Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker announced late Monday that he is stepping down as eurozone finance ministerial chairman as of the end of the month.The Luxembourg prime minister -- Europe's longest-serving national leader -- said he informed colleagues that he would carry out his stated intention to step down "at the end of this year, or the beginning of next year."Juncker has held the post as Eurogroup head since 2005, and his current term officially runs until July 17.He has previously been

Fighting between rebels and government forces raged near the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, forcing an inbound commercial jet to turn back while the U.N. said it was withdrawing staff because of deteriorating security conditions.Lebanese security officials said Jihad Makdissi, a polished Foreign Ministry spokesman known for defending the regime of President Bashar Assad in fluent English, flew from Beirut to London. But it was not immediately clear whether he had defected. The fighting over

A New Zealand researcher Monday claimed to have solved the riddle of a mystery South Pacific island shown on Google Earth and world maps which does not exist, blaming a whaling ship from 1876.The phantom landmass in the Coral Sea is shown as Sandy Island on Google Earth and Google maps and is supposedly midway between Australia and the French-governed New Caledonia.The Times Atlas of the World appears to identify it as Sable Island, but according to Australian scientists who went searching last

*편집자주: 코리아헤럴드는 국내외 임원들의 럭셔리카 시승기 “Executive Wheel”을 시작합니다. 참가자들은 2박3일 동안 자동차 메이커들의 대표 모델들을 시승하고 이를 독자들과 공유합니다.첫번째 주자는 다국적 식음료 패키징 기업 테트라팩 (Tetra Pak)의 크리스 케니얼리(Christopher Kenneally) 한국 지사장입니다. 운전기사를 따로 고용하고 있는 CEO로서 그는 뒷좌석과 운전석의 승차감을 비교해서 시승기를 작성한 점이 재미있습니다.호주가 고향인 그가 이번에 시승한 자동차는 2012년형 재규어XJ Portfolio LWB입니다.고양이는 무척 매혹적인 동물이다. 우아하고, 직관적이며, 파워플하고 때론 고집스럽다. 지금 내가 소개하고자 하는 “고양이”는 바로 재규어의 최고급 모델인 올뉴XJ이다. 나는 최근 이 럭셔리한 자동차를 3일 동안 승객과 운전자로서 시승해볼 수 있는 기회를 있었다. 우선 차를 받은 첫날에는 승객으로 이 차를 경험했다. 착 감기는 가죽시트

North Korea has installed the first stage of its three-stage, long-range rocket on its launch platform, a Seoul government source said Monday, pushing ahead with its plan to fire the rocket this month in defiance of international warnings."North Korea installed the first-stage rocket onto the launch pad," the source said on the condition of anonymity. "That means North Korea is starting its process of launching a long-range missile." It will take three or four days for North Korea to erect all t

South Korean stocks began higher Monday as positive economic data from South Korea and China offset nagging concerns over the U.S. budget impasse, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.44 percent, or 8.53 points, to 1,941.43 in the first 15 minutes of trading.South Korea's trade surplus widened in November from a month earlier, while China saw its manufacturing purchasing managers' index data rise to a 7-month high.Key exporters led the gain, with market b

President Barack Obama is ready to cut federal spending to reduce the nation's spiraling debt but won't make any deal with Republicans until they first agree to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and specify their own demands for reducing government outlays for a vast array of programs, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in interviews that aired Sunday, explicitly outlining a tough administration negotiating position for avoiding the looming “fiscal cliff.”If the White House and Congress can

North Korea gave the United States direct notification of its plan to fire a long-range rocket last week, a diplomatic source here said Sunday."North Korea informed the U.S. of the missile launch plan through the New York channel," the source said, requesting anonymity.The New York channel refers to North Korea's U.N. representative office in New York, which has been used for working-level discussions, as the two sides have no official diplomatic ties.The separate notification came around when P

South Korea's consumer prices grew at the slowest pace in three months in November, indicating that the country managed to keep inflation under control, a government report showed Monday.The country's consumer prices index rose 1.6 percent in November from a year earlier, compared with a 2.1 percent on-year gain in the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea. From a year earlier, it dropped 0.4 percent.The core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, increased

The Palestinian president returned triumphantly to the West Bank on Sunday, receiving a boisterous welcome from thousands of cheering supporters at a rally celebrating his people's new acceptance to the United Nations.An Israeli decision to cut off a cash transfer to the financially troubled Palestinian Authority, following an earlier decision to build thousands of new homes in Jewish settlements, failed to put a damper on the celebrations. But Palestinian officials acknowledged they were undeci

Slovenia's center-left former prime minister Borut Pahor became the country's fourth president Sunday, scoring a comfortable second-round victory despite his support for the government's unpopular austerity measures.With 99.99 percent of ballots counted, Pahor had 67.44 percent of the votes, ahead of the incumbent Danilo Turk with 32.56 percent, the central electoral commission said.The 49-year-old Pahor, who was backed by the center-left opposition Social Democrats (SD), also received the votes

Egypt's highest court joined a judicial rebellion against President Mohammed Morsi on Sunday by declaring an open-ended strike on the day it was supposed to rule on the legitimacy of two key assemblies controlled by allies of the Islamist leader.The strike by the Supreme Constitutional Court and opposition plans to march on the presidential palace on Tuesday take the country's latest political crisis to a level not seen in the nearly two years of turmoil since Hosni Mubarak's ouster in a popular

A New Jersey woman has been charged with kidnapping her boyfriend and his young son at knife point and demanding $600 from the boyfriend, authorities say.A police report states Jessica P. Tisdale, 29, of Jersey City is accused of offering the 46-year-old man and his 5-year-old son a ride home from school Monday and taking them to her home where she allegedly held them for 7 hours, the Jersey Journal in Jersey City reported.The newspaper quotes the woman's 14-year-old daughter as telling the man,

Lee Choon-sang, one of Saenuri Party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye’s closest aides since the 1990s, died in a car accident while relocating to a rally site in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province on Sunday, a party official said.The vehicle carrying Lee and five other campaign members slid off the road and crashed into a utility pole while trying to avoid a collision with a car in front, said party spokesman Rep. Lee Sang-il.Lee died in the crash, while the others were injured and taken to a nearb

At least seven people were feared missing after parts of a tunnel collapsed Sunday on a highway west of Tokyo, trapping vehicles as smoke from a fire inside initially prevented rescuers from approaching.Video footage from cameras inside the tunnel, after the fire was extinguished, showed firefighters picking their way through cement roof panels that collapsed onto vehicles inside the Sasago Tunnel, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) outside the city. However, local media reported rescuers had suspen

British researchers say women are more likely than men to give women's bodies a visual once-over.Researchers at Bristol University came to their conclusions after asking volunteers to examine a range of different images, including pictures of couples in films, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.They found women spent 61 percent of their time looking at the women in the pictures, and only 39 percent on the men, while men seemed to spend just over half -- 53 percent -- of their time looking at th

Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in, the two main presidential candidates, rolled out plans to reform the prosecution Sunday, seeking to appeal to the public on how to deal with the scandal hit prosecutors’ office. In a change of stance, the ruling Saenuri Party’s Park’s plans included the dissolution of the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. In addition, Park said that she would introduce measures to increase the transparency of human resource management and appointm

The amount of mortgages in South Korea at risk of turning sour reached 25.6 trillion won ($236.3million) in September, with the majority being owed to non-banking firms that charge higher interest rates, the financial regulator said Sunday.The figure represents 230,000 out of a total of 5.35 million mortgage borrowers here, accounting for 4.8 percent of the total home-backed loans extended by local financial institutions, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). "The percentage itse

Just hours after reality TV star Kim Kardashian gushed about her impressions of Bahrain, riot police fired tear gas to disperse more than 50 hardline Islamic protesters denouncing her presence in the Gulf kingdom.The clashes took place just before Kardashian opened the Bahrain branch of her Millions of Milkshakes shop.An Associated Press journalist saw protesters chanting “God is Great” near the shopping complex in Riffa, some 20 kilometers south of the capital Manama. The demonstrators were cle

South Korea' Lee Dong-hwan shot an 8-under 64 on Saturday on PGA West's Stadium Course to take a two-stroke lead after the fourth round of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament.Lee had a 19-under 269 total in the six-round event. The final top 25 and ties will receive 2013 PGA Tour cards and the next 50 and ties will earn Web.com Tour cards.Edward Loar, Meen Whee Kim, Vaughn Taylor and Richard H. Lee were tied for second after their rounds on the Stadium Course. Richard H. Lee had a 64, Taylor shot