The ruling Saenuri Party stepped up pressure Tuesday on the main opposition Democratic United Party(DUP) to help discipline opposition lawmakers accused of sympathizing with North Korea.In a radio address, Saenuri chairman Hwang Woo-yea urged the DUP to take punitive measures against Rep. Lim Su-kyung, an activist-turned-lawmaker who made headlines in the past week for calling North Korean defecto

Two women are asking Mississippi's governor to spare their brother from execution, even though he killed four of their children, paralyzed another and stabbed one of the sisters.Henry ``Curtis'' Jackson Jr., 47, is scheduled to die Tuesday by injection. He killed the four children, ages 2 to 5, during a rampage that started when he went to his mother's home in Leflore County to take money from her

The new National Assembly is unlikely to convene its first plenary meeting scheduled for Tuesday as the ruling and main opposition parties continue to squabble over who will control key parliamentary committees.The 300-member parliament began its four-year term last week and was scheduled to formally open with a plenary meeting Tuesday.However, the main opposition Democratic United Party looks lik

Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop operator, agreed to buy Bay Bread LLC for $100 million in cash, adding to its expanding portfolio of non-coffee businesses.The acquisition of San Francisco-based Bay Bread and its La Boulange brand will decrease full-year profit by 2 cents a share, the Seattle-based company said in a statement today. The French-themed bakery sells homemade granola,

The Apple iPad extended its lead in the global market for tablet computers at the start of 2012 while Amazon's Kindle Fire flamed out after a sizzling introduction, a survey showed Monday.The ABI Research survey showed overall global sales of media tablets amounted to 18.2 million in the first three months of the year, up 185 percent from a year earlier, but down 33 percent from the fourth quarter

South Korea's antitrust watchdog said Tuesday that it has increased the number of companies on its watch list by nine that limits mutual investments and loan guarantees.The Fair Trade Commission said the number of corporate affiliates on the list stood at 1,850 that belonged to 63 private business groups and large public companies as of Friday, compared with 1,841 in the previous month.Twelve comp

The Pentagon insisted Monday that the decision to replace the troubled leader of U.S. special forces in South Korea is not associated with his recent public blunder.Brig. Gen. Neil Tolley, commanding general of the Special Operations Command Korea, came under fire after he reportedly said in late May that some of his troops have been sent clandestinely into North Korea on spy missions.The Departme

South Korea's top home appliance manufacturers said Tuesday that their three-dimensional (3D) smart TVs have won eco-friendly certifications from leading European technical service review organizations.Samsung Electronics Co. said its flagship 55-inch ES8000 model won TUV Rheinland Group's coveted Green Mark for energy efficiency and low carbon emissions in the production stage. It added its Itali

North Korea said Monday its military has entered map coordinates of some conservative South Korean media offices as it threatened to strike their headquarters for their alleged insult to North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un.The General Staff of the Korean People's Army said the country's troops have been targeting the Seoul headquarters of the Chosun Ilbo at coordinates of 37 degrees 56 minutes 83

In less than a month after famous fat cat Meow died in Santa Fe, two New York cats have stepped in to a fatter-cat fight.Meow, a 39-pound cat who made appearances on "Today" and "Anderson Cooper" died in early May after suffering respiratory distress and then pulmonary failure, the New York Post reported at that time.On Saturday, a Manhattan shelter cat named SpongeBob was featured in the NY Post

The city of Seoul said Monday it will open an online forum to discuss the current needs of unmarried women living alone in Seoul in an effort to provide support for such single-female households, which make up more than 10 percent of the total number of households in the city."Most policies today are centered on assisting women from conventional family systems who give birth to and raise children,

 The family of a 13-year-old Kansas boy who found a picture of a long-dead uncle inside a camera he bought at a garage sale said it may be a sign from beyond.Addison Logan said he bought an old Polaroid camera for $1 while he was at a Wichita garage sale with his grandmother, Lois Logan, Thursday. When they got home he removed the camera's cartridge and opened it up to discover a picture of a man

South Korea plans to use various state-run funds to help stimulate its economy that has been affected by the general global slowdown this year, a top economic policymaker has said.In a meeting with reporters over the weekend, Minister of Strategy and Finance Bahk Jae-wan said the country has made headway toward economic stability in the past year, but there is a need to fuel vitality and growth.He

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves shrank in May from a record high reached in the previous month as a weaker euro and a softer British pound reduced the conversion value of non-dollar assets, the central bank said Monday.The country's foreign reserves reached US$310.87 billion at the end of last month, down $5.97 billion from April, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). In April, the country

A plane carrying 153 people plunged into a residential area of Nigeria's largest city on Sunday, with all those aboard presumed dead, an inferno igniting at the scene and buildings badly damaged.A number of people on the ground were also believed killed, an emergency official said, as around 10 burnt bodies had been removed from a building damaged in the crash.President Goodluck Jonathan declared

Morton H. Halperin JEJU ― Recent calls from the U.S. Congress for the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula stems from Republicans’ “romance” with them, a former senior Washington official said, dismissing its possibility.“The Republican Party has always had a romance with tactical nuclear weapons. They have always seen them as a way to reduce the need for manpower and t

Smartphone apps are very useful but users often have to pay for them with their privacy.The German consumer protection group Stiftung Warentest looked at 63 applications and graded 28 of them as "critical" in regards to data protection. Another nine were determined to be "very critical" -including widely-popular apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Foodspotting and iTranslate.The applications take per

Kathryn Joosten, a character actress best known as the crotchety, yet loveable, Karen McCluskey on “Desperate Housewives” and the president's secretary on “The West Wing,” has died. She was 72.Joosten, who had battled lung cancer for 11 years, died Saturday at her home in Los Angeles, her publicist Nadine Jolson said.Joosten “was surrounded by love and humor `til the end,” her family said in a sta

A Saudi princess was caught trying to leave the Shangri-La hotel in Paris without settling a six million euro ($7.4 million) bill for her rooms, police said Saturday, confirming a report in the daily Le Parisien.Maha al-Sudani, the former wife of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz, tried to walk out on 3:30 am Thursday without paying for her suite and those of her 60-strong entourage,

 Dogs across Italy are wagging their tails as a new ice cream for man's best friend goes to market.It's called IceBau and it was released Friday at a gelato festival in Ancona, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.IceBau creators said the product will hit grocery store freezers across Italy this summer.Meanwhile, Italians chose not to give up ice cream during the country's economic crisis, ANSA repor