At least 285,000 people have fled their homes because of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that intensified battles could lead to a "massive exodus".   Local Ukrainian authorities have so far registered some 117,000 people flooding out of the east to other regions of the country, the UN refugee agency said.   Vincent Cochetel, head of the UNHCR's European Bureau, told reporters in Geneva that the number "is in our view a low estimate," since most men fl

World News Aug. 5, 2014

A man dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire Tuesday on foreign troops at a military base, causing casualties, an Afghan military spokesman said.   NATO said it was investigating an "incident'' involving both Afghan and international troops at Camp Qargha, a base west of the capital, Kabul, which trains officers for the country's army.    Gen. Mohammmad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry, wrote on Twitter that "a terrorist using (the) uniform of (the) Afghan Army'

World News Aug. 5, 2014

Hyundai Motor Group's global chairman left for the United States Tuesday to assess overall market conditions and review corporate strategies to help the carmaker capitalize on opportunities and deal with challenges in the coming months.   The trip by Chung Mong-koo comes 15 months after his last visit to the world's second-largest new vehicle market, and is his third overseas tour of 2014.   Earlier in the year, he inspected operations of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. in Europe and Chin

Mobility Aug. 5, 2014

South Korea's high-end hotel chain Lotte Hotel canceled its plan to host a Japanese annual event marking the establishment of the Japanese self-defense forces on Thursday, citing unfavorable public sentiment here.   The Embassy of Japan in Korea had planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the modern Japanese military at Lotte Hotel in central Seoul on Friday.    "In consideration of the public sentiment, (we) canceled the Japanese embassy's special event scheduled for

Industry July 10, 2014

President Barack Obama, faced with a potentially awkward scene at the Texas-Mexico border, sought to recast the political debate over a flood of young migrants as a question of Republican willingness to tackle the problem, and not his decision to skip a chance to view the crisis first-hand.   Obama turned to one of his chief critics, Texas' Republican Gov. Rick Perry, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, to try to make his point.   Following a meeting with Perry in Dallas Wedne

World News July 10, 2014

The North East Asia Trade Tower (NEAT) in Incheon has taken the title of South Korea's tallest building, the firms behind the project said Thursday.   The tower in Songdo, a city within South Korea's second-largest sea port city, is 68 stories tall and stands 305 meters tall. The new building, which took eight years to build and cost 516.3 billion won (US$509.3 million), joins the ranks of a growing number of landmark skyscrapers in the country.   The 80-story, 301-meter-tall Busan Haeundae Doos

Social Affairs July 10, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that Washington and Beijing agreed on "important urgency" of swiftly curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, adding that they discussed "specific ways" to advance the goal of denuclearizing North Korea.   "The United States and China agreed on an important urgency of achieving a denuclearized, stable and prosperous Korean Peninsula, and we discussed specific ways in which we think can advance that goal," Kerry told reporters as the two nati

North Korea July 10, 2014

Thousands of South Korean farmers rallied in Seoul on Thursday, protesting Chinese demands for more access to the local agricultural market as part of a planned free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea.   About 5,000 farmers who grow chili peppers, onions, and garlic gathered in Seoul's financial district of Yeouido, protesting China's reported move to ask for greater access for its agricultural products at the next round of negotiations for a bilateral FTA.   The 12th round of FTA talks betw

Social Affairs July 10, 2014

A hugely controversial Russian law banning curse words in films, theatre, the media and arts came into force on Tuesday, part of a Kremlin-backed drive to play up traditional values and root out swearing.   The legislation, wich was signed off by President Vladimir Putin in May, imposes hefty fines on offenders -- up to 2,500 rubles ($72) for individuals and up to 50,000 rubles ($1,460) for businesses.    Movies featuring obscenities will not be issued a distribution licence, while traders will

World News July 1, 2014

The murder trial of South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius turned its focus on Tuesday to whether neighbours could have heard his model girlfriend screaming on the night he shot her dead.   Prosecutors are trying to prove that Reeva Steenkamp screamed and that this showed the star athlete known as the "Blade Runner" knowingly gunned her down in a fit of anger after a row in the early hours of Valentine's Day last year.   The defence claims Pistorius shot the 29-year-old model and law graduate

World News July 1, 2014

An Egyptian militant group has claimed responsibility for bomb blasts near the presidential palace that killed two senior police officers and wounded 10 other people.    Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, which has claimed previous attacks on police, said in a statement posted on militant websites hours after Monday's attack that it set a trap for guards at Cairo's Ittihadiya palace using new explosive devices that cannot be detected by ordinary equipment.    The group said its experts spent mont

World News July 1, 2014

South Korea reaffirmed its stance Tuesday that Japan should seek explicit consent from Seoul if Tokyo exercises the right to "collective self-defense" in cases of emergency situations related to security on the Korean Peninsula.   The Japanese cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to reinterpret its war-renouncing Constitution that has banned Japan from exercising what is called the right to collective self-defense, a major shift in Japan's postwar security policy. The right would allow Tokyo t

Foreign Affairs July 1, 2014

South Korea's newly-appointed defense chief vowed Tuesday to "mercilessly respond" to North Korea in the case of any provocation, instructing troops at the tensely-guarded western sea border to prepare for an effective counterattack.   Defense Minister Han Min-koo made the remarks during a visit to the islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong in the Yellow Sea just south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean western sea border.   Han, a career soldier and former chief of the Joint C

North Korea July 1, 2014

Prosecutors investigating April's deadly ferry sinking apologized Monday for so far failing to arrest the ferry operator's fugitive owner, vowing to apprehend him as quickly as possible.   A massive manhunt has been under way for weeks for Yoo Byung-eun, who is wanted for a string of corruption charges and irregularities that are believed to have contributed to the April 16 sinking of the Sewol that claimed more than 300 lives.   Police have previously combed through the city of Suncheon, 415 ki

Social Affairs June 2, 2014