Gonzalo Higuain's first goal of this World Cup sent Argentina into the semifinals on Saturday with a 1-0 win over a disappointing Belgium.Argentina, which hadn't advanced past the World Cup quarterfinals since 1990, controlled the match after Higuain's eighth minute goal, more due to disciplined defending than sparkling attack.The Napoli striker fired home Angel Di Maria's deflected pass just inside the area, beating Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with a low shot to the far corner of the go

Nearly one-fifth of affiliates belonging to South Korea's large conglomerates are struggling with impaired capital and excessive debt, placing them under financial strain, a report showed Sunday.According to CEO Score, which examined the financial statements of 1,418 companies belonging to 47 conglomerates in 2013, one out of five affiliates had debt ratios exceeding 400 percent or were in a state of capital erosion. This translates into 279 companies having a hard time staying afloat.It also sa

The government will launch a new basic pension program from July that aims to give monthly cash support to 70 percent of senior citizens in the country, officials said Sunday.The pension plan was one of the key campaign pledges made by President Park Geun-hye in the 2012 campaign. She originally pledged to give 200,000 won ($197) to everyone over 65, but the government offered a compromise plan to support only those in the lower 70 percent income bracket, citing budgetary constraints.The program

South Korea's trade deficit with China in textiles and clothing reached $1.43 billion in the first five months of this year due mainly to the inflow of cheap goods, a report showed Sunday.   In the January-May period, South Korea imported $2.47 billion worth of goods and shipped some $1.04 billion in clothing and textiles, the report by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade said.   The size of the deficit is equal to 39.8 percent of the $3.59 billion deficit posted for the whole

President Park Geun-hye's nominee for defense minister pledged Sunday to establish the country's indigenous missile defense system at an early date to counter escalating threats from North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles.South Korea has been speeding up the establishment of the indigenous Korea Air and Missile Defense aimed at low-flying missiles coming from North Korea. A pre-emptive missile destruction system, the so-called Kill Chain, is also under development to detect and strike North K

The North Korean ambassador to China, Ji Jae-ryong, was tightlipped when asked about the state visit to South Korea by Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. Ji, who showed up at a ceremony hosted by Xi at the Great Hall of People on Saturday evening, was repeatedly asked by some South Korean correspondents about the upcoming summit talks between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Xi, but he didn't respond to any of the questions. Xi is scheduled to make a two-day visit to South Korea fro

A member of the Seoul municipal council has been arrested on charges of abetting the murder of a wealthy man to whom he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars, police said Sunday.The 44-year-old Seoul city councilor, identified only by his surname Kim, is charged with instigating a friend to kill the 67-year-old man, surnamed Song, in early March.After borrowing 500 million won ($493,000) from Song between 2010 and 2011, Kim had been pressured to repay the money since late 2012, police said, addi

A joint government-civilian rescue team plans to drastically reduce manpower and equipment mobilized for a lengthy search operation for the missing in April's ferry disaster from next month, officials said Sunday.The government crisis center will unveil the plan when it meets with families of the ferry victims to brief them on the outcome of the search operation so far and decide on the direction of future efforts, the officials said.But this plan, if adopted, may trigger public controversy, in

South Korea's free trade pact with the European Union, which went into effect in July 2011, allowed growth of local exports to the giant economic bloc, helping Asia's fourth-largest economy to outpace rivals, a report showed Sunday.According to data by the Korea International Trade Association, exports to the EU following the free trade agreement consistently did better than those of China, Japan and Taiwan, despite weak demand caused by the recent European financial crisis that hurt trade acros

With a spectacular swivel-and-strike, James Rodriguez provided one of the highlights of the World Cup and gave Brazil reason to worry.Rodriguez scored one of the best goals of the tournament and added a second to put Colombia into the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time with a 2-0 win over Uruguay on Saturday _ setting up a meeting with the host nation.  Uruguay`s Cristian Rodriguez jumps high to head the ball during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Colombia and Uruguay at t

Brazil advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals on Saturday with a 3-2 shootout win over Chile following a tense and thrilling battle that ended 1-1 after extra time. David Luiz (C) of Brazil celebrates after winning the penalty shootout of the FIFA World Cup 2014 round of 16 match between Brazil and Chile at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Saturday. (Yonhap)Neymar, David Luiz and Marcelo scored in the shootout, and Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar saved two penalties before watching

All of a sudden, Serena Williams is failing to stick around for long at Grand Slam tournaments.Betrayed by her backhand and, more surprisingly, her usually dangerous serve, five-time Wimbledon champion Williams lost to 25th-seeded Alize Cornet of France 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 Saturday in the third round at the All England Club.“If I'm not playing a great, great match, these girls, when they play me, they play as if they're on the ATP Tour, and then they play other girls completely different,” Williams sa

South Korea's two tech pillars, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., showcased their Android Wear-powered devices, starting another battle in the global tech industry where firms are in search of new opportunities amid slowed growth in the smartphone market.   Samsung, the world's top maker of smartphones, debuted the Samsung Gear Live, the first member of this year's wearable lineup that works under U.S.-based Google Inc.'s Android Wear platform, in San Francisco on Wednesday (local

Samsung Everland Inc., the de facto holding company of South Korea's No. 1 conglomerate Samsung Group, said Thursday it is changing its name to Cheil Industries Inc. in the latest group-wide effort to restructure after its chairman's hospitalization.The company, which operates a resort and amusement park, acquired the fashion division of Cheil in September 2013, while the textile and chemical businesses were incorporated into Samsung SDI Co., the world's top maker of TV displays and smartphone b

South and North Korea reopened their quarterly meeting on a joint industrial complex to discuss management issues on Thursday following a six-month suspension sparked by heightened cross-border tensions.The fifth meeting of the joint inter-Korean committee of the Kaesong Industrial Complex started in the namesake North Korea border city, the first high-level contact between the two Koreas since their last gathering in December. The two Koreas agreed to set up the joint committee in late August a

South Korea's government ministries and agencies have requested a 6 percent hike in their budgets for next year as they want to spend more on welfare, education, and research and development, the finance ministry said Thursday.The ministries and agencies asked for the central government to set aside a combined 377 trillion won ($370.3 billion) for next year, compared with this year' budget of 355.8 trillion won, according to the ministry.The hike is mostly attributed to a 10.8 percent budget inc

South Korea's antitrust watchdog is investigating Japanese and German bearing producers on suspicions that they have colluded in fixing prices of parts being supplied to local manufacturers, a government source said Thursday.The companies under investigation include Japanese bearing makers such as NSK, JTEKT, NTN and MINEBEA and Germany's Schaeffler, he added."We have sent our investigation reports to each suspected company, which will later submit its own response to us," a Fair Trade Commissio

Honduras lost all three of its matches at the World Cup, and then lost its coach.Luis Fernando Suarez, a Colombian who led Ecuador to the second round of the 2006 World Cup, quit his job Wednesday following a third straight loss in Brazil.“I'm sorry I didn't manage more,” said Suarez, who has been Honduras coach since March 2011. “I'm sad because I had a dream about this World Cup.”Honduras` head coach Luis Suarez instructs his players from the sideline during the group E World Cup soccer match

Bosnia-Herzegovina ended Iran's hopes of advancing to the knockout stages with a 3-1 victory in Group F on Wednesday, registering its first World Cup win in the process.The Bosnians, who were already relegated from the tournament,  took a commanding 2-0 lead with goals from Edin Dzeko in the 23rd  and Miralem Pjanic in the 53rd before Iran hit back in a desperate late bid to qualify for the second round. Bosnia's Avdija Vrsajevic (2) celebrates with teammate Vedad Ibisevic after scoring his team

Xherdan Shaqiri's hat trick put Switzerland into the second round of the World Cup, and kept coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gainfully employed for at least a few more days.Shaqiri scored a pair of first-half goals and added another in the second Wednesday to give Switzerland a 3-0 victory over Honduras, a result that put the Swiss in second place in Group E behind France.“We knew that we were going to show great football today, said Shaqiri, a Bayern Munich winger. “For us, this has been really a dream t