NEW YORK -- The New York Stock Exchange halted trading Wednesday for more than three hours due to technical problems that it said were not caused by hacking.The outage was due to "an internal technical issue" and "was not the result of a cyber breach," NYSE said on Twitter. "We chose to suspend trading on NYSE to avoid problems arising from our technical issue."Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the close of the day after trading was paused for nearly four hours due to a

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Australian counterpart said Thursday they were firmly united against threats from North Korea, urging the international community to send a strong warning against the North's provocations."It's not a regional risk but also a global risk," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said at a joint press briefing with Yun after their talks here.She said Australia is working closely with South Korea, the United States, and other partner countries for peace and se

South Korea expressed regret on Thursday over Tokyo's move to turn to the World Trade Organization to address Seoul's import ban on Japanese fishery goods.South Korea has banned imports of all fishery products near the site of a nuclear accident in Fukushima since September 2013. The 2011 nuclear disaster sparked safety concerns as it led to a massive leak of radioactive materials and contaminated water."We express regret over Japan's request to the WTO for consultations," the South Korean gover

The United States said Wednesday it plans to sell thousands of bombs and missiles to Israel as well as 10 Seahawk helicopters to Saudi Arabia, in deals worth about $1.9 billion each, officials said Wednesday.The US State Department informed Congress of the proposed arms sales to two  allies in the Middle East that are both wary of Washington's negotiations with  Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.The planned weapons deal with Israel would provide 3,000 Hellfire missiles, 250 medium-range air-to-

South Africa’s finance minister said he’s worried a probe into foreign currency manipulation may expose risks in the banking system, as government officials prepare to meet the central bank to discuss the investigation.“We are very concerned,” Nhlanhla Nene said in an interview at a meeting between business and government leaders in Johannesburg Thursday. “We will meet with the Reserve Bank tomorrow to understand what happened and if there’s any impact on South Africa’s financial systems.”The co

Israel’s biggest publicly traded defense company, Elbit Systems Ltd., bought a cybersecurity business three days after its chief executive officer said that industry has become a priority.Elbit agreed to pay Nice Systems Ltd. as much as about $158 million for its cyber solutions and intelligence division, according to a filing to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Thursday. The company will merge the acquisition with its recently created subsidiary, Cyberbit Ltd.“We believe cyber will be a major gro

North Korea said Thursday that a group of foreign activists that plans to walk across the inter-Korean border "praised" the North's founder Kim Il-sung during their visit there.About 30 female activists from around the world, including U.S. activist Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday, planning to march from the North to the South across the Demilitarized Zone to deliver a message of peace on May 24. A legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, t

A retired Japanese ambassador called on the Shinzo Abe administration to directly address the wartime sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women."If Japan tries to dwarf the 'comfort women' issue, it will rather draw criticism from the international community," Masatoshi Muto, once Tokyo's ambassador to Seoul, said in his new book. He returned to Japan in 2012 after serving three years in South Korea.He is known for his expertise in Seoul-Tokyo relations, having long worked in the field

The government should take the lead in reforming the labor market if both labor and management are unable to come up with a mutually satisfactory compromise, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Thursday.Schroeder, who is well-known for his domestic labor market policies, is visiting South Korea to give lectures on his past experiences as chancellor from 1998 to 2005.  "It is extremely difficult for management and labor to reach a compromise, and when these kinds of discussions fall t

The Taliban said Wednesday their spring offensive in Afghanistan will begin this week, the first time the insurgents' annual campaign against the Afghan government will take place without NATO troops on the battlefield. In past years, spring and the melting of snow on the mountains along the border with Pakistan marked a significant upsurge in the fighting between the Taliban and NATO forces along with their local allies. This fighting season, the insurgents will face just Afghan forces after th

France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius summoned the Indonesian ambassador on Wednesday to discuss the case of a Frenchman facing the death penalty for drug offences, a government spokesman told AFP. The summons came a day after Serge Atlaoui, 51, had an appeal rejected by Indonesia's Supreme Court, taking him closer tFrance summons Indonesian ambassador over citizen on death row execution by firing squad for his role in a clandestine ecstasy lab near Jakarta.Imprisoned in Indonesia for a decad

The EU on Wednesday formally charged Russian gas giant Gazprom with abusing its dominant market position in Europe, risking a new battle with the Kremlin and deepening the crisis over Ukraine.The European Commission accused state-owned Gazprom with infringing the bloc's single market rules as tensions between the Europe and President Vladimir Putin's Russia are at their worst since the end of the Cold War.With the political stakes so high, the Commission had been reluctant to move against Gazpro

More than 100,000 Ethiopians on Wednesday protested the killing of Ethiopian Christians in Libya and their own government's failure to raise living standards of the poor, with poverty fueling the flow of migrants through dangerous areas.The government-supported march at Addis Ababa's Meskel Square turned violent as stone-throwing protesters clashed with the police, who arrested at least 100 people.The protesters said ``We want revenge for our sons blood,'' referring to Ethiopians seen being behe

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a bilateral meeting in Indonesia on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa summit on Wednesday, both Chinese and Japanese media reported, in the latest sign that both sides seek to repair bilateral ties.It was the second bilateral meeting between Xi and Abe since they briefly met in Beijing last November and seen as a step towards thawing tensions over territorial disputes and Japan's wartime past. Japan`s Prime Minister Shinzo Ab

Nine people suspected of links with gunmen behind the attack on a museum in Tunis that left 21 dead have been arrested, the presidency said Thursday."The security forces were able to arrest four people directly linked to the (terrorist) operation and five suspected of having ties to the cell," a presidency statement said without giving further details.Twenty foreign tourists were among those killed in the attack Wednesday on the national museum. There has been no claim of responsibility. (AP)

One of the gunmen who killed tourists and others at a prominent Tunisian museum was known to the intelligence services but no formal links to a particular extremist group have been established, the prime minister said Thursday. The attack Wednesday on Tunisia's National Bardo Museum left 23 dead, scores wounded and threatens both Tunisia's fledgling democracy and its struggling tourism industry. It was the worst attack at a tourist site in Tunisia in years. Razor wire ringed the Bardo Museum on

A British tourist was among those killed in the attack on a museum in Tunis, Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday, vowing to fight against extremists "with everything we have"."We will not let terrorists undermine democracy," he said in a tweet.The tourist, named as Sally Adey, was on an excursion to the National Bardo Museum with her husband at the time. He survived the attack, officials said."These terrorist attacks yesterday in Tunisia were an appalling and brutal outrage," Cameron said

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged a gathering of Russia's billionaires and business leaders to return their capital to Russia and suggested that funds kept abroad could be frozen.In an apparent reference to the possibility of further U.S. and European Union sanctions on Russia for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis, Putin warned Thursday of a possible “limit on the use of these capital amounts which are located in foreign jurisdictions.''Citing “disturbing information from a number o

Danish police say they have arrested a fourth man suspected of assisting a gunman who killed two people in attacks in Copenhagen last month.Spokesman Joergen Skov described the suspect as a "young man'' and said he would face a custody hearing Friday. He declined to comment further on Thursday's arrest and did not name the suspect.On Feb. 14, Omar El-Hussein killed a bystander outside a free-speech seminar before spraying the entrance with 27 bullets. Hours later, the 22-year-old El-Hussein fata

Greece edged closer to a euro exit after the currency region’s finance ministers said there will be no more talks on financial support unless the Greek government requests an extension of its existing bailout program. After three weeks of sparring since Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s election victory, finance chiefs hardened their positions as negotiations in Brussels ended abruptly on Monday night with Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis refusing to bow to European demands. “There won’t be