Hyundai Motor Co., Korea’s largest carmaker, posted a 32 percent gain in U.S. sales in March to lead Asia-based manufacturers while Toyota Motor Corp. reported a monthly decline. Deliveries dropped 5.7 percent for Toyota. Nissan Motor Co. said Friday it had a 27 percent gain and Honda Motor Co.’s sales rose 23 percent as the three biggest Japan-based brands braced for the full effect of the countr

Sales of five automakers in Korea rose 10.8 percent in March from a year earlier on strong demands for new vehicles in both domestic and overseas markets, the companies said Friday.The combined sales of the automakers came to 649,994 units, compared with 586,561 units sold in March 2010. Domestic sales rose 8.1 percent on-year to 133,273 units in March with overseas sales also soaring 11.5 percent

CEO says carmaker will boost cooperation with Samsung GroupNow in its 11th year, Renault Samsung Motors Co. has grown rapidly to become a major automobile exporter with the aid of its parent Renault S.A. of France.While the company has expanded its presence at an unprecedented rate, with exports growing 600-fold from 2000 to 2010, Renault Samsung is now eyeing bigger things in the future. In an in

TOKYO (AP) – Japan's tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant was leaking highly radioactive water into the sea Saturday, nuclear safety officials said.The plant has been spewing radioactivity since March 11, when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami knocked out power, disabling cooling systems and allowing radiation to seep out of the overheating reactors.The water was seeping Saturday from

BAGHDAD (AP) – Al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for an attack and hostage-taking that killed 57 people at a government building in northern Iraq.The statement was released on the militants' Web site on Saturday. It five suicide bombers carried out the operation using a car bomb and explosive belts.Gunmen wearing explosive belts under military uniforms charged into the provincial council

North Korea's parliamentary speaker asked Britain to send food aid to his country in the midst of a deepening food shortage, saying the upcoming two months would be the most difficult, a report said Saturday.Choe Tae-bok, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, visited Britain between March 28 and 31 on an invitation from the British-North Korea All-Party Parliamentary Group.David Alt

South Korea's top financial regulator has said the watchdog will push to make a final decision this month over whether Lone Star Funds has the legal right to be the top shareholder of Korea Exchange Bank (KEB).Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Seok-dong said in a meeting with reporters, "We are working to make a final decision on Lone Star's eligibility in April."The regulator is ex

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (AFP) – Japan's prime minister set foot Saturday in the tsunami zone for the first time since calamity struck three weeks ago, as the UN warned of a "very serious" nuclear situation.Naoto Kan, who flew into Rikuzentakata on a military helicopter from Tokyo, was also due to stop in nearby Fukushima prefecture, in a show of support for emergency crews risking their lives to prev

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Three insurgents attacked a NATO base on the outskirts of Afghanistan's capital Saturday but were killed by coalition forces before they could enter the compound, NATO and Afghan police said.The attack came just hours after Afghans angry over the burning of a Quran at a U.S. church stormed a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan, killing seven foreigners.NATO told The Ass

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) – The United States has the capability to intercept ballistic missiles from North Korea, a senior U.S. official has said.Patrick O'Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency, made the remarks at a House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday in response to a lawmaker who expressed "concerns about the ground-based midcourse defense system in Alaska and California," c

South Korea's ruling party said Saturday that it plans to hold an emergency meeting with the government early next week to discuss how to tackle Japan's repeated territorial claims over Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.Japan approved on Tuesday new middle school textbooks claiming the islets as its territory, drawing a strong protest from the Seoul government.The Grand National Party said it wi

JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli aircraft killed three Palestinian militants who were planning to abduct Israelis over the upcoming Jewish festival of Passover, the military said early Saturday.An Israeli military spokeswoman said that an ``aircraft had fired at a terror squad of the terror group Hamas that was planning to carry out kidnappings.'' She said the group was plotting the attacks for the Jewish

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Japan's unfolding nuclear disaster is "much bigger than Chernobyl" and could rewrite the international scale used to measure the severity of atomic accidents, a Russian expert said here Friday."Chernobyl was a dirty bomb explosion. The next dirty bomb is Fukushima and it will cost much more" in economic and human terms, said Natalia Mironova, a thermodynamic engineer who became

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Facebook and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg have been hit with a lawsuit seeking more than $1 billion in damages over a page on the social network which called for a "Third Intifada" against Israel.Facebook this week shut down the "Third Intifada" page, which had almost 500,000 fans, but the lawsuit filed in a court here claims that the social network showed "negligence" by not quic

Auto group says move is a show of resolve, but ruffles Hyundai GroupHyundai Motor Group has set up a new office for chairman Chung Mong-koo at Hyundai Engineering and Construction, in an apparent move to emphasize its control over the builder.“The chairman will be using the old office used by the late chairman (Chung Ju-yung), and it represents his resolve and the importance of Hyundai E&C as a me

Top global brands showcase latest models at city’s largest-ever eventThe country’s largest automotive industry show, the Seoul Motor Show, opens to the public Friday with carmakers vying to catch the attention of the expected 1 million visitors with new models and technologies.The show, which will be held until April 10 at the KINTEX exhibition center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, is being held on

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. has no intention of selling any of its stake in Ssangyong Motor Co. in the near future, and will fully support Ssangyong’s revival, Mahindra and Mahindra vice chairman Arnand Mahindra said Thursday.Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the Seoul Motor Show in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Mahindra said that his company has a track record of turning companies ar

Renault Samsung Motors Co. announced Wednesday that it will cut output by 20 percent during April due to a parts shortage caused by the disasters in Japan. Renault Samsung, which stopped extra production after working hours and Saturday production on March 18, said its sole plant in Busan has been experiencing shortages in some engines and transmission supplied by Japanese firms.Renault Samsung sa

Renault Samsung Motors Co., the Korean arm of the French carmaker Renault S.A., is rapidly becoming a key player in Renault Nissan Alliance’s global sales operations with exports rising at an unprecedented pace. On March 25, the company celebrated more than 400,000 units exported since 2000.Established in September 2000, Renault Samsung’s exports have grown at a rate unseen among Korean carmakers

The Trade Ministry is to again revise the Korean-language version of the Korea-EU free trade agreement, and resubmit the bill for ratification to the National Assembly for the third time.“The government was recently informed that several errors were found while reviewing the Korea-EU FTA’s Korean translation,” Rep. Nam Kyung-pil, National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee