Samsung SDI, South Korea's top battery maker, said Sunday it has signed an agreement with China's leading power company, Sungrow, to enter the Chinese energy storage market.The deal, signed in Hufei, where Sungrow Power Supply Co. is based, allows the two companies to establish a joint venture to develop and invest in the energy storage system (ESS).Sungrow is the world's second-largest manufacturer of solar power inverters.The companies said they have not yet selected the site for their manufac

Pope Francis smiled, waved, and hugged hundreds of the underprivileged during his visit to South Korea this week, amplifying his image as the people’s pope.　The top cleric of the Catholic Church met disabled children, North Korean escapees, and former sex slaves of the Japanese military during his event-packed five-day tour of Korea.　(Yonhap)But Pope Francis’s brief meeting with the father of a victim of the April ferry Sewol disaster on Saturday left a strong impression on South Koreans, accord

As Pope Francis concludes his five-day visit to Korea on Monday, his visit is expected to have a lasting impact on the country. 　The Korean Catholic Church anticipates the second papal visit in 25 years will bring newcomers to its fold as John Paul II’s visit did in 1989. 　Catholics account for 10.4 percent of the Korean population as the third-largest faith after Protestantism and Buddhism. Its membership grew rapidly from 2.9 million in 1995 to 5.4 million in 2013. 　 (Yonhap)“I personally hope

A provincial governor apologized Sunday on Twitter after his son was accused of beating a subordinate and sexually harassing another one in the military.The eldest son of Nam Kyung-pil, a five-term ruling party lawmaker who was elected governor of Gyeonggi Province in the June 4 local elections, is under investigation for allegedly hitting his subordinate in the stomach and face on a number of occasions since early April, military officials said.The son, a corporal, is also accused of sexually h

Pope Francis urged Asian bishops to be open to people of diverse cultures on Sunday during his first papal visit to Asia. 　Speaking to about 60 bishops from all over Asia, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church laid out proprieties for Asian evangelism, stressing the local church’s need for honest dialogue while retaining its Catholic identity. 　It follows the strong message of encouragement he gave the previous day during a Mass to beatify early Korean martyrs. 　 (Yonhap)“On this vast continen

A crowd of some 200 demonstrators defied a curfew that came into effect in Ferguson, Missouri early Sunday, days after police shot dead an unarmed black teen, triggering a wave of rioting.Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and a curfew starting at midnight Saturday (0500 GMT Sunday) until 5:00 am for the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by police on August 9. (Yonhap-AFP)Ferguson was mostly peaceful when the curfew began on Sunday

South Korea's negotiations with Bert van Marwijk, a former Dutch national head coach who had expressed interest in leading the South Korean national men's senior football team, have broken down due to a disagreement on salary and the length of his stay in the country, according to the local football association Sunday.Officials from the Korea Football Association (KFA) had been in talks with van Marwijk in Amsterdam since early August to fill the national football head coach position that has be

K-pop boy band JYJ’s Junsu released his selfies taken in Hong Kong on his Twitter Sunday. 　In one photo, Junsu is making a heart sign with his arms with Hong Kong’s night view in the background. In the other, he is getting his hair trimmed in a beauty salon. 　JYJ made its way to Hong Kong on Aug. 15 as part of its Asia concert tour “The Return of The King” following the release of its latest album “Just Us” on July 29. The trio will head to China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand to continue the t

The National Assembly will hold separate confirmation hearings this week for President Park Geun-hye’s choice of new culture minister, tax agency chief and police commissioner, the final batch of her government reshuffle carried out in the wake of Sewol disaster.　The nominees who are set to go through the parliamentary screening process are: Culture Minister nominee Kim Jong-deok, National Tax Service chief-designate Lim Hwan-soo and police commissioner-appointee Kang Sin-myeong. The three candi

Close to 25 percent of South Korea's military conscripts suffer from depression, some of them pushed to their limits from insults and isolated environments at barracks, a study showed Sunday.The study conducted in 2012 by Kim Sun-young, a nursing major at Seoul National University graduate school, showed that nearly 25 percent of the 288 conscripts she surveyed were suffering from depression, while 17.4 percent complained of obsessive compulsive disorder. Frequent derogatory insults and difficul

Asian churches must have open minds and empathy toward others to truly communicate with people in other Asian countries out of the reach of the Gospel, Pope Francis said Sunday as he spoke to the region's bishops."On this vast continent which is home to a great variety of cultures, the church is called to be versatile and creative in her witness to the Gospel through dialogue and openness to all," the pope said in his speech before some 70 Asian bishops in the South Korean west coastal city of S

Samsung Electronics said Sunday it began production of what is called the world's first 20-nano mobile application processor, the Exynos 5430, which can save up to 25 percent in power consumption compared to the previous model.Set to equip its new smartphone Galaxy Alpha that will hit the local market early next month, the new processor is an octa-core chip made up of four Cortex A15 cores running at up to 1.8GHz and four Cortex A7 cores of 1.3GHz.The chip features a function that activates and

North Korea took a swipe Sunday at South Korea's latest conciliatory proposals, saying the South should first deal with "fundamental" inter-Korean issues to mend cross-border relations.The reaction from Pyongyang came two days after South Korean President Park Geun-hye proposed in her Liberation Day speech that the two Koreas join hands in cultural heritage preservation efforts. She also invited the North to an international convention on biological diversity to be held in South Korea in October

Executives of South Korea's global tech giant Samsung Electronics swept the list of the country's highest-paid CEOs in the first half of 2014, according to the latest corporate business reports, although the CEOs' bonuses were somewhat reduced because of a slowdown in business performance in the second quarter.Shin Jong-kyun, head of the company's information technology and mobile division, topped the list with 11.34 billion won(US$11.1 million), followed by his colleague Kwon Oh-hyun, leader of

Pope Francis on Sunday baptized a father of one of the children killed in April's ferry disaster who chose the same Catholic name as the pope."Pope Francis baptized Lee Ho-jin, who lost his youngest son in the ferry sinking, early in the morning. His baptismal name is Francis, the same as the pope," Hur Young-yup, spokesman for the organizing committee of the papal visit, said during a daily briefing in Seoul. (Yonhap)The ceremony was held closed-door with only his immediate family members atten

 The governor of the US state of Missouri declared a state of emergency and curfew Saturday following race-tinged violence in the suburb where an officer shot dead an unarmed black teenager.The curfew will begin overnight and last from midnight until 5:00 am for the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by police a week ago.(AFP-Yonhap)"To protect the people and property of Ferguson today, I signed an order declaring a state of emergency and ordering impleme

Pope Francis at lunch with a group of youth at Major Seminary of Daejeon, South Korea, 15 August 2014. Pope Francis is on an official visit to South Korea from 14 to 18 August 2014 to attend the Asia Youth Day in Daejeon. The pontiff is also expected to lead the beatification ceremony of 124 Korean martyrs. (AFP)

Pope Francis is expected to begin the fourth day of his visit by baptizing the father of a boy who died in the Sewol ferry sinking at the Vatican Embassy in Seoul. 　The 62-year-old Lee Ho-jin will be baptized before the pope begins his official schedule on Sunday morning. Lee asked to be baptized to the pope when he met the pontiff at the Mass for the Assumption of Mary in Daejeon on Aug. 15. 　(Yonhap)The pope will head to Haemi Martyrdom Holy Ground in North Chungcheong Province to meet 60 Asia

Pope Francis beatified 124 Korean martyrs in a large-scale outdoor Mass at the heart of Seoul, on Saturday, telling hundreds of thousands of people in attendance that their ancestors’ martyrdom had lessons for the church around the world today. 　A highlight of the pope’s five-day apostolic visit here, the ceremony drew some 800,000 Koreans to the streets of Gwanghwamun, the traditional center of Seoul and a historic place where large numbers of early believers were martyred in the 18th and 19th

A homegrown action film about a 16th-century Korean naval hero's astonishing victory against Japan gathered more than 13.62 million in attendance at home, a local box-office tracker said Saturday.The Korean Film Council said "Roaring Currents" became the most-watched movie at theaters in the country as of Friday, breaking the previous record held by Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" that gathered 13.62 million.The record came a day after "Roaring Currents" became the most-watched South Korean-made