Samsung Electronics Co. promoted Lee Jae Yong to vice chairman, putting him a step closer to succeeding his father as leader of the world’s biggest maker of televisions and mobile phones. The elevation from President and Chief Operating Officer is part of the executive leadership change to lead Samsung’s future growth, the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. The appointment puts the 44-year-old Lee in line to take over from his billionaire father Lee Kun Hee, wh

Foreign investment banks (IBs) are predicting South Korea's key stock index could rise as much as to the 2,380 mark next year on the back of improved economic conditions here and abroad, a report showed Wednesday. JP Morgan suggested the benchmark KOSPI will move within a range of 2,090-2,380 in 2013 as monetary easing and an increase in exports will likely fuel growth, according to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF). As of Dec. 4, the main index has moved up 6 perce

South Korea's central bank said Wednesday it increased its holdings of gold in November, the second time this year, in a bid to diversify its portfolio of foreign exchange reserves.South Korea purchased 14 tons of gold, raising the country's gold holdings to 84.4 tons valued at $3.76 billion at the end of November, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).The move marked the BOK's fourth purchase of the precious metal since the bank bought it in July last year for the first time in 13 years. It also

Iran claimed Tuesday it had taken another prize in a growing showdown with Washington over drone surveillance, displaying a purported U.S. unmanned aircraft it said was captured intact. The U.S. Navy, however, said none of its drones in the region was missing.The conflicting accounts could put pressure on both sides for more details on U.S. reconnaissance and Iranian counter-measures.They also point to other questions, including how Iran could manage to snatch the Boeing-designed ScanEagle drone

Four South Korean sailors who were freed last week by Somali pirates after more than 19 months of captivity returned home Wednesday. They were kidnapped by Somali pirates on April 30, 2011 with the tanker MT Gemini and set free on Saturday after the Singapore-based owner of the ship paid an unspecified amount of ransom, according to Seoul officials said.The freed sailors underwent medical checkups at a hospital on the Kenyan island of Mombasa and arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of

South Korea's top central banker on Wednesday expressed hopes that the move by Korea and China to boost the use of their currencies for trade settlement would dispel talks over whether to extend the existing currency swap line.Korea and China have agreed to use their bilateral currency swap line valued at 360 billion yuan ($57.8 billion) to bolster the use of the won and the yuan for trade settlement.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo said in a meeting with experts from foreign investment b

NASA is headed to Mars again.The space agency said Tuesday it plans to launch another mega-rover to Mars in 2020 that will be modeled after the wildly popular Curiosity. To keep costs down, engineers will borrow Curiosity's blueprints, build from spare parts where possible and use proven technology including the novel landing system that delivered the car-size rover inside an ancient crater in August.The announcement comes as NASA reboots its Mars exploration program during tough fiscal times.``

More than 100,000 Egyptians protested outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Tuesday, fueling tensions over Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi's seizure of nearly unrestricted powers and the adoption by his allies of a controversial draft constitution.The outpouring of anger across the Egyptian capital, the Mediterranean port of Alexandria and a string of other cities pointed to a prolonged standoff between the president and a newly united opposition.Morsi's opponents, long fractured by bickeri

At least 43 villagers and soldiers drowned in a southern Philippine town Tuesday when torrents of water dumped by a powerful typhoon cascaded down a mountain, engulfing emergency shelters and an army truck, officials said. The deaths raised the toll from one of the strongest storms to hit the country this year to at least 74.Gov. Arturo Uy said rain from Typhoon Bopha accumulated atop a mountain and then burst down on Andap village in New Bataan town in hard-hit Compostela Valley province. The v

A 14-year-old boy in Washington state has pleaded guilty in juvenile court to groping a woman in a Catholic church and a barista at a coffee stand.The suspect, whose name was not reported, pleaded guilty Friday to indecent liberties for the church attack and burglary with sexual motivation for the attack on the barista, the Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic reported.He faces as much as 2 1/2 years in juvenile prison, unless the court decides he qualifies for sex-offender therapy.A sentencing date h

A study of eight "solar twins" of our sun suggests any planets orbiting those stars may very well be hotter and more dynamic than Earth, U.S. researchers say.Scientists at Ohio State University, searching for alien life in a new way, studied stars that very closely match the sun in size, age, and overall composition to measure the amounts of radioactive elements they -- and their planets -- may contain.Elements such as thorium and uranium are essential to Earth's plate tectonics because they war

Senior South Korea, U.S. and Japanese diplomats will likely meet in Washington later this week to discuss ways to deal with North Korea's long-range rocket launch plan, a source here said Monday.Lim Sung-nam, South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, is scheduled to arrive here on Wednesday for meetings with his American counterpart Glyn Davies and other officials.Shinsuke Sugiyama, the director general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Ocea

The South Korean economy is projected to expand at the 2-percent range in 2013 from this year, dampened by exhausted global stimulus measures and unabating eurozone debt troubles, foreign investment banks (IBs) said Tuesday. As of end-November, 10 global IBs, including Nomura and UBS, estimated the growth rate for Asia's fourth-largest economy to average 3 percent for 2013 and 2.3 percent this year, according to their data compiled by the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF). Korea mark

The White House and its allies are weighing military options to secure Syria’s chemical and biological weapons, after U.S. intelligence reports show the Syrian regime may be readying those weapons and may be desperate enough to use them, U.S. officials said Monday.President Barack Obama, in a speech at the National Defense University on Monday, pointedly warned Syrian President Bashar Assad not to use the weapons.“Today I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused the Syrian government Monday of serious violations of the 1974 agreement that separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights and called on both countries to halt firing across the cease-fire line.In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Ban said recent incidents across the cease-fire line have shown the potential for the escalation of Israeli-Syrian tensions and jeopardize the disengagement agreement and stability of the region which is alrea

Korea will invest 930 billion won ($858.7 million) until 2020 to boost the nano industry as part of its efforts to make the country one of the world's top three players in the area, the government said Tuesday.The envisioned investment consists of 650 billion won set aside by the central government for its budget and 280 billion won assigned by the private sector and municipal governments, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The money will be spent on research and development activit

South Korean stocks opened lower Tuesday as poor U.S. data stoked growing concerns about a lackluster recovery, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 0.41 percent, or 7.96 points, to 1,932.06 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Most shares traded in negative territory, with market bellwether Samsung Electronics falling 0.7 percent and top air carrier Korean Air dipping 0.23 percent.The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.46 percent after U.S. manufactur

Israel rejected a wave of American and European condemnations Monday over plans to build thousands of new homes in West Bank settlements, vowing to press forward with the construction in the face of widespread international opposition.The announcement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office was likely to deepen a rift that has emerged between Israel and some of its closest allies following the U.N.'s recognition of a Palestinian state last week. The U.N. decision appears to be fueling a

A senior security aide to President Barack Obama said Monday the U.S. is concentrating efforts in cooperation with South Korea, China, Russia and Japan to dissuade North Korea from pressing ahead with another rocket launch.Gary Samore emphasized that if the launch takes place Washington will take "appropriate actions.""We've made it very clear that we consider this to be a very unfortunate provocative event, which is not going help North Korea nor the people of North Korea," Samore told Yonhap N

Direct talks between Iran and the United States are possible, but any such breakthrough would have to be approved by the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's foreign minister said Monday.The comments by Ali Akbar Salehi were a first sign Tehran may seek diplomatic overtures with what it long considers a nemesis in Washington, as sanctions over Iran's contentious nuclear program stunt the country's economy.“Comprehensive political talks are within the powers of the exalted supr