A 16-year-old boy charged with raping and beating a girl to death and discarding of the body received the maximum sentence for a juvenile offender of 10 years in prison, court officials here said Friday.A Goyang branch of the Euijeongbu District Court also handed down two- to nine-year sentences to eight other teenagers, including a 17-year-old girl, depending on the degree of their involvement in

A commemorative postal stamp showing statues of former North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung (left) and Kim Jong-il (Yonhap News)A North Korean defector, arrested by the North for allegedly attempting to destroy key communist statues, has said he was ordered by South Korean and U.S.intelligence to launch the attacks, claims flatly denied by Seoul.Earlier in the week, the North said it had arrested Nort

Apple released its newest iPad in China on Friday after settling a lawsuit over ownership of its name and requiring buyers to place orders in advance to control crowds.Watched by security guards, a few dozen shoppers waited outside stores in Beijing and Shanghai, which opened on time at 8 a.m. That was in contrast to the chaotic scene outside Apple's main Beijing store in January, when some custom

The country's top science university said Friday its board of directors has put off the decision on whether to terminate the contract of its incumbent president. The council of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) was scheduled to vote on a motion to cancel its contract with the school's president, Suh Nam-pyo, as he refused calls to step down despite allegations of mism

(UPI)Three Ohio Burger King employees were fired after an image of one of them standing on two open bins of the eatery's lettuce appeared online, the company said.The company released a statement Tuesday saying the workers at the Mayfield Heights store were fired after the picture was posted to image-sharing Web site 4chan and went viral on the Internet."Burger King Corp. has recently been made aw

Syrian President Bashar Assad made his first appearance Thursday since a bomb killed some of his top lieutenants, looking calm and composed on state TV even as his forces turned parts of Damascus into combat zones and rebels seized two of the country's border crossings.The unprecedented attack on Assad's inner circle Wednesday, along with the government's inability to crush the rebels after five d

Rebels pushed their "Damascus Volcano" assault Thursday after three senior security chiefs were killed in a bombing Washington said indicated President Bashar al-Assad was losing control of Syria.The deaths Wednesday of Defence Minister General Daoud Rajha, Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime's crisis cell, came on one of the deadliest days in the 1

George Zimmerman said he was not "a racist" or "a murderer" and asserted his killing of unarmed black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was "God's plan.""I'm not a racist and I'm not a murderer," Zimmerman, a former crime-watch volunteer charged with second-degree murder in Martin's death, told Fox News Channel in a recorded interview that aired Wednesday night.He said he believed he was owed an apo

Microsoft says Windows 8 will go on sale Oct. 26. The upgrade to its operating system is designed to work better with touch screens and on tablet computers.Microsoft announced the date in a blog post and at its annual sales meeting Wednesday. The software company had said earlier that Windows 8 would go on sale in October.Microsoft is releasing the software as a downloadable upgrade that day for P

Comedienne Sarah Silverman released on online video offering a sex act to a Las Vegas billionaire if he donates to President Obama instead of Mitt Romney.The tongue-in-cheek "Indecent Proposal" video, posted to YouTube Monday, featured Silverman offering to engage in a non-intercourse sex act with Sheldon Adelson if he pulls the $100 million he has promised to Romney, the presumptive Republican pr

A 97-year-old Hungarian man suspected of abusing Jews and helping deport thousands of them during the Holocaust was taken into custody Wednesday, questioned and charged with war crimes, prosecutors said.The case of Laszlo Csatary was brought to the attention of Hungarian authorities last year by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization active in hunting down Nazis who have yet to be brou

(123rf)Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1950s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the origins of U.S. space travel, a group of scientists in white coats is stirring, mixing, measuring, brushing and, most important, tasting the end result of their cooking.Their mission: Build a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s.The menu must sustain a group of six to

북한이 18일 낮 12시 ‘중대보도’를 할 것이라고 조선중앙방송과 평양방송이 전했다.AFP 통신 등 외신은 이와 관련해 최근 해임된 리영호 북한 인민군 총참모장 등 군부의 움직임이 있었음을 지적했다.<영문 기사>North Korea to make 'important' announcementNorth Korea said Wednesday an "important" announcement was imminent, after the communist state sacked its military chief in a surprise move."An important report will be issued in the DPRK at 12:00 (0300 GMT) Wednesday," the state-run Kore

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start on Wednesday but swung to positive territory on hopes for the U.S. Fed's further quantitative easing, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.44 points, or 0.02 percent, to 1,822.4 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Blue-chip exporters led the gains, with Samsung Electronics adding 1.11 percent and top automaker Hyund

South Korea's trade surplus with the European Union (EU) fell sharply after the free trade pact went into effect a year ago due to eurozone woes that hurt exports and caused a rise in imports, government data showed Wednesday.According to data by the Korea Customs Service (KCS), imports from the EU shot up 13 percent on-year to US$49 billion between July 2011 and June this year. Exports fell to $5

HSBC apologized Tuesday for failing to apply anti-laundering rules and one senior executive resigned, as lawmakers accused the global bank of giving Iran, terrorists and drug dealers access to the US financial system.With the banking sector already under fire for manipulating interest rates and reckless trading, HSBC said more should have been done to prevent years of abuse amounting to tens of bi

(123rf)Rose Barwuah has to polish desks to make a living despite having one of Europe’s highest-paid athletes as a son.The biological mother of multi-millionaire Italian footballer Mario Balotelli is working as an office cleaner, according to British media.While Balotelli makes 120,000 British pounds ($187,000) a week, enjoying a lavish lifestyle of luxury cars, champagne and parties, Barwuah mak

A group of lawmakers are moving to force the government to immediately ban any beef imports from countries with a confirmed mad cow disease case, which the government said Tuesday might contradict with international regulations and the country's trade agreements.The move was proposed on May 30 by Rep. Kim Yung-rok of the main opposition Democratic United Party in a revision to the law on animal di

North Korea announced Tuesday that it has promoted Army Gen. Hyon Yong-chol to the post of vice marshal."Hyon Yong-chol was awarded the title of vice marshal of the Korean People's Army," said the KCNA, the communist nation's state news agency."A decision on awarding the title was made by the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea and the National Defense Commission of the DPRK

South Korean singer Cho Kwan-woo is recovering after being stabbed in the neck during a squabble with a drunken former employee, police said Monday.The Ilsan Police Station said they have requested an arrest warrant for the 44-year-old suspect, identified only by his surname Jeon, on charges of attempted murder.Cho was taken to a hospital and required around 10 stitches to his neck but his vocal c