Investigators scrambled Thursday to study plane wreckage that washed up on a tiny Indian Ocean island, fuelling hopes that one of aviation's greatest enigmas could finally be solved:  the mystery of missing flight MH370.The two-meter (six-foot) long piece of wreckage was found on the French  island of La Reunion, offering up bittersweet hope of closure to the families  of 239 people who disappeared in March last year on the Malaysia Airlines  Boeing 777.Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn pledged Thursday to press ahead with deregulation in employment, finance and other sectors.He also said the government will ensure that unnecessary regulations that could place big burdens on companies will not be created. He made the comment in a meeting with officials at an industrial complex in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, without saying how he plans to cut the red tape.President Park Geun-hye has been pushing to lift or ease all but core regulations to help revive S

Min Young-jin, chief executive of Korea’s largest tobacco producer KT&G, offered to resign a week after prosecutors began probing slush fund allegations. Min Young-jin    (KT&G)Min, whose term officially ends in seven months, attended the board meeting Wednesday to announce his intention to resign, KT&G said. The board will convene a committee to sort out candidates.Last week, Min was investigated at the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office over embezzlement and breach of trust charges. Pr

Korea’s home transactions in the real estate market skyrocketed in the second quarter of this year on rising house rent fees and record-low loan rates, a state-run economic research institute said Wednesday. 　According to the report by the Korea Development Institute, the number of residential property transactions nationwide in the April-June period jumped to 340,743, up 39.1 percent from a year ago. The growth rate more than doubled from the first quarter’s 18.3 percent. 　By region, the number

WWF Korea offers Korean supporters of art and nature an opportunity to adopt 14 special edition pandas of the “1600 Pandas+ World Tour,” created in collaboration with French handcrafted papier-mâché artist Paulo Grangeon, Korean calligrapher Kang Byung-in, and installation artist Rho Dongsik. (AMHERST)WWF Korea has invited art lovers here to “adopt” 14 adorable pandas from the world-famous “1600 Pandas+ World Tour,” an auction event to honor Korean cultural heritage and support sustainability th

China has launched regular military exercises in the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Strait, according to China's military newspaper on Saturday. The Chinese People's Liberation Army's Daily, the Chinese military's official newspaper, reported that eight days of "military missions" had begun on Friday in the northern parts of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Strait, adjacent to the Korean Peninsula. Until next Friday, China's maritime authorities have banned ships from sailing in the affected areas. The br

South Korea reported no additional cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome for the 13th straight day Saturday, with no fatalities occurring for a week, the health ministry said.The number of people diagnosed with MERS in the country remained unchanged at 186 with the death toll also staying flat at 36, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.There were 98 people in isolation as of Saturday, as suspected cases following possible exposure to the MERS coronavirus, down from 155 people the

The nation's top court on Saturday again accepted a request from the convicted chairman of food and entertainment conglomerate CJ Group to suspend his imprisonment for hospital treatment.The Supreme Court decided to suspend the confinement of Lee Jay-hyun, who was found guilty of various corruption charges, for the next four months, citing his poor health.But Lee's place of stay will be limited to Seoul National University Hospital until Nov. 21, the court said.                                  

U.S. second lady Jill Biden arrived in South Korea Saturday on a trip to highlight women's education and economic empowerment issues.The wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was greeted by U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert and other U.S. and South Korean military officials on the tarmac at Osan Airbase, about 50 kilometers southwest of Seoul.She was to head to Jinkwansa, a Buddhist temple in Seoul, where she will meet with female monks and discuss the role they play in the community,

The FBI said Friday that the gunman who opened fire on two military facilities in Chattanooga and killed four Marines had at least two long guns and one handgun, and that investigators were examining his international travel. Some of the gun purchases were legal and some were not, FBI agent Ed Reinhold said at a news conference Friday. He said investigators were also looking at all of the overseas travel of 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who was killed by police. People attend an Inter

The bailout of Greece cleared some further key hurdles Friday after German lawmakers overwhelmingly gave their backing to another financial rescue and the European Union said it would release an interim loan that will ensure Athens avoids an imminent debt default.The developments, along with Greek parliamentary approval early Thursday of creditor-demanded austerity measures, prompted a positive assessment from Europe's bailout fund, which approved a  “decision to grant, in principle, stability s

A car bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State group ripped through the crowded heart of an Iraqi town north of Baghdad Friday, killing at least 35 people, officials said.The attack occurred in a market area of the predominantly Shiite town of Khan Bani Saad as people shopped on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan."We have 35 martyrs and more than 70 wounded," said Mohammed Jawad al-Hamadani, a member of the Diyala provincial council in which Khan Bani Saad is located."T

Three young men plotted an attack on a French military base after receiving orders from an Islamic State group contact in Syria to strike in France, prosecutors said Friday.The accounts investigators say they gave underscore the role of the Islamic State organization's savvy social media machine in recruiting Western youth. All three had high school diplomas and quickly radicalized watching grisly IS group videos, the prosecutor's office said.The men, arrested Monday, went before an investigativ

A suicide bomber apparently targeting minority Shiites blew himself up late Friday, killing a security guard who intercepted him at the entrance to a housing complex in restive southwestern Pakistan, police said.The attack, which struck on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, took place at Railway Colony in the city of Quetta, near a neighborhood that is home to Shiite Hazaras who have been targeted in the past by Sunni militants."The security guard of Railway Colony was killed after h

South Korean stocks are likely to trade in a narrow range next week as the second-quarter earnings season kicked off on a downbeat note, analysts said Saturday.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,076.79 on Friday, spiking 2.24 percent from a week earlier.The index climbed as the Greek debt deal and the rebounding Chinese market lifted investor sentiment, which was corroborated by a landmark deal on Iran's nuclear program on Wednesday. With uncertainties in the g

South Korea has made big strides in promoting womens' rights over the past few decades, but there remain many difficulties and challenges for women, especially younger workers, the U.S. second lady said.Jill Biden, wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, also said in an interview with Vogue Korea ahead of her visit to the country that she hopes to use her visit to South Korea to learn more about measures the country has been taking to "even the playing field for women in the workplace."Biden is s

The International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecast for 2015 to 3.3 percentThursday, citing weaker than expected economic gains in the United States and North America.The latest estimate is down from 3.5 percent growth predicted by the Washington-based fund in April. It is also below the 3.4 percent growth reached last year, a sign of challenges weighingdown the worldwide economy.The World Economic Outlook Update report showed consumer prices among advanced economies standing at z

North Korea is believed to have again released leaked data on South Korea's nuclear power plants on the Internet, Seoul investigators said Thursday.The confidential data of South Korea's nuclear power operator the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. and blueprints of several plants were posted on the U.S. Website on Wednesday, according to a special investigation team probing the case. In December, an unidentified hacker, claiming to be an activist against nuclear power, had posted data about loca

South and North Korea plan to hold talks on a joint industrial park in the North next week to discuss a prolonged dispute over the North's unilateral move to raise wages for its workers at the complex, Seoul officials said Thursday.North Korea has accepted the South's offer for holding the meeting at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex next Thursday at the border city of the same name, according to the unification ministry.The move raises hopes for resolving a months-long wage row between the two Ko

ATHENS -- Greece was to submit a detailed bailout request to its eurozone partners Thursday in a last-ditch effort to save its collapsing economy and its membership in the European single currency.In a surprise concession, EU President Donald Tusk said that if Greece delivered, its creditors would have to drop their steadfast refusal to look at ways at managing the country's massive 320-billion-euro ($350-billion) debt mountain."The realistic proposal from Greece will have to be matched by an eq