure the government.The action against Daedong Credit Bank showed that the Obama administration is keeping up pressure on North Korea despite a pause in the threatening rhetoric that followed an atomic test explosion in February and the North's offer this month to negotiate directly with Washington. The U.S. first

North Korea June 28, 2013

South Korea's industrial output shrank in May from a month earlier amid heightened global economic uncertainty, a government report showed Friday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries shrank 0.4 percent last month from a month earlier. From a year earlier, it also fell 1.4 percent. The drop came a month after the output turned around from four previous months of contractions. The output in the service sector still edg

June 28, 2013

The U.S. Supreme Court gave legally married gay couples equal federal standing with all other married Americans and cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California, the most populous state. It wasn't a sweeping ruling to allow same-sex couples to marry anywhere, but gay rights advocates quickly said they'd be back in court soon to pursue that goal.Wednesday's landmark rulings, both by narrow 5-4 majorities, sidestepped the larger question of whether banning gay marriage is unconst

World News June 27, 2013

North Korea attempted to sell ballistic missiles with a range of 3,500 kilometers to a British arms dealer, an Internet media outlet based in the United States said Thursday.NK News, which specializes in providing North Korea-related information to the general public, said a recent United Nations report revealed the communist country's Haesong Trading Corp. allegedly made an offer to sell a wide range of weapons systems, including intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBM), to an arms dealer.

North Korea June 27, 2013

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone maker, increased its dominance of the Western Europe smartphone market in the first quarter of the year, data showed Thursday.Samsung sold 14.3 million units in the region during the January-March period, taking up 45 percent of the market, according to the data compiled by market researcher IDC.The first-quarter figure compares with the 39 percent market share a year earlier, it showed.On the other hand, Apple Inc. saw its sales fall to 6.

Technology June 27, 2013

Nearly 25 percent of adult citizens in Seoul are obese amid a lack of exercise, with the proportion on the rise for the fourth consecutive year in 2012, a report showed Thursday.According to the report by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 23.4 percent out of 23,165 surveyed citizens aged 19 or older were obese in 2012, with 31.6 percent among male citizens and 16.5 percent among women. The rate has been on a steady rise from 20.6 in 2008 when the municipal government began compiling related dat

Social Affairs June 27, 2013

South Korean stocks opened sharply higher Thursday, as disappointing U.S. growth data eased concerns that its government may start withdrawing its monetary easing policy, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumped 35.93 points, or 2.01 percent, to 1,819.38 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Top-listed firms gathered ground, with Samsung Electronics shooting up nearly 4 percent and Hyundai Motor gaining 2.4 percent. The U.S. economy expanded 1.8 percent on-year

June 27, 2013

The U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee on North Korea has concluded that Pyongyang appears to have "deliberately breached" a contract with a Chinese company by converting Chinese lumber transporters into missile launch transporters, according to a U.N. report on Wednesday. The 16-wheel missile launch transporter was seen at North Korea's military parade in April last year, raising concerns that the vehicle's design and technology might have come from China. If so, it would be a violatio

North Korea June 26, 2013