SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A typhoon accompanied by heavy downpours and strong winds pounded South Korea's southern regions on Saturday, grounding flights and briefly leaving more than 1,000 households without electricity, weather officials said.Typhoon Nakri, positioned about 220 kilometers southwest of Seogwipo on the country's southern resort island of Jeju as of 6 a.m., was traveling northward at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).The mid-sca

YANGJU (Yonhap) -- An American staff sergeant affiliated with U.S. Forces Korea was arrested Saturday on suspicion of beating a cab driver and stealing his taxi, police said.The 34-year-old soldier, whose identity was withheld, allegedly struck an unidentified Korean taxi driver in the face at 1:45 a.m, when he asked the soldier to use another taxi after a minorcollision with a motor scooter, according to the Yangju Police Station in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul.The staff sergeant, who was hea

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Microsoft said Friday it is suing Samsung for threatening to stop paying Microsoft royalties for patents behind the Android operating system.The two companies came to a deal in September 2011 to cross-license each other's patent portfolios. Samsung wound up paying Microsoft royalties on a series of patents. Analyst Rick Sherlund of Nomura Securities has estimated royalties on its Android patents bring Microsoft nearly $2 billion a year. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington,

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) – Two American tourists charged with ``anti-state'' crimes in North Korea said Friday they expect to be tried soon and pleaded for help from the U.S. government to secure their release from what they say could be long prison terms.In their first appearance since being detained more than three months ago, Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle told a local AP Television News crew that they were in good health and were being treated well. They also said they were

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Backed by tank fire and airstrikes, Israeli forces pushed deep into southern Gaza on Friday, searching for an Israeli army officer believed to be captured by Hamas fighters during deadly clashes that shattered an internationally brokered cease-fire.The apparent capture of the soldier and the collapse of the truce set the stage for a possible expansion of Israel's 25-day-old military operation against Hamas.President Barack Obama and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called for

NAIROBI, July 31, 2014 (AFP) - Kenya and Ethiopia, home to some of Africa's largest transport hubs, said Thursday they had boosted measures to combat possible Ebola cases arriving in their countries.Kenya's National Disaster Operation Centre said in a statement that "port health services are on standby, with enhanced screening at border points to prevent and contain any possible disease threat".Meanwhile Ethiopia Airlines said it was taking "extraordinary precautions in connection with the outbr

ULSAN, July 31 (Yonhap) -- Union leaders of South Korea's top automaker on Thursday declared a breakdown in wage talks before workers take time off for summer break.  The announcement, which followed the 14th wage and collective bargaining agreement negotiation at the carmaker's main production plant in this industrial city 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul, claimed workers have reached the end of their patience and laid the blame for the lack of progress on prevarication by the management.Manag

SEOUL, July 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea should immediately halt the transfer of all weapons to Israel in light of the deadly conflict in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 1,300 people and injured many more since earlier this month, the local office of a global human rights group said Thursday."We express grave concerns over the fact that South Korea has armed Israel with conventional weapons," the local branch of Amnesty International said. "South Korea must therefore urgently suspend its

SEOUL (Yonhap) – The ruling and main opposition parties were running neck-and-neck in Wednesday's local elections, with the results of four key battlegrounds appearing likely to determine the winner.As the first nationwide elections under President Park Geun-hye, the polls were seen as a crucial test of public support for the conservative administration that has drawn fire for its botched handling of a deadly ferry sinking in April. Park took office in February 2013.The elections for a total of

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – An exit poll showed President Park Geun-hye's conservative party and its main liberal opposition dividing some key mayoral and provincial races in elections Wednesday being seen as a test of public sentiment over the handling of the ferry disaster that left 300 people dead or missing.The poll predicted Park's Saenuri Party and the main opposition party would each win five of 17 important mayoral and provincial governor posts. The poll, jointly conducted by the SBS, KBS

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Vote counting began for Wednesday's local elections, with exit polls showing the ruling and main opposition parties each winning five of the 17 metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial posts up for grabs, while running neck-and-neck in the other races.Voting took place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 13,665 polling stations nationwide, drawing 56.8 percent of eligible voters, according to a preliminary count by the National Election Commission (NEC). The turnout was the highest for nati

INCHEON (Yonhap) – Prosecutors said on Wednesday they have requested arrest warrants for two close aides of the de-facto owner of the sunken ferry Sewol as part of their expanded probe into multiple corruption allegations surrounding the owner family.Prosecutors suspect the two – Go Chang-hwan, head of Semo Group, and Byeon Ki-choon, head of Semo's shipbuilding unit Chonhaiji – inflicted losses on their firms to help the owner family create slush funds.They are deemed close aides of Yoo Byung-eu

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Three weeks after South Korea's ferry tragedy, the government on Wednesday said it miscounted the number of survivors, a stunning error and the latest of many missteps that have eroded the nation's confidence in its leaders.Coast guard chief Kim Suk-kyoon said only 172 people survived the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol – not 174, as the government had been saying since April 18. Kim said one of the survivors was accidentally listed twice, and he blamed the other mi

BRIGHTON, United Kingdom (AFP) - Gay couples across England and Wales said "I do" on Friday night as a law authorizing same-sex marriage came into effect at midnight, the final stage in a long fight for equality.Prime Minister David Cameron hailed what he said was an "important moment for our country,” and a rainbow flag flew above government offices in London in celebration.In Brighton on England's south coast, Neil Allard and Andrew Wale exchanged vows and rings in the opulent splendour of the

PERTH, Australia (AP) – No debris spotted in an area off the west coast of Australia has been recovered, a Malaysian minister involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 said Saturday, adding he hoped for some news soon.Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters near Kuala Lumpur after meeting several families of passengers on the plane that there was no new information on the objects, which could just be regular debris floating in the ocean, or could be from the missing pl

A senior judge in South Korea's southern city of Gwangju offered to resign Saturday, holding himself accountable for the much-criticized ruling that valued a day's prison labor by a former tycoon at 500 million won (US$467,726).The ruling by Chang Byong-woo, the chief of the Gwangju District Court, caused an angry uproar across the country, as it would have allowed Huh Jae-ho, 72, the former chairman of the now-defunct Daeju Group, to pay off his fines of 25.4 billion won through a mere 50 days

North Korea and Russia have agreed to boost economic ties by pushing for trilateral projects involving South Korea, including a plan to support Russian companies' entry into an inter-Korean industrial complex, a media report said Saturday.The agreement between the two was made earlier this week when Russia's Far East Development Minister Alexander Galushka visited the North for a five-day run until Friday to explore ways to boost bilateral economic cooperation, according to the Russian news agen

The South Korean stock market is expected to trade in a narrow range next week amid a series of events at home and abroad, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 2.22 percent from the previous week to close at 1,981.00 Friday, supported by the improved consumers' data from the U.S. and rosy outlook over the eurozone economy.Earlier this week, Seoul shares traded lower after British bank HSBC said the PMI for China's manufacturing sector is expected

North Korea continued its criticism of South Korea on Saturday for allegedly sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into its territory, while remaining mum on Seoul's proposals for expanded inter-Korean cooperation.An unidentified spokesman for the North's delegation to the inter-Korean high-level contact issued a statement that accused the South Korean government of disseminating leaflets critical of its regime, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).Earlier this week, the reclusiv

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin called President Barack Obama on Friday to discuss a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis, while Ukraine's fugitive leader urged a nationwide referendum that would serve Moscow's purpose of turning its neighbor into a loosely knit federation.    The statement from Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president who fled to Russia last month after three months of protests, raised the threat of more unrest in Ukraine's Russian-speaking easte