WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Justice Department sued Apple and five publishing firms Wednesday alleging a conspiracy to raise prices and limit competition for e-books, and immediately announced a partial settlement in the case.As the antitrust suit was unveiled, officials said three of the publishers agreed to end the scheme to force retailers such as Amazon to accept a new pricing plan that ended th

MOSCOW (AP) -- A large opposition faction stormed out of Russia's parliament on Wednesday to protest Vladimir Putin's refusal to look into claims of vote-rigging in a mayoral election that has sparked nationwide anger.Putin, who returns for a third term as Russian president on May 7, told the Duma he had no authority over local elections and suggested that critics go to court instead to contest th

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Prime Minister Lucas Papademos on Wednesday called a general election in Greece for May 6, after his coalition government pushed through landmark financial relief deals that rescued the country from the threat of bankruptcy but doomed recession-hit Greeks to greater hardship.``The main goals of our government were achieved,'' Papademos told a Cabinet meeting, according to a

Rival parties were neck-and-neck Wednesday in South Korea's closely contested legislative election, a key test of sentiment before December's presidential vote, according to exit polls conducted by three major TV stations.The polls showed a tight race between President Lee Myung-bak's conservative Saenuri Party and the main opposition centre-left Democratic United Party.An exit poll by public broa

The ruling Saenuri Party scored a surprise victory in the hotly-contested general election Wednesday. The National Election Commission estimated as of 1:20 a.m. Thursday the conservative party is likely to bag 152 seats in the 300-member parliament, one seat more than a simple majority required to pass bills alone. Saenuri Party chief Park Geun-hye (center) smiles while watching the election broad

A Korean Air passenger jet heading to Seoul made an emergency landing at a Canadian Air Force base after receiving a bomb threat, the country’s flag carrier said Wednesday. A Korean Air Boeing 777 rests on the runway of a Canadian Forces base in Comox on Vancouver Island on Tuesday. (Yonhap News)Its Boeing 777-200 was diverted at around 7:40 a.m. Korean time when the airline’s U.S. call center rec

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Facebook on Monday announced a billion-dollar-deal to buy the startup behind wildly popular smartphone photo sharing application Instagram.The big ticket purchase was seen by some as a move by Facebook to strengthen defenses against Google and blazingly hot newcomer Pinterest in the weeks ahead of what promises to be a history-making stock market debut."For years, we've focus

Korean girl group T-ara will add new members to become a nine-member group for the upcoming album, the group’s agency announced on Friday.The new members will be revealed together with T-ara’s new album release in July, according to the T-ara’s management agency Core Contents Media.“T-ara will change from the current seven to a nine-member system, and if needed, we will replace old members,” Kim K

North Korea is believed to be gearing up for a nuclear test, an intelligence official said Sunday, a move certain to fuel the already high tensions over its planned long-range rocket launch.Satellite images show the communist nation digging a new tunnel underground in the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the country's northeast, where it conducted two previous nuclear tests, first in 2006 and then

Russia is developing weapons that can bend minds and put people in a zombie-like state, the Daily Mail reported last Saturday.Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin has confirmed that his country’s scientists are working on guns that emit electromagnetic radiation (EMR). He claims that the new weapons will be “more acceptable in terms of political and military ideology” than nuclear wea

BEIJING (AP) -- Authorities have indicted five people in central China for involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPhone and an iPad.The case has prompted an outpouring of concern that not enough is being done to guard against the negative impact of increasing consumerism in Chinese society, particularly among young people who have grown up with mor

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska polar bears are losing their fur and U.S. Geological Survey scientists don't know why.In the past two weeks, nine of 33 bears checked by scientists in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were found to have alopecia _ loss of fur _ and skin lesions, said Tony DeGange, chief of the biology office at the USGS Science Center in Anchorage.Three of four bears in

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's historic Boat Race was dramatically disrupted Saturday when a wetsuit-clad protester swam across the River Thames, before Cambridge claimed a controversial victory over rivals Oxford.Trenton Oldfield caused a half-hour hiatus in the race between England's two oldest universities, which is in now its 158th year, in a stunt that will raise security questions ahead of the Oly

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Up to 135 people, mostly soldiers, were feared dead Sunday after an avalanche buried a Pakistan army camp in mountainous Kashmir, in an area known as the world's highest battleground.The avalanche early Saturday engulfed the camp near the Siachen glacier, an inhospitable area that nevertheless became the site of fierce fighting between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.No s

South Korea’s exports were less than analysts forecast in March, sliding 1.4 percent from a year earlier on weakness in global demand.Imports fell 1.2 percent, leaving a trade surplus of $2.3 billion, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in an e-mailed statement today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 13 economists was for a 1.3 percent gain in exports.Signs that Europe’s debt c

Rival parties on Saturday virtually agreed to launch a special investigation into allegations of the government's extensive spying on public officials and citizens years ago, as the presidential office blamed the previous administration for most of the alleged wrongdoings raised by the opposition camp.Early Saturday afternoon, the ruling Saenuri Party proposed appointing a special counsel to inves