Some European luxury brands have again raised their product prices this year just a few months after they announced moderate price cuts following the free trade agreement between Korea and EU in July. French fashion house Hermes said Thursday that it has increased prices by 5 percent on average from Jan. 1, citing volatile foreign exchange rates and increases in material and labor costs. “The p...

BEIJING (AP) ― China, the biggest buyer of Iran’s oil, has publicly rejected U.S. sanctions aimed at Tehran’s energy industry while American allies Japan and South Korea are scrambling to find a compromise to keep critical supplies flowing. Beijing is buying less Iranian crude this month, but analysts say China is unlikely to support an oil embargo. Instead, they say, the smaller purchases might...

LONDON (AFP) ― When Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease aged just 21, he was given only a few years to live. But the British scientist marks his 70th birthday on Sunday, as questioning as ever. Despite spending most of his life crippled in a wheelchair and able to speak only through a computer, the theoretical physicist’s quest for the secrets of the universe has made him ar...

WASHINGTON ― When you ask Obama administration officials to explain their foreign policy agenda for 2012, they point first to the defense budget. That’s where they want to make a “pivot” in U.S. strategy ― away from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and toward the 21st-century priority of China and the Pacific. To underline the importance of this rebalancing, President Obama went to the Pentagon ...

MADRID ― Two days after Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s leader, died in a train in his country, South Korean authorities still knew nothing about it. Meanwhile, American officials seemed at a loss, with the State Department at first merely acknowledging that press reports had mentioned his death. The South Korean and U.S. intelligence services’ inability to pick up any sign of what had happened attes...

DAMASCUS (AFP) ― Syria held funerals on Saturday for 26 victims of a suicide bombing Damascus called a “terrorist attack,” promising an “iron fist” response, as activists reported another 21 civilians killed nationwide. The opposition pointed the finger of blame for Friday’s bomb in the capital at the regime itself, as it did after similar attacks in the city on Dec. 23 killed 44 people. Among ...

WELLINGTON (AP) ― A cargo ship grounded off the New Zealand coast since October has split into two pieces after being lashed by pounding seas, spilling sea containers and debris and sparking fears a fresh oil spill could wash ashore, maritime officials said Sunday. The officials said that the front section of the wreck remains stuck in its original position, but the stern section has broken off,...