SEJONG (Yonhap) -- The number of companies in South Korea's service sector rose 1.8 percent on-year in 2013 to over 2.62 million, the government's statistical office said Wednesday.Statistics Korea said these companies employed a combined 10.23 million people, up 4.7 percent from the year before. The increase comes as Seoul has pinpointed the service sector as an industry that can create more jobs and fuel economic growth. In the past, the government as a whole favored manufacturing and did not

The ruling and opposition parties clashed Wednesday over whether the parliament should open a probe into a controversial project to refurbish the country's four major rivers.Woo Yoon-keun, floor leader of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, pressed for a parliamentary probe, saying a government investigative commission did not mention environmental damage and builders' collusion in the bidding process for construction contracts.He also said that his party could not buy the a

SEJONG (Yonhap) -- Sluggish economic condition in the 2012-2013 period hindered the creation of new companies and caused more existing firms to shut down, government data showed Wednesday.Analysis by Statistics Korea revealed 749,000 new companies were formed in 2013, down 21,000 from the year before. The business birth and death report said 741,000 businesses closed in 2012, 58,000 more than the previous year.The report showed 1.2 million people were working for newly created companies in 2013,

South Korean prosecutors applied for an arrest  warrant Wednesday for Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-Ah, who delayed a flight with a tantrum over snacks in a "nut rage" incident that caused a national uproar.The prosecutors office said the 40-year-old daughter of the airline's chief  executive faced charges including violation of the aviation safety law, coercion and interference in the execution of duty."Our office has sent a request for the court to issue an arrest warrant," the prosecutors offic

DAVAO, Philippines (AFP) -- Nine people were killed when a bomb exploded aboard a bus in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, a military spokesman said.The bus operated by the Rural Transit company was travelling through the town of Maramag in the strife-torn island of Mindanao when the bomb went off, said spokesman Major Christian Uy.The blast also injured 17 people.The explosion was the latest in a series of attacks on the bus company.Last month a bomb exploded aboard a Rural Transit bus in Mi

MONACO (AP) -- Athletes from Kosovo will be able to compete at the 2016 Summer Games after being granted full recognition on Tuesday by the International Olympic Committee.The full IOC formally ratified a decision made in October by the executive board that clears the way for Kosovo to compete as an independent nation.Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, becomes the 205th national Olympic committee recognized by the IOC.``This is one big day, one historical day for athletes o

Amazon.com Inc., seeking to avoid shipping delays that marred last year’s holiday season, is taking more control of its delivery system by opening “sorting centers” around the country.One of those facilities is surrounded by cornfields and cabbage farms in the town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. Unlike the online retailer’s 50 U.S. fulfillment centers where workers gather items to be packed in boxes, the 500,000-square-foot building -- which opened in October -- takes

FRANKFURT (AP) -- BMW shook up its top leadership Tuesday, saying that CEO Norbert Reithofer would leave his post to become chairman of the board as part of ``generational change'' at the head of the German luxury automaker.The end of Reithofer's tenure as CEO, combined with the departure of a key manager for rival Volkswagen, means significant turnover in the executive team at the Munich-based maker of the X5 sport utility and the 3-Series sedan.Reithofer is to be replaced by chief production e

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s board will have a bigger responsibility weighing compensation for its next chief executive officer after Warren Buffett is no longer leading the company, said director Susan Decker.Buffett, 84, and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charles Munger, 90, have requested their annual salaries be set at $100,000 for decades. Both are among the biggest shareholders in the Omaha, Nebraska-based company.“The compensation questions for the board are really not too important today,” Decker

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators are proposing that the eight biggest U.S. banks be required to further increase the amount of capital they set aside to cushion against unexpected losses.The proposed requirements are aimed at lessening the chances of future taxpayer bailouts of troubled banks, while also encouraging the behemoths to shrink so they pose less of a risk to the financial system.The Federal Reserve governors were to vote at a meeting Tuesday to advance the so-called ``capital su

SAN JULIAN, Philippines(AFP) -- A giant storm left the Philippines Tuesday after killing at least 27 people and devastating remote coastal towns, but the government won praise for unprecedented preparations that were credited for saving lives.Hagupit hit the far eastern island of Samar on Saturday with winds of 210 kilometres an hour, making it the most powerful typhoon in the Philippines this year and threatening widespread destruction.Most of the 27 people reported by the Red Cross to have bee

GENEVA (AFP) -- The number of people dying from malaria has almost halved since 2000, although progress in west Africa risks being reversed by the Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.The UN agency also warned of continuing gaps in access to mosquito nets and anti-malaria treatments, as well as worrying signs of resistance to insecticides and drugs.Global mortality rates fell by 47 percent between 2000 and 2013 and by 53 percent in children under the age of five, the WHO sa

SINGAPORE (AFP) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Tuesday a ceasefire along the front line in the east of his country appeared to be holding after Kiev declared a "day of silence" in the war with pro-Russian separatists."Today, one and a half hour ago, we declared a new ceasefire," Poroshenko said at a public lecture in Singapore."We don't have one shot, we don't have any killed soldiers," he said.Poroshenko was speaking to academics, diplomats and business executives at a public lect

Five major South Korean banks are expected to suffer considerable losses as they have to write off or set aside reserves against more than 600 billion won ($541 million) in loans extended to a local home appliance maker, industry sources said Tuesday.Monueal filed for court receivership last month after admitting it was unable to pay off some 677 billion won it had borrowed from several local banks. Earlier in the day, the home appliance maker was declared insolvent. The firm's total debt reache

Andy Van Hekken, the left-handed starter for the Nexen Heroes, on Tuesday grabbed his first Golden Glove Award in the Korea Baseball Organization in a landslide.Van Hekken, the league's only 20-game winner who finished second with 178 strikeouts and third with a 3.51 ERA, was a well-deserving winner. The only foreign winner this year said afterward he wasn't surprised by the win itself, but by how handily he claimed the trophy.Van Hekken earned 278 out of 321 votes for his first Golden Glove. Ri

The Nexen Heroes on Tuesday produced four winners of the Golden Glove Awards, presented to the best overall players at each position in the top South Korean baseball league, while Samsung Lions' slugger Lee Seung-yuop bagged his record-setting ninth Golden Glove.Nexen second baseman Seo Geon-chang, voted MVP of the Korea Baseball Organization  last month, led a list of four winners for the Heroes at a ceremony held in Seoul. Seo collected 292 out of 321 possible votes for his second Golden Glove

SOFIA (AFP) -- NATO has observed columns of Russian military equipment including tanks, artillery and combat troops entering eastern Ukraine in the past two days, the military alliance's supreme allied commander said Wednesday."Across the last two days we have seen the same thing that OSCE is reporting. We have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defence systems and Russian combat troops entering into Ukraine," US General Philip Breedlove sa

TOKYO (AP) -- More than three years into the massive cleanup of Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant, only a tiny fraction of the workers are focused on key tasks such as preparing for the dismantling of the broken reactors and removing radioactive fuel rods.Instead, nearly all the workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant are devoted to a single, enormously distracting problem: coping with the vast amount of contaminated water _ a mixture of underground water running into recycled water th

BEIJING (AFP) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested US news organisations had themselves to blame for Beijing not granting journalist visas, in response to a rare unscripted question from a foreign reporter on Wednesday.Washington has criticised China's treatment of foreign correspondents after reporters from The New York Times and Bloomberg were not given residence visas in apparent retaliation for investigative stories on the wealth amassed by leaders' families.Beijing is highly sensitive

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government is getting near-daily reports _ and sometimes two or three a day _ of drones flying near airplanes and helicopters or close to airports without permission, federal and industry officials tell The Associated Press. It's a sharp increase from just two years ago when such reports were still unusual.Many of the reports are filed with the Federal Aviation Administration by airline pilots. But other pilots, airport officials and local authorities often file repor