The Federal Reserve announced bold steps Thursday to stimulate the still-weak U.S. economy and reduce high unemployment, saying it will spend $40 billion a month to buy mortgage-backed securities for long as necessary. The central bank also extended a plan to keep short-term interest rates at record lows -- close to zero -- through mid-2015, or six months longer than it had planned. And it said it

A Chinese man protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, China, Thursday. (AP-Yonhap News)Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Thursday, singing the Chinese national anthem and waving flags, to condemn Tokyo's purchase of a disputed island chain.The latest demonstration came after the Japanese government this week nationalized three islands in a chain i

A Great Dane who towers 2.2 meters on his hind legs is named the tallest dog ever recorded in the latest Guinness Book of World Records launched on Thursday.The giant canine from Michigan in the United States eats an entire 14-kilogram bag of food every day and weighs in at 70.3 kilograms, the 57th edition of the global records book says.Measuring 1.12 meters from paw to withers -- the point betwe

(YouTube)A chubby thirty-something with wacky dance moves, Park Jae-Sang falls far short of the prettified, teenage ideal embodied by the stars of South Korea's phenomenally successful K-pop industry.But Park, known as "Psy," has succeeded where the industry-manufactured girl and boy bands have tried and failed, making a huge splash on the mainstream U.S. music scene thanks to a viral video and a

(123rf)Dark energy, a mysterious substance thought to be responsible for accelerating the expansion of the Universe, is real, European astronomers say.Writing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers at the University of Portsmouth and LMU University Munich say their two-year study puts the possibility of the existence of dark energy at 99.996 percent."Dark energy is o

(123rf)A South Carolina woman said she was shocked to discover her ex-boyfriend from 12 years ago has been living in her attic.The Rock Hill mother of five, who identified herself as Tracy, said her one-year relationship with the 44-year-old man, whose name was not released, ended 12 years ago due to his drug use and conviction for robbing a flower shop, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported Tues

South Korea's central bank unexpectedly froze the key interest rate for the second straight month on Thursday in an apparent bid to save ammunition for any worsening of economic conditions.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his fellow policymakers unanimously left unchanged the benchmark 7-day repo rate at 3 percent for September. The decision surprised the market as most analysts had pre

(MCT)A Michigan woman whose daughter went missing in June 2011 says she will marry a man suspected of killing the child to get more information about her fate.Ariel Courtland told WOOD radio, Grand Rapids, Mich., she will marry Sean Phillips, who was convicted in April of unlawful imprisonment of his daughter with Courtland, Katherine Phillips, who has not been seen since disappearing from her Lud

Former James Bond actor Roger Moore has claimed he was a victim of domestic violence during his first two marriages, it emerged on Wednesday.The 84-year-old British star, who first played agent 007 in 1973's "Live and Let Die", said his former wives Doorn Van Steyn and Dorothy Squires subjected him to a string of attacks in both of their doomed marriages.Van Steyn, an ice skater who married Moore

South Korean stocks started lower Thursday as investors sat on the sidelines ahead of a key decision by the U.S. central bank, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 9.96 points, or 0.51 percent, to 1,940.07 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Most shares traded bearish, with top shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries falling 0.61 percent and steelmaker POSCO sliding

The United States should avert looming automatic military spending cuts partly in order to avoid gaps in dealing with contingencies in North Korea, according to a Republican congressman.At issue is an automatic spending cut called sequestration, which takes place if Congress cannot reach a budget agreement."Sequestration would cut the military to its smallest size since before the Second World War

Prosecutors have sought a three-year jail sentence for a close confidant to President Lee Myung-bak who was indicted in an illegal surveillance scandal, court officials said Thursday.Former Vice Knowledge Economy Minister Park Young-joon, once considered a right-hand man of Lee, was accused of ordering an illegal surveillance on Ulsan city officials in connection with an industrial complex project

Libya's parliament elected Wednesday a leading member in the country's oldest opposition movement to be its new prime minister.Mustafa Abu-Shakour is tasked with stabilizing a country where armed groups proliferate. Washington's ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed during a late Tuesday attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.Abu-Shakour, deputy to

A mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery attack on the U.S. Consulate, killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. President Barack Obama strongly condemned the violence, vowed Wednesday to bring the killers to justice and tightened security at diplomatic posts around the world.The attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens -- the first U.S. ambassador to die in the

North Korea refused to accept South Korea's flood relief aid Wednesday as the two countries failed to nail down what types of aid items should be given, a Seoul official said.The Seoul official said the North cabled a notification earlier in the day that reads, "We do not need such aid."Earlier on Monday, Pyongyang said through its Red Cross that it was ready to accept flood aid from the South.Seo

At least 110 people were killed in a blaze at a garment factory in Pakistan's largest city Karachi, an official said Wednesday."We have recovered 110 bodies so far and are still searching for more victims," Karachi fire chief Ehtesham Salim told AFP.The evening blaze in the four-story factory in Pakistan's largest city coincided with another at a shoe plant in Pakistan's second largest city Lahore

A group of six to seven North Korean fishing boats briefly crossed a tense maritime border with South Korea in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, but retreated after a South Korean patrol boat broadcast a warning message, military officials said.The warning message was broadcast when the fishing boats crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) border and strayed into South Korean waters at around 11:10 a.m."

South Korea's jobless rate edged down in August from a month earlier but job creation slowed markedly amid worries the overall economic conditions are toughening at home and abroad, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 3 percent last month, down from 3.1 percent tallied in the previous month, marking the lowest level for this y

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said Tuesday that the government is ready to run ads on its easternmost islets of Dokdo in Japanese media, in a rare move aimed at reinforcing its global public relations campaign over the East Sea islets and countering Japan's territorial claim."The government is preparing to run ads in Japanese media to tell the Japanese people that Dokdo is a Korean t

Rep. Moon Jae-in, the leading presidential contender of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), beat entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn Cheol-soo for the first time in a hypothetical two-way race for a single opposition candidate ahead of December's presidential election, polls showed Tuesday.Moon has led the DUP's ongoing primary with 10 wins in 10 regional races conducted so far and 50