The Doosan Bears defeated the Nexen Heroes 8-5 in extra innings on the road on Monday to advance to the second round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason, holding off a frenetic late charge by their opponents in one of the most thrilling playoff games in the league's history.At Mokdong Stadium, Choi Jun-seok and Oh Jae-won each hit a home run in the Bears' five-run 13th inning, after their team blew a 3-0 lead with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.Lee Taek-geun of the Heroes hi

A local daily reporter and a blogger were arrested for spreading false rumors about a TV announcer's personal life, prosecution officials said Monday, in yet another case of online libel leading to criminal charges.The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office said the two face defamation charges for their online postings. They had claimed that Hwang Soo-gyeong, an announcer with state-run broadcaster KBS, was caught having an affair, and that her prosecutor husband was going to divorce her.The

The United States moved closer to a default that could damage the economy and a partial government shutdown entered its third week as Senate Democratic and Republican leaders remained at odds in their last-ditch negotiations to end the fiscal crises gripping Washington.Congress is racing against the clock, with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warning that the U.S. will quickly exhaust its ability to pay the bills on Thursday. Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, sp

South Korea said Monday that it has postponed an investor relations event planned for the end of the month at a joint inter-Korean factory park in Gaeseong.The event that was originally set for Oct. 31 was arranged to attract foreign investors to set up factories at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, which is currently home to only South Korean companies."Seoul sent the message to the North last Friday adding that under present circumstances, the conditions for holding the event cannot be met," a

Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski will make a four-day state visit to South Korea next week for a summit with President Park Geun-hye about economic and security cooperation, the presidential spokeswoman said Monday.The Oct. 21-24 visit is Komorowski's first trip to South Korea since he took office in 2010. He will also be the first European head of state to make a state visit to the country under the Park administration, presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing said.Komorowski is scheduled to h

Americans Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller won the Nobel prize for economics on Monday for developing new methods to study trends in asset markets.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that through their separate research, the three had laid the foundation of the current understanding of asset prices.While it's hard to predict whether stock or bond prices will go up or down in the short term, it's possible to foresee movements over periods of three years or longer, the acad

국회 보건복지위의 14일 보건복지부 국정감사에서는 정부의 기초연금 도입안을 놓고 여당과 야당, 야당과 정부 사이에 치열한 공방이 펼쳐졌다.야당은 '소득 하위 70% 노인에 국민연금 가입기간 연계 10만~20만원 차등지급' 내용의 정부 기초연금 도입안에 대해 '65세이상 모든 노인에게 월 20만원 지급'이라 는 대선 공약을 파기한 것이라고 공격했다. 또 현재 30~40대 등 젊은 세대가 시간이 갈수록 상대적으로 불리해지는 지급 구조도 집중적으로 지적했다.이에 대해 정부와 여당은 재원과 지속가능성 등을 감안할 때 불가피한 대안이고, 어떤 경우라도 국민연금 가입자가 자신이 납입한 돈보다 손해보는 일이 없다는 점을 강조하며 방어에 나섰다.◇ 야당 "'모든 노인에 20만원' 공약으로 표 훔친 것…미래세대는 더 불리"민주당 이목희 의원은 "정부의 기초연금법안은 박근혜 대통령의 대선공약을 스스로 뒤집은 것일 뿐 아니라, 기초연금 수급에 있어 세대간 차별을 만들어 국민간 갈등과 위화감을 촉발하는

  격투기선수 출신 송가연 (19)이 지난 12일 구미에서 열린 로드FC 13회 대회에서  로드FC걸로 성공적인 데뷔 라운드 무대를 마쳤다.  사진제공: 로드 FC, 오센<관련 영문 기사>[Photo news] Fighter-turned-ring girl makes her debutFormer mixed martial arts fighter Song Ga-yeon debuted as a ring girl for South Korea’s MMA organization Road FC on Saturday.Song made her first appearance as a member of the “Road Girls,” a ring girl team operated by South Korea’s MMA, in the Road FC 013 event in Gumi, South Gyeongsang Province. The 19-year-old became a member of the Road

Chinese inflation hit a seven-month high of 3.1 percent in September, data showed Monday, with analysts warning further upward pressure on prices would restrict the government's options to boost the economy.The rise in the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation in the world's second-largest economy, was sharply up from the 2.6 percent logged in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).It was also ahead of expectations of 2.9 percent in a poll by Dow Jones Newsw

폭행시비에 휘말린 프로축구 인천 유니아티드의 이천수(32)가 이를 부인하고 나섰다.이천수는 14일, 구단을 통해 “폭행은 아니고 시비가 붙은 것”이라며 언론에 보도된 바와 같이 폭력을 휘두른 적은 없다고 주장했다.  인천 남동경찰서는 이천수가 이날 0시 45분께 인천시 남동구 구월동의 한 술집에서 다른 손님 김모(30)씨를 폭행한 혐의를 받고 있다고 밝혔다. 김씨는 이천수 일행과 시비 끝에 이천수로부터 2차례 뺨을 맞고 이 과정에서 휴대전화 액정이 파손됐다고 주장하고 있다.김씨가 경찰에 진술한 바에 따르면 이천수와 그의 부인, 지인 두 사람은 김씨와 합석해 술자리를 갖던 도중 언쟁이 붙었다가 “옛날부터 팬이었다”는 김씨의 발언에 이천수가 빈 술병 20여병이 올려져 있던 테이블을 손으로 쓸었다고 한다.이천수는 폭행 혐의에 대해 부인하고 있다.또한 김씨의 신고를 받고 경찰이 현상에 도착했을 때 이천수는 손에 피를 흘리고 있었는데, 그는 이에 대해 “옆에 와이프도 있는데 폭행을 했겠느냐.

Prosecutors said Monday they were closely analyzing documents seized from the headquarters of Hyosung Group over suspicion that the country's 26th-largest conglomerate evaded a massive amount of taxes.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office last week raided the company's headquarters in central Seoul to obtain computer hard drives and documents, including accounting books, after the country's tax agency had filed a charge against the group's chairman, Cho Suck-rai, 79, for allegedly leadi

Colonial Japan forced hundreds of Korean girls into hard labor to produce its war supplies, a report showed Monday, adding to the grievances of Koreans against Japan's exploitation in war times that also include sexual enslavement.The average age of Korean females subjected to forced labor came to 16.46 years, according to the report on 1,039 cases of coerced labor on Korean women by Japan during its colonial rule from 1910-45.  Among those drafted for factory jobs, the average age came out to b

South Korea logged a trade surplus for the 20th straight month in September despite shrinking exports, customs data showed Monday.South Korea's exports came to US$44.71 billion last month, down 1.5 percent from the same month a year earlier. They are also down 3.4 percent from August, according to the data provided by the Korea Customs Services. The country's imports shrank 3.6 percent on-year to $41.03 in September and fell 1.1 percent from the previous month, the data showed.As a result, Korea

Seoul and Washington have agreed to reset the timing of the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) next year after reviewing North Korean threat and the South Korean forces capabilities to deal with it, the defense ministry here said Monday.  The issue of the OPCON transfer to Seoul surfaced as the major issue in this year's parliamentary audit on the defense ministry, which in May proposed the U.S. government to reconsider the December 2015 deadline in light of the rising North Korean

South Korean stocks reverted to positive territory late Monday morning after trading lower in the earlier session, as some large-cap financial and defensive shares turned to gains, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 0.39 points, or 0.02 percent to 2,025.29 as of 11:20 a.m.State-run Korea Electric Power Corp. shot up more than 2 percent, with Shinhan Financial Group advancing 1.2 percent. The local currency was changing hands at 1,072.55 won against the g

North Korea's imports of luxury goods have surged after Kim Jong-un took power, despite chronic food shortages plaguing the country, a South Korean lawmaker said Monday.According to Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the ruling Saenuri Party, imports of luxury goods reached US$645.8 million last year, up sharply from an annual import average of around $300 million tallied under the current leader's father Kim Jong-il.The incumbent leader took power after the sudden death of his father in late 2011. Citing d

One of South Korea’s core missile interceptors remained out of order for longer than four months last year due to a failure to quickly replace a faulty part, an opposition lawmaker said Monday.According to a report the Air Force submitted to Rep. Baek Gun-ki of the main opposition Democratic Party, one Patriot Advanced Capability-2 system was left unfixed for 132 days as the Air Force failed to replace the faulty part in the interceptor’s radar system domestically.The PAC-2 system in question sa

Korea’s smartphone market will likely post negative growth this year, and not recover last year’s sales level for at least the next six years, according to research institute Strategic Analytics Monday. Experts expect that the sluggish demand for the handsets could further encourage Korean mobile makers to deploy more aggressive global marketing tactics.The sales of smartphones this year will be 26.3 million units, down 14 percent from 30.7 million sold last year, according to the SA report.This

South Korean stocks turned lower after starting a tad higher Monday, weighed down by concerns over the U.S. debt limit talks with the deadline only three days away, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 0.63 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,024.27 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Autos and insurers drove down the main index, with Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest carmaker, slipping 0.2 percent and Samsung Life Insurance falling nearly 1 percent.

After getting badly outplayed by Brazil last week, the South Korean men's football team will look to redeem itself against Mali on Tuesday.The 58th-ranked South Korea will host the 38th-ranked Mali in Cheonan, about 90 kilometers south of Seoul, at 8 p.m. Tuesday.This will be the first meeting between the two countries.South Korea suffered a 2-0 defeat against world No. 8 Brazil last Saturday in Seoul. FC Barcelona standout Neymar and Chelsea star Oscar scored a goal apiece, as Brazil overcame p