TOKYO, July 23, 2011 (AFP) - A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan Saturday, but there was no danger of a tsunami, the weather agency said.The quake happened at 1:34 pm (0434 GMT) off the Pacific coast of Miyagi prefecture, around the same area as the giant March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.The depth of the quake was 40 kilometres (25 miles), it s

LONDON (AP) _ Police investigating the suspicious deaths of five patients at a hospital in northern England said Friday that they had charged a 27-year-old nurse in the case.Police and prosecutors say that Rebecca Leighton endangered the lives of patients at the Stepping Hill Hospital in the town of Stockport, near Manchester, by damaging saline bags, saline ampoules, and unspecified medical produ

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, July 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's gross national income (GNI) is forecast to grow to $30,000 per capita by 2014 before increasing by an additional $10,000 in the four years that follow, the finance minister said on Saturday."Our country's gross national income may exceed $30,000 in the first quarter of 2014 and $40,000 in 2018," Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan said in a for

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 23, 2011 (AFP) - The United States said Saturday it was "encouraged" by unexpected and rare talks between North and South Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told regional foreign ministers at an Asian security forum in Indonesia that the onus remained squarely on the North to prove its sincerity before six-party talks could

BALI, Indonesia, July 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan held a brief meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-chun, on the sidelines of a key ASEAN forum here, an official said Saturday.The informal meeting between Kim and Pak came a day after the chief nuclear envoys from the two Koreas met for the first time since 2008 and agreed to make joint efforts to resume

Minister for Special Affairs Lee Jae-oh is likely to quit his Cabinet post next month and return to party politics, sources close to him said Friday. “Minister Lee has long before made up his mind about departure from the Cabinet,” Yonhap News quoted an unidentified source at the ruling camp as saying. “I understand he plans to tender his resignation around Aug. 15, by which the parliament’s confi

Police said Friday they are currently investigating telephone calls made between a reporter and politician related to the alleged bugging of a Democratic Party meeting. “We are currently looking into telephone calls made by the reporter, politician and his aides to verify whether they shared information over the alleged bugging,” an officer at the Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul said Friday.

The striking labor union at SC First Bank said that it would fly to Britain on Saturday to visit the bank’s headquarters in London as part of its fight against management in Korea.Speaking at a news conference in Seoul on Friday, the union members said they plan to hold a joint news conference with Britain’s labor organizations and to request a meeting with Standard Chartered PLC CEO Peter Sands.T