The Boston Marathon bombers were headed for New York's Times Square to blow up the rest of their explosives, authorities said Thursday, in what they portrayed as a chilling, spur-of-the-moment scheme that fell apart when the brothers realized the car they had hijacked was low on gas.New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother had decided spontaneously last Thursday night to drive to New York and lau

A Boeing engineer said Thursday that the cause of the battery problems that have grounded the company's 787 Dreamliners may never be known.The engineering leader for the 787, Richard J. Horigan, said the root cause of smoldering batteries experienced by the two different 787s may never be known because the evidence was destroyed by heat. “When we say a root-cause we want to know exactly what happened, what size particles caused the cell to vent ... and we may never get there because the evidence

Israel shot down a drone Thursday as it approached the country's northern coast, the military said. Suspicion immediately fell on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.The incident was likely to raise already heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a bitter enemy that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he was in a helicopter in northern Israel at the time of the incident, said he viewed the infiltration attempt wit

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the mausoleum for his late grandfather and father on the 81st anniversary of the founding of the country's armed forces, Pyongyang's official media said Friday.Accompanied by members of the ruling Worker's Party of Korea, the Cabinet, the National Defense Commission (NDC) and top military brass, Kim paid tribute at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang on Thursday, which is the birthday of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the Korean Central News Agenc

South Korean stocks opened lower Friday, as investors' sentiment was dented by the rising concerns over the listed firms' first-quarter earnings, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 3.61 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,947.99 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Carmakers traded bearish, with No. 1 industry player Hyundai Motor falling 0.77 percent and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors losing 0.76 percent. Top auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis shed 1.12 percent.Tec

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top maker of computer memory chips and smartphones, said Friday its first-quarter profit spiked 42 percent from a year earlier, buoyed by robust shipments of its flagship Galaxy S3 handsets.Net profit came to 7.15 trillion won ($6.44 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 5.05 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.Revenue soared 16.8 percent on-year to 52.87 trillion won in the first quarter and operating profit cli

배우 겸 아마추어 권투선수 이시영 (31)이 복싱 국가대표로 선발된 것을 두고 논란이 분분하다.이시영은 24일 열린 ‘2013 국가대표 최종 선발전’ 여자부 48kg급 결승에서 김다솜 (19)을 꺾고 태극마크를 획득했다.그러나 이 과정에서 이시영의 결승상대였던 김다솜 측은 편파판정의혹을 제기하고 나섰다. 김다솜이 소속된 수원태풍무에타이체육관은 연합뉴스와의 인터뷰에서 “편파 판정으로 졌다”고 주장하며 대한아마추어복싱연맹에 정식으로 항의하는 방안을 검토중이라고 밝혔다.이 체육관의 최락환 관장은 “상대 선수가 유명 배우여서 판정이 한쪽으로 쏠릴 것으로 예상은 했지만 너무 치우쳤다”고 주장하며 김다솜 역시 아쉬워하고 있다고 전했다.편파판정 논란은 온라인에서도 치열했는데, 인터넷 논객 변희재는 트위터를 통해 “이시영과 김다솜은 2:8수준으로 경기력 차가 드러났다”고 주장했다.또한 그는 “운동선수들 태극마크 하나 달려고 평생 땀흘리는데, 다른 스포츠도 아닌 권투경기에서 얼굴 예쁘고 유명하다고

미국에서 30년 경력의 한 펀드 매니저가 기존의 방식과 다른 연봉협상법을 공개해서 화제가 되고 있다.메이플 증권 퀀티티브 트레이딩 그룹의 매니저인 브룩 엘런은 최근 경제뉴스 사이트 Qz.com에 올린 컬럼을 통해 “최고의 협상방법은 가장 많은 것을 제시하고 가장 적은 것을 요구하는 것”이라고 밝혔다.앨런은 자신이 20여년 전에 한 회사에서 일할 때 보너스가 보장되는 옵션을 받고 계약했는데, 입사 직후 부서가 해체되었다고 회고했다. 그는 보장된 보너스 금액을 받았지만 이로 인해 매우 불편했다고 전했다.  “직장 생활 내내 내가 해낸 것 이상으로 돈을 받은 적은 그 때가 처음이었다. 나는 영원히 갚을 수 없는 빚을 진 기분이었다”라고 그는 적었다.그는 이후 새로운 직장에서 연봉을 하게 됐을 때 새로운 방식을 시도했다고 밝혔다. 앨런은 “일반적인 연봉 협상은 양 측에서 (자신이 생각하는 것보다 많은) 부당한 금액을 처음에 제시하고 차이를 좁혀 나간다”면서 이런 방식은 양측의 이기심과 믿음

The Korean government on Thursday called in the Japanese ambassador to protest Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s remarks glorifying the country’s imperial past and denying wartime violence. Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun expressed to Koro Bessho “deep regrets about the Japanese government, and of politicians’ distorted historical understanding and retrospective remarks. “We do not understand why the Japanese society, while it so greatly cherishes honesty and trust internally, shuts its eyes and p

Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., remains South Korea's richest man for the nine straight year while his only son Lee Jae-yong joined the top three spots, Forbes Korea said Thursday.The senior Lee's net worth jumped to US$12.6 billion from $10.8 billion in 2012, according to the Korean language edition of Forbes, as Samsung Electronics' smartphones overtook the iPhone as the world's most popular smartphones last year. He held on to the top post since 2005 when the list was first

Boeing reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit even as it scrambled to fix its grounded 787.The company said on Wednesday that deliveries of the 787 should resume in early May. Most of the 50 planes that have been delivered to airlines will be fixed by the middle of the month, Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said on the company's quarterly earnings conference call.Resuming deliveries and passenger flights would cap a notable turnaround for Boeing. The three-month grounding over batter

With deep cracks visible in the walls, police had ordered a Bangladesh garment building evacuated the day before its deadly collapse, but the factories flouted the order and kept more than 2,000 people working, officials said Thursday. At least 175 people died when a huge section of the eight-story building splintered into a pile of concrete slabs.The disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar came less than five months after a blaze killed 112 people in a garment factory and underscored the unsafe c

With Sunni gunmen beginning to confront the Shiite-led government's security forces head-on in northern and western Iraq, fears are growing fast of a return to full-scale sectarian fighting that could plunge the country into a broader battle merged with the Syrian civil war across the border. With more than 100 people killed over the past two days, it's shaping up to be the most pivotal moment for Iraq since U.S. combat troops withdrew in December 2011.“Everybody has the feeling that Iraq is bec

The head of an Italian publishing group and a French photographer were charged this month over the publication of intimate photos of Prince William's wife Catherine sunbathing topless in France that sparked a furore.The photos were printed in two publications in September, one of which displayed shots of the former Kate Middleton half-naked having suncream rubbed into her buttocks by William at a private chateau in the south of France.The grainy snaps triggered an immediate furore in Britain, an

Diplomatic tensions between South Korea and Japan escalated Wednesday when Seoul summoned Tokyo's ambassador and expressed "strong regrets" over nationalistic remarks made by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visits to a controversial war shrine. South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun summoned Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho and urged Japan to "correct its distorted understanding of history and anachronistic remarks." The fragile ties between South Korea and Japan came under

South Korea on Thursday extended an offer to hold working-level talks with North Korea over a joint industrial complex that has been idle since early this month amid heightened inter-Korean tensions."We make an official offer to North Korea to hold a working-level meeting to discuss ways of normalizing the suspended Gaeseong Industrial Complex and providing humanitarian aid to South Korean workers there," the Ministry of Unification said in a statement.Seoul will have no choice but to take serio

South Korean stocks opened higher on Thursday, on the back of gains in techs and retailers, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 3.77 points, or 0.19 percent, to 1,939.08 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Tech shares gathered ground, with top chipmaker SK hynix rising 2.23 percent and a local handset maker LG Electronics adding 1.33 percent. Top flat panel manufacturer LG Display gained 0.5 percent.Retailers also traded higher, with discount store chain E

South Korean rapper Psy's "Gentleman" galloped to fifth place on the Billboard's main chart this week thanks to increased downloads and sales, its official magazine said Wednesday."K-Pop star PSY blasts into the Hot 100's top 10 with 'Gentleman,' which wins top Streaming and Digital Gainer honors following its first full week of availability," it said. "Gentleman" ranked 12th last week."Gentleman" bounded into the top 10 "fueled primarily by a 60% gain in streaming, as it tallies a second week a

The South Korean economy grew at its fastest quarterly pace in two years in the first quarter as exports gained ground weathering the yen's weakness to the local currency, the central bank said Thursday.Korea's gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic performance, grew 0.9 percent in the first quarter from three months earlier, quickening from 0.3 percent on-quarter growth in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to an advance estimate by the Bank of Korea (BOK).The first-q

A UNESCO-affiliated international water research institute is to open new headquarters in Korea next year.The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Wednesday that the operational committee of UNESCO resolved earlier in the day to establish the International Hydrological Program research center in Korea.The institute, to be located within the K-Water research complex in Daejeon, will be the fifth IHP center to open in Asia, following those in China, Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia.The