North Korea said Friday it will convene its rubber-stamp parliament next month, amid growing speculation that its leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un may be well on his path to consolidating his power base.The communist state's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a two-paragraph report that the Supreme People's Assembly will convene on April 7 for its fourth session since being elected.Th

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday that it aims to post a record operating profit for the whole of 2011 by cementing its leadership in existing businesses.    "Competition among companies will intensify this year but we will try to extend revenue growth from last year and post a record-high operating profit," Choi Gee-sung, Samsung's chief executive officer, said in a stat

South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan could square off against American great Michael Phelps in a California meet this June, swimming officials here said Friday.   The Korea Swimming Federation and the sports division of SK Telecom, which manages Park, said the 21-year-old is set to enter the Santa Clara International Grand Prix in California starting June 16. The event is the seventh and final leg o

North Korea on Thursday proposed holding talks with South Korea on possible volcanic activities at its landmark mountain, Seoul's Unification Ministry said, amid reports of a looming eruption there that could affect the entire peninsula.   Mount Paekdu, North Korea's highest mountain on the border with China, last erupted in 1903, but experts have warned that it may have an active core, citing top

  NEW YORK (AP) _ Four New York Times journalists covering the fighting in Libya were reported missing Wednesday, and the newspaper held out hope that they were alive and in the custody of the Libyan government.   Editors last heard from the journalists on Tuesday as they were covering the retreat of rebels from the town of Ajdabiya, and Libyan officials told the newspaper they were trying to loca

   TOKYO, March 17, 2011 (AFP) - Japanese military helicopters dumped water Thursday from huge buckets onto the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant in a bid to douse fuel rods, television images showed.   A total of three twin-rotor CH-47 Chinooks of the Self-Defence Forces each emptied more than seven tonnes of water onto reactors three and four, according to public broadcaster NHK.

  South Korea's financial watchdog decided Wednesday to delay its deliberation on the approval of Hana Financial Group Inc.'s takeover of Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) following a recent court conviction of an executive at KEB's largest shareholder.   The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Hana Financial's request for regulatory approval for putting KEB under its wing was not on the agenda for i

Lee orders close safety checks on S. Korea's nuclear facilities   President Lee Myung-bak instructed his government Wednesday to painstakingly check the safety of local nuclear reactors, a move aimed at easing public anxiety here amid news of Japan's nuclear crisis, officials said.   The president sent Lee Ju-ho, the minister for education, science and technology, to a major nuclear power facility

  TOKYO (AP) _ Japan's nuclear safety agency says 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods in an earthquake-stricken reactor may have been damaged following an explosion.   An agency spokesman, Minoru Ohgoda, said Wednesday that the damage occurred in Unit 1 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex.The facility has suffered explosions and fires since Friday's massive quake and tsunami damaged its cool

   TOKYO (AFP) - A fire which broke out early Wednesday at a quake-hit Japanese nuclear power plant is under control, the government said.   "We have received information from TEPCO that the fire and smoke is now invisible and it appears to have gone out of its own accord," Minoru Ogoda, a spokesman for the state nuclear safety agency, told AFP.   The plant is operated by the Tokyo Electric Power

   TOKYO (AP) _ Japan's nuclear safety agency says it suspects an explosion at a nuclear power plant may have damaged a reactor's container and fears a radiation leak.   An agency spokesman, Shigekazu Omukai, says the nuclear core of Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was not damaged in the explosion early Tuesday.   But the agency says it suspects the bottom of the container that surrounds th

   TOKYO (AFP) - Some workers have been evacuated from the number-two reactor at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant after it was hit by an explosion Tuesday, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman said.    "We have moved our staff to a safer area," except for those working to cool the reactor, the TEPCO spokesman said.   An official from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told AFP "tha

   TOKYO (AFP) - The death toll from a killer earthquake and tsunami that flattened much of Japan's northeast coast topped 2,400, police said Tuesday.   The National Police Agency said 2,414 people are confirmed dead and 3,118 missing, with 1,885 injured in the disaster which struck on Friday afternoon.      The official toll yesterday stood at 1,647.   On Sunday, the police chief of Miyagi, one o

 TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's central bank says it is injecting a record15 trillion yen ($183.8 billion) into money markets to stabilize the financial system after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.   The figure is more than double the 7 trillion yen the Bank of Japan had announced earlier in the day.   The emergency move comes as the Tokyo stock market plunges nearly6 percent, and worries grew about

   TOKYO (AP) _ Japan's top government spokesman says Tokyo Electric Power has held off on imposing rolling blackouts, but is calling for all to try to limit electricity use.   Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says that if necessary, the utility is prepared to go ahead with the power rationing, which was supposed to begin Monday in eight prefectures and cities, including parts of Tokyo. The dec

  TOKYO (AP) _ Tokyo Electric Power Co. says three workers have been injured and seven are missing after an explosion at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.   Japan's chief cabinet secretary says a hydrogen explosion occurred Monday at the facility's Unit 3. The blast was similar to an earlier one at a different unit at the facility.   Yukio Edano says people within a 12-mile (20-kilome

  TOKYO (AP) _ Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake. Thousands of residents were evacuated as workers struggled to get the reactors under control to prevent meltdowns.   Operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 scrambled ferociously to tamp down heat and pressu

  HONOLULU (AFP) - Tsunami waves raced across the vast Pacific Ocean Friday triggered by a huge quake off Japan, washing ashore in Hawaii and threatening the US West Coast, as officials urged people to seek shelter.   Sirens blared and Hawaiian authorities rapidly evacuated low-lying areas as the waves rolled across thousands of miles from the Japanese coast to hit Hawaii before dawn around 3:24 a

      LOS ANGELES (AFP) - California's governor declared a state of emergency Friday after tsunami waves hit the US West Coast, forcing evacuations, damaging boats and leaving one man missing, swept out to sea.   Governor Jerry Brown's declaration for four coastal counties unblocks federal funds to help clean up after waves triggered by Japan's devastating quake hit the US mainland, notably in nor

   TOKYO, March 12, 2011 (AFP) - Japanese naval and coastguard helicopters have found a ship that was swept out to sea by a massive tsunami and airlifted all 81 people aboard to safety, Jiji Press reported Saturday.   The ship was owned by a shipbuilder in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture.   Friday's massive quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, creating a 10-metre (3