The head of the state-run think tank on North Korean studies said Monday he offered to quit his job last week over his controversial remarks on the country's easternmost islets of Dokdo.The move by Kim Tae-woo, president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, comes nearly two months after he said there was a need to discuss with Japan possible sharing of rights to use marine and seabed resources around Dokdo.In August, Kim floated his idea on conditions that Japan recognize Seoul's sov

Banks trading asset-backed securities may face tougher capital requirements and stricter oversight from global supervisors amid concerns that regulation is failing to curb excessive-risk taking.The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is about to embark on a "fundamental" review of how securitization is regulated, Wayne Byres, the group's secretary general, said in an interview last week."Ultimately it's driven at capital treatment, but it's also about reflecting on what have we learned from t

Somalia piracy attacks against merchant shipping fell to the lowest in six years in the third quarter as armed guards on vessels and naval patrols cut attempted hijacks on the trade route linking Asia and Europe.One ship was attacked compared with 36 in the same quarter a year ago, the London-based International Maritime Bureau, which has been tracking incidents since 1991, said in an e- mailed report today. That's the fewest since the same period in 2006, when no attacks were reported, Assistan

FRANKFURT (AFP) -- The German economy, Europe's biggest, will see a sharp slowdown in growth or may even contract at the end of the year as the eurozone crisis bites, the German central bank or Bundesbank warned Monday.Germany has so far held up to Europe's long-running sovereign debt crisis much better than its eurozone neighbours.While many eurozone countries slipped into recession, Germany notched up growth of 0.5 percent in the first quarter and 0.3 percent in the second quarter.However, "th

LONDON (AFP) - Rosneft gobbled up BP's highly-profitable Russian joint venture, transforming itself into a top player in the global oil sector in a $61 billion (47 billion euro) deal Monday that gives the BP nearly a fifth of the Russian energy giant and ensures access to key Arctic resources.British BP said in a statement that it has agreed to sell its half of Russian venture TNK-BP to Rosneft for $17.1 billion and another 12.84 percent share in the state firm.BP added it would spend $4.8 billi

BEIRUT (AP) -- Lebanese troops launched a major security operation on Monday to open all roads and force gunmen off the streets, trying to contain an outburst of violence set off by the assassination of a top intelligence official who was a powerful opponent of Syria. Sectarian clashes overnight killed at least two people.Opponents of Syria have blamed the regime in Damascus for the killing of Lebanese Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan in a Beirut car bomb on Friday. With Lebanon already tense and dee

A high-level international meeting on global climate change kicked off in Seoul on Monday to lay the groundwork for the upcoming 18th round of the United Nations conference on the issue, officials here said.The Pre-Conference of the Parties (Pre-COP18) meeting, set to run until Tuesday, is expected to serve as a venue to discuss ways to push for negotiations on climate change ahead of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Doha, Qatar from Nov. 26-Dec. 7, according to the off

South Korea condemned on Monday the terrorist car bombing in Beirut last week that killed eight people.Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said Seoul "strongly condemns the terrorist car bombing in Beirut on Oct. 19," stressing that "all forms of terrorism constitute crimes that cannot be justified under any circumstances."South Korea also extended its "deep condolences to the people and the government of Lebanon as well as the bereaved families of the victims," according to the statement.O

About 10 percent of South Korean citizens who live outside of the country have registered for the Dec. 19 presidential election, the state electoral commission said Monday.Voter registration for Korean expatriates began on July 22 and some 223,557 people, or 10.01 percent of the 2.23 million eligible citizens living abroad, were registered as voters as of Monday, or the final day of registration, according to the National Election Commission.Under a 2009 law, eligible South Koreans living abroad

South Korean female volleyball star Kim Yeon-koung will be allowed to play overseas this season after all, the local governing body of the sport said Monday.The Korea Volleyball Federation said it has decided to ratify Kim's controversial move from South Korean team Heungguk Life Pink Spiders to Turkey's Fenerbahce. Park Sung-min, vice chairman of the KOVO, announced the decision after a meeting among officials of the KOVO, the Korean Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Touris

A group of ruling party lawmakers on Monday asked to see the archives of a 2007 inter-Korean summit meeting to verify whether then President Roh Moo-hyun tried to nullify the de facto inter-Korean maritime border in a meeting with his North Korean counterpart.The ruling Saenuri Party has claimed the late Roh made the remarks about the Northern Limit Line during a private meeting with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and has demanded an explanation from main opposition presidential candidate

Three private aid groups were given approval for their plans to send aid goods to North Korea, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Monday.The ministry said it gave permission to three small private groups, including "Toward Peace in Korea," to ship a total of 200 million won ($181,077) worth of food, nutritional supplements and other aid goods to nurseries and hospitals in the North.The goods will be shipped via either China or the land border between the two countries, it said.Cross-border shipme

South Korea should intensify its efforts to integrate economies in the Asia-Pacific region to better capitalize on what many see as the newly-emerging center of the global market, the country's top economic policymaker said Monday."We should keep our policy focus on the Asia-Pacific region, which is emerging as the nucleus of the global economy, so we can spearhead regional economic integration," Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan told a meeting with other key policymakers.He said the government has

A South Korean director has won an award for the best animated film at this year's Warsaw Film Festival, Seoul's culture ministry said Monday.Kim Jin-man won the Best Animated Short award in the short films section of the 28th edition of the festival with his "Noodle Fish," at the closing ceremony on Saturday (on local time), the ministry said in a news release.The film is about the struggle of a small, naive fish made of noodles who wants to experience the bigger world out of the water.The Oct.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The U.S. economy grew 1.3 percent in the second quarter of the year, far weaker than previously believed, Commerce Department data released Thursday showed.The Commerce Department's third estimate of gross domestic product growth for the April-June period was well below expectations that the annual growth rate would hold unchanged at the prior estimate of 1.7 percent.The latest

TAIPEI (AFP) - "Angry Birds" maker Rovio launched a new title Thursday allowing users to play as the "Bad Piggies" from the smash-hit game, and take revenge on the birds who attacked them with slingshots.Rovio Asia senior vice president said the launch ceremony in the Taiwanese capital Taipei was the first in a series of global events."We decided to choose Taipei as the place for the first global

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AP) -- Years before F-22 pilots began getting dizzy in the cockpit, before one struggled to breathe as he tried to pull out of a fatal crash, before two more went on television to say the plane was so unsafe they refused to fly it, a small circle of U.S. Air Force experts knew something was wrong with the prized stealth fighter jet.Coughing among pilots and fears that conta

LONDON (AP) -- Global health officials have alerted doctors to be on the lookout for new cases of a virus related to SARS but said there was no sign the disease was behaving like the killer respiratory syndrome that killed hundreds in 2003.Earlier this week, the World Health Organization announced the new coronavirus had been found in a critically ill Qatari man being treated in London as well as

LONDON (AP) -- British bookshops opened their doors early Thursday and some grown-up Harry Potter fans lined up overnight as J.K. Rowling launched her long-anticipated first book for adults, "The Casual Vacancy."The lines were shorter and the wizard costumes missing, but the book was published to some of the same fanfare that greeted each Potter tome, with stores wheeling out crates of the books p

GENEVA (AFP) - The U.N. refugee agency warned Thursday there could be as many as 700,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the war-torn nation by the end of the year as it stepped up its call for emergency funding."There may be up to 700,000 Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries by the end of the year," Panos Moumtzsis, the UNHCR's chief coordinator for Syrian refugees, told reporters in Geneva."We are