South Korea’s top men’s doubles badminton duo said on Friday they’re ready to defend their Korea Open championship when the world’s most lucrative badminton event starts next week.The tandem of Jung Jae-sung and Lee Yong-dae said they’re looking forward to competing against the world’s best players before home fans, adding they’re going to bear down especially hard.  Lee Yong-dae“There are a lot o

South Korea will meet its old football nemesis Iran in the quarterfinals of the ongoing Asian Cup in Doha, Qatar, at 1:25 a.m. Sunday, Korean time, for their fifth straight showdown in the final eight of the regional tournament.South Korea’s poor history against Iran ― with no victories in their last six meetings ― has been well-documented. The first loss for Cho Kwang-rae, the current South Korea

NEWPORT, Rhode Island (AFP) ― Eight-time Grand Slam singles champion Andre Agassi, among only seven men to achieve a career Grand Slam, has been elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, officials said Thursday.Agassi’s induction ceremony will be conducted July 9 at the Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, during the ATP Hall of Fame Championships grass-court event. He will be the only e

LONDON (AFP) ― WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed to publish secret details of offshore accounts after a Swiss banking whistleblower handed over data Monday on 2,000 purportedly tax-dodging individuals and firms.Former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer, who worked for eight years in the Cayman Islands, a renowned offshore tax haven in the Caribbean, personally gave Assange two CDs of data at a London

Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who predicted the global financial crisis, said a key risk to the world economy in 2011 is the likely spread of Europe’s debt crisis. “One of the most important risks is financial contagion in Europe if the euro zone’s problems spread, as seems likely, to Portugal, Spain and Belgium,” Roubini wrote in an article in the Australian Financial Review

Foreign direct investment in China rose to a record $105.7 billion last year, underscoring confidence that rising incomes will boost demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Investment climbed 17.4 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement in Beijing to Tuesday. Spending in December rose 15.6 percent from a year earlier to $14 billion. Estimates of five

MOSCOW (AFP) ― It is a company with a stake in Facebook, the leading position in one of the world’s fastest-growing Internet markets and a listing on the London Stock Exchange.But this is not a firm from Silicon Valley or a high-tech Asian economy. It is from Russia, in recent years not a place known for cutting-edge corporate innovation.While President Dmitry Medvedev ploughs on with his state-sp

PITTSBURGH (AP) ― Ben Roethlisberger hit rookie Antonio Brown on a 58-yard pass play on third-and-19, and Rashard Mendenhall scored from the 2 with 1:33 remaining to give the Pittsburgh Steelers a 31-24 comeback victory over the Baltimore Ravens in an AFC divisional playoff game Saturday.The Steelers, 9-0 against division teams in the playoffs, advance to their fifth AFC championship game in 10 se

After drawing Australia 1-1 in its second Group C action at the ongoing Asian Cup, South Korea will need some help to get the top seed in the group and avoid facing an old nemesis in the quarterfinals.South Korea and Australia both have four points after two matches. But Australia stands atop the group because it has the goal difference edge of plus-4 to South Korea’s plus-1. Bahrain is third with

South Korean outfielder Choo Shin-soo of Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians has filed for salary arbitration in hopes of getting a large raise following the best season of his career.Choo was among 119 players who filed for arbitration on Saturday, according to Major League Baseball. The left-handed outfielder received $461,100 last year, slightly above the major league minimum, while putti

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Struggling entertainment site MySpace said Tuesday that it is cutting nearly half of its staff worldwide, or about 500 people, after an extensive revamp in October overhauled its look and allowed it to be run with fewer people. The cuts, part of a two-stage layoff plan, better position the site for a possible sale or spin-off by parent News Corp.Mike Jones, the chief executive o

DETROIT (AP) ― The sunny yellow Ford C-Max minivan that greets visitors at this year’s Detroit auto show says it all. After taking a pounding during the recession, the U.S. auto industry is full of optimism, and a strong mix of new products will greet buyers as they return to dealerships.“Looking around at what’s at the show, we’ve never been happier,” said Mike Jackson, the CEO of AutoNation Inc.

Working with high-speed data network may be key to success in the tablet spaceLAS VEGAS (AP) ― Big tablets and small tablets, white ones and black ones. Cheap ones and expensive ones. Brand names famous and obscure are at the starting line of a race where the iPad is already a speeding dot on the horizon.It’s impossible to walk the floor at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show witho

 DOHA (AFP) ― Roger Federer and fever-hit Rafael Nadal both had to fight their way out of trouble before reaching the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open on Wednesday.Federer needed to recover from 4-5 down in the first set tie-breaker and from a break of serve down at 1-4 in the second against Swiss compatriot, and childhood friend, Marco Chiudinelli, ranked only 117 in the world, before coming throu

At the start of the 2011 Major League Baseball season, Choo Shin-soo of the Cleveland Indians will probably be the only big leaguer from South Korea.But in a couple of years, there might be a few more from the country.Sung Min-kyu, a South Korean minor league coach for the Chicago Cubs, is working with seven South Korean players in the Cubs’ system. In an interview with the Yonhap news agency this

LAS VEGAS (AP) ― Taiwan’s AsusTek Computer Inc. plans to start selling an array of tablet computers ― including hybrids that sit somewhere between a laptop and a tablet ― with the hope that variety is the best weapon against Apple Inc.’s iPad and other similar gadgets.Asus chairman Jonney Shih unveiled the new devices Tuesday ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They

Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus outsold Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s BMW and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz last month, helping the Japanese brand secure the top spot in U.S. luxury auto sales for the 11th straight year. Lexus sold 27,560 cars and sport-utility vehicles in December in the U.S. and 229,329 for 2010, the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker said Tuesday in a statement. The brand’s sales fell

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest maker of gasoline-electric autos, expects the Prius hybrid and related models bearing the same name to become its top-selling U.S. vehicle line by the end of the decade. “We will end the decade with Prius being the number one nameplate in the industry,” Bob Carter, Toyota’s group vice president for U.S. sales, said in a call with analysts Monday. The Camry,

Vizio Inc., the second-largest U.S. television supplier, will introduce a low-cost smartphone and tablet computer using Google Inc.’s Android software to attract consumers who cannot afford Apple Inc.’s devices. The smartphone with a 4-inch screen and tablet with an 8- inch display will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which begins Jan. 6, Chief Technology Officer Matthew

Volkswagen AG extended Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn’s contract by five years, giving the executive the time to complete a merger with Porsche SE and surpass Toyota Motor Corp. as the biggest automaker. VW’s supervisory board unanimously backed the CEO’s appointment through 2016, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said Sunday. Winterkorn, 63, took over as CEO on Jan. 1, 2007 and his