A “superbug” outbreak suspected in the deaths of two Los Angeles hospital patients is raising disturbing questions about the design of a hard-to-clean medical instrument.At least seven people _ two of whom died _ have been infected with a potentially lethal, antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria after undergoing endoscopic procedures at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center between October and January. And more than 170 other patients may have been exposed as well, university officials said.UCLA s

Two powerful cyclones roared ashore in Australia Friday leaving a trail of destruction with buildings severely damaged, trees uprooted and power lines downed, cutting electricity to thousands of people.Tropical Cyclone Marcia, a category five tempest, slammed into the Queensland coast just after 2200 GMT Thursday with its landfall coming just hours after a second big storm -- Cyclone Lam -- hit further north.The category four Lam caused extensive damage to remote Aboriginal communities near Elch

 Greece heads to another round of negotiations Friday after dropping key demands for a bailout settlement, but still faced stiff opposition from lead lender Germany, which criticized Athens' latest proposals as a “Trojan horse” designed to dodge its commitments. Eurozone finance ministers agreed to hold their third meeting on the Greek debt crisis in just over a week after Athens formally requested a six-month extension of loan agreements with rescue creditors that expire this month. Going back

South Korea pledged Thursday to make various contributions to international efforts to curb violent extremism as a top diplomat of the country attended an international conference hosted by the White House to move such efforts forward.Second Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said no country is immune from violent extremism, citing the case of a South Korean teenager who is believed to have crossed the border from Turkey into Syria voluntarily to join the militant group Islamic State, the ministr

Google’s fourth-quarter sales and profit missed estimates as the Web company’s advertising business faced more competition on mobile devices. Revenue, excluding sales passed on to partners, rose 6.9 percent to $14.5 billion, the company said in a statement Thursday, missing analysts’ average projection for $14.7 billion, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Chief Executive Officer Larry Page is battling Facebook Inc. and other Web companies that are seeking to lure away users and advert

Japan's Orix Corp. has been picked as the preferred bidder for a controlling stake in Hyundai Securities Co., the fourth-largest brokerage firm by market cap, financial sources said Friday.Earlier this week, Orix Corp. and South Korean private equity firm Pinestreet had submitted their bids for a 36 percent stake in Hyundai Securities.The Korea Development Bank, the lead manager for the deal, will allow Orix to conduct due diligence on the brokerage for one month and complete the deal before Jun

South Korean President Park Geun-hye pledged Friday to make "substantial" preparations for potential unification with North Korea, a day after the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, offered conditional summit talks with her.Park said South Koreans have a historic task to overcome a seven-decades-long division and open a new era of unification.The Korean Peninsula was divided into the capitalistic South and communist North after its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule."The government will do

A South Korean maritime patrol aircraft on a search mission for victims of a crashed AirAsia jet found six bodies Friday, Seoul's defense ministry said.The South Korean Navy's P-3C plane was dispatched on Tuesday to join the international search for AirAsia flight QZ8501 that smashed into the Java Sea last week with 162 people on board en route to Singapore from the Indonesian city of Surabaya. A South Korean couple and their baby were confirmed to be on board the plane.   "The P-3C plane spotte

Two South Koreans were killed when their rental car crashed off a bridge into a river in New Zealand's West Coast, local media reported Friday.The married couple, both 59, were the only occupants of the car that plunged into the Wanganui River on Tuesday, Radio New Zealand said in a report.Their bodies were recovered Thursday and family members who arrived in the country earlier in the day confirmed their identity, it said.The couple from Seoul had been in New Zealand for two days before the cra

The government has delayed plans to raise vehicle taxes on rent-a-car companies in the face of stiff opposition from operators, an industry source said Thursday.According to the Korea Rent-A-Car Association (KRCA), which lodged a strong protest against the move that would have gone into effect next year, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs has agreed to review its plan from scratch.Earlier in the year, the ministry said it would revise the country's local tax rules, so tha

North Korea's state-controlled religious organization on Thursday blasted a plan by a South Korean Christian group to light a giant Christmas tree-shaped tower near the inter-Korean border.The (North) Korean Council of Religionists (KCR) said the decision by the conservative Christian Council of Korea (CCK) to erect a tree tower on top of Aegibong, a front-line hill in Gimpo, west of Seoul, aims to use religion to fuel confrontation.The warnings carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) a

South Korea on Thursday slammed a Japanese minister for his remarks on Seoul's decision not to set up a safety facility on its easternmost islets of Dokdo in the East Sea.Seoul has shelved its plan to set up a safety support center on the Dokdo islets, saying that the decision was made in consideration of international maritime laws and possible problems with their scenery and management.Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday that Seoul's decision seemed to reflect Japan'

Rival political parties on Thursday failed to put one of three key bills related to April's deadly ferry sinking to a parliamentary vote, unable to narrow their differences on how to deal with pending government restructuring during an annual review of budget proposals.Last week, the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) agreed to dismantle the Coast Guard and the National Emergency Management Agency, a breakthrough reached amid criticism that th

지난해 샌프란시스코에서 사고를 낸 아시아나 항공에 대한 행정처분을 앞두고 있는 국토교통부가 운항정지 처분 쪽으로 결론을 내릴 가능성이 높은 것으로 보인다. 국토부의 한 관계자는 “원칙은 운항정지다”라며 “다만 이용자 편의에 의해 공공복리를 재해 할 경우에 과징금 부과가 가능한 것”이라고 덧붙였다. 이 관계자는 운항정지로 인한 승객 불편 우려에 대해서는 “대한항공이 보잉777과 같은 더 큰 기종으로 바꿀 수 있고 그 노선을 운항하는 유나이티드항공, 싱가포르항공 등이 있어 좌석에는 문제가 없다”고 말하며, 3개월 전에 운항정지를 예고하기 때문에 큰 불편은 없을 것으로 내다봤다.이는 아시아나 항공이 샌프란시스코 노선이 운항정지 처분을 받을 경우 월 8,000석의 좌석이 부족할 것이라고 전망한 것과 상이한 분석이다. 국내 항공법에 따르면 아시아나 항공은 45일 이상, 135일 이내의 인천~샌프란시스코 노선 운항정지 처분을 받거나 7억5천만~22억5천만원의 과징금을 부과 받을 수 있다. 국토

지멘스 조 카이저 회장글로벌 전기전자 기업 지멘스의 조 카이저 회장이 20일 정홍원 국무총리와 면담을 갖는다. 조 카이저 회장은 20일 2박 3일 일정으로 한국을 방문해 ‘제1차 해외전문가 초청 특강’에서 ‘인더스트리 4.0’에 대해 강연할 계획이다. 이번 면담을 통해 연초부터 속도감있게 진행되어 온 정부와 지멘스의 협력 성과 점검 및 향후 사업추진 방안이 주로 다뤄질 것으로 예상된다. 지난 1월 박근혜 대통령은 스위스 다보스에서 열린 '세계경제포럼'에서 조 카이저 회장을 만나 정부가 추진 중인 창조경제에 대해 설명하면서 특히 해양 플랜트 분야에 대한 투자를 늘려주기를 당부한 바 있다. 이에 대한 후속 조치로 윤상직 산업통산자원부 장관이 지난 2월 경기도 성남의 지멘스 초음파 연구개발(R&D)센터를 방문해 김종갑 지멘스코리아 회장과 투자 협력 확대를 위한 공동 테스크포스(TF)를 운영하기로 결정했다. 그 자리에서 윤 장관은 “TF에서 지멘스의 한국 투자가 차질 없이 이행되도록 지원하

East Asia, with its trade and transport hubs and armies of migrant workers, is at risk from Ebola but is improving its defenses and may be more ready than other areas to respond if cases are diagnosed, World Health Organization officials said Friday.Shin Young-soo, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said East Asia has been a “hotspot” for emerging diseases in the past and has dealt with SARS and avian flu, so it is more prepared than other regions to respond after learning the im

A Japanese court has ordered Google to delete search results linking the claimant to a crime he did not commit, the latest in a series of rulings around the world on what search engines should tell users.The Tokyo District Court this week placed a provisional order that Google delete about half of 237 entries that appear after the plaintiff's name is entered, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and other local media reported.The man requested the injunction in June, arguing that these search results sug

This combo of two file photos shows Kailash Satyarthi (left), Indian anti-child labour activist and head of the South Asian Coalition Against Child Servitude, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on June 18, 1999 and Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai giving a press conference after meeting with the Nigerian president in Abuja on July 14, 2014. (AFP)Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for risking their lives to

A 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor on South Korea's southeast coast halted operation on Friday due to malfunctioning on its power transmission system, plant operators said.The new Gori-1 plant, located near South Korea's second largest city, Busan, was shut down at 4:13 p.m., the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. said, adding that the reactor's malfunctioning power transmission system apparently caused the problem.South Korea has 23 power-generating nuclear reactors in operation, from which it get

삼성중공업이 오는 2017년까지 1조원을 투자해 첫 해외 조선소 설립을 추진한다. 삼성중공업은 상대적으로 마진율이 낮은 소형 선박을 해외 공장에서 생산해 비용 절감을 꾀하는 한편 국내 사업장을 해양플랜트와 고부가가치 선박 제조 전문조선소로 성장시킬 계획인 것으로 알려졌다.  전태흥 삼성중공업 최고재무책임자전태흥 삼성중공업 최고재무책임자 (CFO) 는 29일 블룸버그와의 인터뷰에서 인도네시아, 베트남, 말레이시아를 해외 공장 후보지로 검토 중에 있다고 밝히면서 해외 공장 건설 계획이 늦어도 올해 안으로 마무리될 예정이라고 말했다. 전 CFO는 해양시추선과 생산설비에 대한 수요가 늘어나 2015년에는 150억 달러 규모의 해외 수주를 목표로 하고 있다고 밝혔다. 올해 삼성중공업이 지난달 말까지 벌어들인 수주액은 55억 달러로 절반이상이 해양플랜트 수주를 통해 따낸 금액이다.이번 해외 건설 추진은 해외 저가수주 프로젝트로 인해 지난해 1조원이 넘는 영업손실을 기록한 삼성중공업이 오는 12