Unionized workers at Kia Motors Corp. voted to go on strike after wage talks with the management recently broke up, the carmaker's union said Tuesday. The vote comes as the carmaker struggles with slowing sales in major markets such as China and the United States due to diplomatic rows and lack of new models, respectively. In the vote held from Monday to Tuesday, 24,871, or 72.1 percent of Kia's 28,240-strong union workers, agreed to a walkout in case of no agreement being reached with managemen

BERLIN (AFP) - Airbus said Wednesday it had won a major order from China of 140 planes for $22.8 billion, during a visit by President Xi Jinping to Berlin.The European aircraft maker said it had sealed the agreement with China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS), which chief executive Tom Enders called "one of the biggest contracts signed in a long time by Airbus".The deal covers 100 A320 single-aisle jets and 40 A350 wide-body aircraft."This underscores the strong demand by Chinese airlines

A nuclear reactor in South Korea was suspended on Wednesday after a warning signal went off due to a problem in the cooling system, the country's atomic energy operator said.The Hanul-5 reactor was shut down at around 6:11 p.m. due to a problem in the reactor's coolant pump, according to the Hanul Nuclear Power Site. There was no danger of a radiation leak, it said."Two coolant pumps out of four installed in the reactor were suspended," said an official at the plant located in Uljin, some 330 ki

BERLIN -- President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday arrived in Berlin, Germany, for a brief two-day stay before heading to Hamburg for the annual Group of 20 summit.Having taken off from Seoul Air Base, south of Seoul, at around 8 a.m., the president landed in Berlin’s Tegel Airport at approximately 11:50 a.m.Moon’s trip to Germany was his second overseas journey since he took office in May, coming right after his recent return from the bilateral summit with US counterpart Donald Trump in Washington.Pr

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- The gunman who shot a top GOP congressman and several other people Wednesday at a baseball practice outside the nation's capital had a long history of lashing out at Republicans and recently frightened a neighbor by firing a rifle into a field behind his Illinois home. James T. Hodgkinson, 66, wounded House Rep. Steve Scalise before he was fatally shot by police who had been guarding the House majority whip. In the hours after the attack in Alexandria, Virginia, a pictur

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Donald Trump voiced sadness Wednesday after a shooting at a baseball practice in a Washington suburb left a top congressman and several other people wounded."We are deeply saddened by this tragedy," Trump said in a statement, adding that he was closely monitoring the developments in Alexandria, Virginia just outside the US capital, where police have arrested the unidentified gunman. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the members of Congress, their staffs, Capitol Pol

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Senior Republican Congressman Steve Scalise was among several victims shot and wounded at a baseball practice ahead of an annual game between lawmakers in a Washington suburb, one of his colleagues said Thursday.Fellow Republican lawmaker Mo Brooks told CNN that Scalise was shot in the hip, adding that at least two law enforcement officers and one congressional staffer were shot in Alexandria, Virginia.Scalise, the majority whip who rallies Republican votes in the House of Rep

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Wednesday amid speculation that China could be planning to bid for a future World Cup.Xi thanked Infantino for his support for the sports' development in China during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's legislature in the heart of Beijing."We are aware of the fact that FIFA is paying more attention to the development of football in China these days, and I do believe China-FIFA coop

BEIJING (AP) -- The Chinese insurer that owns New York City's Waldorf Astoria Hotel said Wednesday its chairman has turned over his duties to other executives following a report he was detained by regulators amid accusations of possible financial misconduct.Anbang Insurance Group Ltd. Chairman Wu Xiaohui was "temporarily unable to perform his duties due to personal reasons,'' said a one-sentence statement on the company website. It said Wu had authorized other executives to do his work and gave

INCHEON -- South Korean men's football captain Ki Sung-yueng on Wednesday blamed the media for putting pressure on the players with negative coverage.Ki and the team returned home from Doha, where they suffered a 3-2 loss to Qatar in the final Asian qualifying round for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. South Korean men`s football captain Ki Sung-yueng speaks to reporters at Incheon International Airport on June 14, 2017, after returning from a 3-2 loss to Qatar in Doha in a World Cup qualifying match. (

INCHEON -- Beleaguered South Korea men's national football head coach Uli Stielike said Wednesday he'll willingly hold himself accountable for the team's poor run of late while falling short of offering to resign.Stielike and his players returned home after losing to Qatar 3-2 in the World Cup qualifying match in Doha on Tuesday.After dropping the latest match, South Korea remained stuck at 13 points with four wins, a draw and three losses to stay in second place in Group A. With two matches lef

Japan's defense minister said Saturday her government regards the so-called comfort women issue with South Korea as fully resolved.Tomomi Inada said the historical matter shouldn't be allowed to hamper efforts to improve Seoul-Tokyo ties anymore, a view that runs counter to public sentiment in South Korea.The neighboring countries have an "irreversible and final"agreement, she said, referring to a 2015 deal on Korean women who served as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.Korea

South Korean football captain Ki Sung-yueng predicted Saturday that his team's upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifier against Qatar will be a difficult match. "The Qatar (football team) is a low-ranking team but we can't consider them an easy opponent. It'll be a difficult match," Ki said to reporters at Incheon International Airport in Yeongjongdo, west of Seoul, before departing for Dubai with his team.Ki is one of the 24 members called up by head coach Uli Stielike for South Korea's crucial World

Addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue here, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Saturday sent a clear message: We won't turn away from Asia.It marked an unusual declaration by a top Trump government official on its specific approach toward the region, while coordination with China remains a challenge especially on North Korea and wrangling over the South China Sea.Five months into office, President Donald Trump's Asia strategy is still in question.His government has jettisoned such symbolic expres

 U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Saturday the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system is aimed at thwarting "real" threats from North Korea that have been gaining pace."I do not choose to send THAAD to South Korea and to protect the South Korean people from an imaginary problem. This is a real problem," Mattis said at a regional security forum under way in Singapore. "And the problem is not South Korea putting a purely defensive system for the defense of their own people. The pr

North Korea on Saturday condemned the United States' successful shoot down of an intercontinental ballistic missile target earlier this week, saying its nuclear weapons won't be intercepted.A spokesman for North Korea's Strategic Force told Pyongyang's official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) that Tuesday's simulated interception of an ICBM from the North at an air base in California is just a serious military provocation by the U.SThe spokesman contended that Americans are mistaken if they thi

SINGAPORE (AFP) - North Korea and its nuclear weapons programme pose a "threat to us all," US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday, calling on the international community to work together on the issue."It is therefore imperative that we do our part each of us to fulfill our obligations and work together to support our shared goal of denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula," Mattis said in a policy speech at the Shangri-La defence summit in Singapore.Pyongyang on Monday test-fired another

South Korean stocks are expected to rise further next week on improved investor sentiments and solid fundamentals, local analysts said Saturday.Market watchers predicted the country's benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) to maintain its upward momentum in the coming days as there are no negative factors that could weigh on the bourse.The broader index closed at 2,371.72 points Friday, up 0.7 percent from a week ago.KB Securities analyst Bae Sung-young said the main index has furth

South Korea voiced support on Saturday for a vote by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) that will impose more sanctions on North Korean officials and entities after the communist nation carried out a series of defiant missile tests."Our government supports the UNSC's June 2 unanimous vote in adopting resolution 2356 in the face of continued ballistic missile launches by North Korea," Cho June-hyuck, the foreign ministry's spokesman, said in a statement.On Friday, local time, in New York, the 15-me

South Korea said Saturday it is looking into a new possible case of avian influenza, marking the first suspected case in about two months. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it received a new report of suspected avian influenza from a poultry farm on the southern island of Jeju. Three chickens were found dead at the farm on Friday and tested positive for the H5 subtype, the ministry said, citing results of an initial test. More detailed results will be available next Monday