MOSCOW ― For a project whose end goal might be the removal from power of President Vladimir Putin, it had a very inauspicious start. During a low-key ceremony broadcast online from Paris, exiled ex-billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky announced on Saturday he was re-launching his Open Russia charity to promote civil society in Russia. Few had expected any political statements, and there was little ...

A former senior presidential secretary who left a lot of questions in the wake of his abrupt resignation was found to have been under police investigation on suspicions of operating an unauthorized course while serving as a university president, reports said on Monday. Song Kwang-yong, former senior presidential secretary for education and culture, tendered his resignation on Saturday, only thre...

SHANGHAI ― Alibaba has become by far the dominant e-commerce company in China, a country with the world’s greatest number of Internet users, in only 15 years. The Hangzhou-based company is largely unknown outside Greater China, but a historic listing on the New York Stock Exchange Friday and its recently-launched U.S. shopping website, 11 Main, are expanding its global stature. By raising $25.0...

Kakao Corp., South Korea’s biggest mobile messenger service provider, said Thursday it plans to start its own local news services later this year, issuing a challenge to Naver Corp., which dominates online media content. To that end, Kakao has been expanding ties with news providers to distribute their content through its new platform, and will kick off a test-run version of the application next...

KB Financial Group chairman Lim Young-rok has become known for two things: being the first financial group chairman to be slapped with a severe penalty and the first to defy the authorities’ sanction. Late Tuesday night, Lim filed an administrative suit against the Financial Services Commission to have the watchdog withdraw its three-month suspension order. “Through the legal procedure, I look ...

With polls showing Scotland's upcoming independence referendum too close to call, the rest of the United Kingdom is starting to consider seriously the implications of a "Yes" victory. A pro-independence vote would be a global sensation but would change little in the immediate term, except perhaps boost calls for British Prime Minister David Cameron to resign. But the vote would sound the starti...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) ― Sweden’s likely new prime minister, Social Democrat leader Stefan Loefven, may have little experience of national politics but this consensus-seeking trade unionist has overcome bigger obstacles before. Put into an orphanage by his mother as an infant, he has had his critics in his short time as opposition leader. Yet others see the former welder as a man more in touch with “th...

NEW YORK (AP) ― Apple wants the plastic credit card to become as rare as the paper check. On Tuesday, the company announced Apple Pay, a digital payment system that lets people pay for retail store purchases using their phones rather than cash or credit cards. The service, which will work both with iPhones and Apple’s new Watch, is backed by a host of big retailers, along with most major banks a...

LONDON (AFP) ― The love-hate relationship between England and Scotland has been marked by bloodthirsty mediaeval battles, royal marriages and executions, followed by centuries of political and social unity. While Scots prepare to vote on the 300-year-old merger with England, the history binding their fortunes goes back way before they even existed as recognizable nations. Much of Scotland’s nat...

SAN FRANCISCO ― Apple moved to recapture its role as a tech trend setter on Tuesday with its highly anticipated first smartwatch and two large-screen versions of the iPhone. With the debuts of Apple Watch and iPhone 6 models stretched to fit a hot “phablet” trend, the California company delivered what rumors had predicted leading up to the event. The Apple Watch, a sleek wrist device that links...

The Galaxy Note 4, Samsung Electronics’ all-new smartphone-tablet hybrid unveiled at the 2014 IFA in Berlin, has better display with a faster processing speed than its predecessor. It is thin and light. It has an S-pen. What else? The phablet looks much like the Note 3, except that it has a metal frame without the stitches on the back cover. The Note 3’s stitch design received poor reviews last...

TOKYO -- Japan's prime minister picked five women for his Cabinet on Wednesday, matching the past record and sending the strongest message yet about his determination to revive the economy by getting women on board as workers and leaders. Japan has a vast pool of talented, well educated women, but they are far under-represented in positions of power in government and corporations. Women make up ...

Kang Sok-ju, a seasoned North Korean diplomat, is likely to make a rare trip to Europe this week, officials at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, in a move seen as in line with the North’s efforts to break from its international isolation. Kang, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, is expected to make a tour of Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy, starting l...

The contentious omission of a renowned female independence activist in high school textbooks has sparked further altercations within education circles, which are already divided on the possible revival of state-authorized history textbooks. During last week’s debate on how to improve Korean history textbooks, it was revealed that four of the eight state-certified textbooks excluded descriptions ...

MOSCOW ― Russian strongman Vladimir Putin first used “Novorossiya” ― the loaded Tsarist-era name for what is now southern and eastern Ukraine ― just after annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March, sparking outrage in Kiev. The Kremlin made a reference to the term again on Friday when it released Putin’s address to Ukraine’s pro-Russian separatists, pointedly calling them defenders of “Novorossiya” ...