South Korean footballer Park Ji-sung has completed his return to his former club PSV Eindhoven in the top Dutch league on a loan from Queens Park Rangers (QPR) in England, sources here confirmed on Tuesday."Park signed his agreement earlier this morning, Korean time," a source close to Park said. "He will be on a one-year loan, just as he'd wanted."Rumors of Park's move back to the Netherlands first surfaced in late July, when Dutch media reported that the midfielder had undergone a medical test

South Korea's central bank is almost certain to freeze the key interest rate for the third month in a row for August amid improving signs of the local economy and concerns about China's slowdown, a poll showed Tuesday.All 20 analysts predicted that the Bank of Korea (BOK) is expected to leave the benchmark seven-day repo rate unchanged at 2.5 percent on Thursday, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.In May, the BOK made its first rate cut in sev

North Korea continued to ignore South Korea's proposal for final talks on the normalization of a suspended joint industrial park on Tuesday, blaming Seoul for the breakdown in stalled negotiations.The Ministry of Unification, which handles cross-border affairs, said the communist country did not send any message to the South regarding the dialogue offer when first daily contact was made at 9 a.m. via the communications line that runs through the neutral truce village of Panmunjom. Over a week ag

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday weighed down by a U.S. federal banker's remarks implying that a cut in its stimulus may be drawing near, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 10.03 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,906.19 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Blue-chip exporters lost ground. Tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics dipped nearly 2 percent, with steelmaker POSCO falling 1.7 percent. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fish

The United Nations agency in charge of addressing world hunger has begun shipments of food to North Korean flood victims, a news report said Tuesday.The World Food Program (WFP) spokeswoman Nanna Skau said corn is being provided to households that have been hit hard by recent flooding caused by torrential rain, Radio Free Asia reported. She added that assistance is being offered because flooding has caused extensive damage to farmlands and irrigation systems.The radio broadcast monitored in Seou

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com founder who helped bring books into the digital age, is going after another pillar of “old media”: The Washington Post.Bezos, 49, struck a deal announced Monday to buy the venerable Washington broadsheet and other newspapers for $250 million. It was a startling demonstration of how the Internet has created winners and losers and transformed the media landscape.Bezos made his fortune by pioneering online shopping, first by selling books out of his Seattle garage in 1995

New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was suspended through 2014 and All-Stars Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta and Everth Cabrera were banned 50 games apiece Monday when Major League Baseball disciplined 13 players in a drug case _ the most sweeping punishment since the Black Sox scandal nearly a century ago.Ryan Braun's 65-game suspension last month and previous penalties bring to 18 the total number of players sanctioned for their relationship to Biogenesis of America, a closed anti-aging clinic in

The IMF said Japan's "three arrows" economic stimulus program is boosting growth Monday but warned that the country must still follow through with fiscal and structural reforms.It urged Tokyo to adopt a "credible" medium-term program that includes raising consumption taxes and deregulating farming and the service industry.In its annual review of Japan's economy, the International Monetary Fund said aggressive stimulus efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had given a strong boost to growth.And it

As speculation grows over the drawn-out absence of a top North Korean communist party official from public events, an American academic said Monday it might be associated with a possible setback to Pyongyang's road-mobile missile program."In my judgment, North Korea aborted the planned Musudan test last April because of some technical glitches discovered in its untested missile system at the pre-launch stage," said Alexandre Mansourov, a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns

The nation's intelligence chief reportedly said on Monday that he believes the late Former President Roh Moo-hyun made remarks to the effect of giving up the western sea border during the 2007 summit with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a ruling party lawmaker said. Nam Jae-joon, the chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), made the remarks as a witness before a parliamentary investigative committee, said Rep. Kwon Seong-dong of the Sanuri Party after attending a closed-door inves

새누리당 황우여 대표는 5일, 국가정보원 대선 개입 의혹 국정조사를 둘러싼 여야가 대치하는 등 경색된 정국을 해결하기 위해 대통령과 여야 대표가 참석하는 3자회담을 제안했다.황 대표는 이날 국회에서 열린 최고위원회에서 “민주당과 박근혜 대통령은 조속한 시일 내에 여야, 대통령이 함께하 는 3자회담을 수락해 국정 현안 해결의 길을 열어주길 간곡히 호소한다”고 밝혔다. 그는 이어 “외교안보와 민생경제에 아주 위중한 문제들이 산적한 이때 정치권이 정쟁을 접고 미래지향적 국익에 충실한 정치를 위해 최선을 다해야 한다”며 재차 강조했다.황 대표의 제안에 대하 청와대는 “검토해보겠다”는 입장을 밝혔다. 또한 민주당 김한길 대표 역시 “정국 상황이 엄중한 만큼, 청와대의 공식 제안이 있다면 형식과 의전에 얽매이지 않겠다”고 말한 것으로 알려져 3자 회담이 이뤄질 것이라는 관측이 조심스럽게 제기되고 있다. 이날 민주당은 김관영 수석대변인을 통해 ““우리는 박 대통령을 만나 현 정국을 풀어야 한다는

Broadcasting network MBC said it would cancel its long-running children’s show “Popopo,” which had produced many stars and enjoyed steady ratings from young viewers. MBC said it will take the show off the air to promote “change and development of new early childhood education programs.” Since 1981, “Popopo” has aired for 32 years, defending its status as the oldest children‘s program in South Korea. Its popular theme song is also widely known among both children and adults. A number of female ho

South Korean stocks closed 0.37 percent lower Monday, largely due to a selling binge by institutional investors to take profits, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slipped 7.16 points to finish at 1,916.22. Trading volume was light at 230.4 million shares worth 2.71 trillion won ($2.42 billion), but gainers outnumbered decliners 417 to 360. "There was institutional demand for profit-taking after the KOSPI rallie

In yet another twist in a series of patent wars with Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone maker, has submitted an appeal of a June ruling by a U.S. agency which said the iPhone maker was not infringing upon some of the South Korean company's patents, industry sources said Monday.Samsung's appeal in the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit came as U.S. President Barack Obama last week issued a veto on a patent ruling by the International Trade Commission (IT

South Korea's parliament said Monday it has earmarked for next year a reduced budget for globally promoting the country's ownership of its easternmost islets of Dokdo.According to the National Assembly, a total of 3.47 billion won ($3.1 million) has been allocated to the foreign ministry's 2014 budget to finance archival and legal efforts to back up the country's claim to sovereignty over the easternmost islets that lie about halfway between the two rival nations. The 2014 budget marks an 18 per

South Korea's top two smartphone makers -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- saw their presences in the North American smartphone market rise in the second quarter, helped by robust sales of their flagship line-ups and product mix, data showed on Monday.Samsung Electronics, the world's top smartphone maker, held a 35.2 percent share in the region's smartphone market in the second quarter, up from the 29.4 percent the previous quarter, according to the data compiled by Strategy A

North Korea remained silent over the "final talks" proposal for reopening a suspended inter-Korean factory park on Monday, the government said, a day after Seoul warned it is losing patience with Pyongyang's reticence.The Ministry of Unification, which handles all inter-Korean affairs, said the communist country did not send any message to the South regarding the dialogue offer when the first daily contact was made at 9 a.m. via the inter-Korean communications line that runs through the neutral

A year ago, the world's largest particle collider made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science, identifying what is believed to be the Higgs Boson -- the long-sought maker of mass.Today, its computer screens are dark, the control desks unstaffed and the giant, supercooled tunnel empty of the crashing proton beams whose snapshots of the Big Bang helped flush out the elusive particle.But the silence is an illusion.Behind the scenes, work is pushing ahead to give the vast machine

They say par is a good score in a major. If that's true next week at the PGA Championship, then Tiger Woods is already dialed in.Woods played safe and smart with a big lead, parring 16 holes in an even-par 70 Sunday to coast to a seven-shot victory at the Bridgestone Invitational for his eighth win at the event _ matching the PGA Tour record he shares for victories in a single tournament.“As blustery as it was, it was going to be really hard for someone to shoot 62 or 63,” Woods said. “If I didn

Police arrested a man on suspicion of murder after a driver plowed into crowds at a popular Los Angeles boardwalk, a seemingly intentional hit-and-run that killed an Italian woman on her honeymoon and injured 11 others.Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, was arrested after he walked into a police station in neighboring Santa Monica about two hours after the incident and told police that he was involved.Campbell, of Los Angeles, remained jailed Sunday on $1 million bail. Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese decline