The nation’s top court on Thursday confirmed prison terms and penalties for three sitting lawmakers for illegal electioneering ahead of the 2012 general elections, stripping them of their parliamentary seats.Lee Jae-young of the ruling Saenuri Party was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, for embezzling money from a company he runs and using it to give money to party officials, in violation of the Public Official Election Act.In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court sentence

South Korean lawmakers are seeking to invite a former Japanese prime minister known for his apology to victims of Japan’s past aggressions to speak about ways to move the two countries’ relations forward, a parliamentary official said Wednesday.Tomiichi Murayama, the then Japanese prime minister, issued a statement in 1995 acknowledging and apologizing for the suffering his country inflicted on neighboring Asian nations, including Korea, through its aggressions in the early 20th century.Amid sig

South Korean lawmakers are seeking to invite a former Japanese prime minister known for his apology to victims of Japan's past aggressions to speak about ways to move the two countries' relations forward, a parliamentary official said Wednesday.Tomiichi Murayama, the then Japanese prime minister, issued a statement in 1995 acknowledging and apologizing for the suffering his country inflicted on neighboring Asian nations, including Korea, through its aggressions in the early 20th century.Amid sig

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ― A U.S. state legislative committee on Monday passed a bill on naming the waters between Korea and Japan despite Tokyo’s lobbying against it.The bill is one of three pending in the Virginia state legislature calling for local public schools to identify the waters as the East Sea as well as the Sea of Japan.The Education and Health Committee of the Virginia State Senate unanimously approved the bill by voice vote. It was submitted by Dave Marsden, a Democratic senator in Virg

 A U.S. state legislative committee on Monday passed a bill on naming the waters between Korea and Japan despite Tokyo's lobbying against it.   The bill is one of three pending in the Virginia state legislature calling for local public schools to identifying the waters as the East Sea as well as the Sea of Japan.   The Education and Health Committee of the Virginia State Senate unanimously approved the bill by voice vote. It was submitted by Dave Marsden, a Democratic senator in Virginia.   Last

China on Monday slammed a reported plan by Japan to revise guidelines for school textbooks to bolster its territorial claims to a set of islands in the East China Sea at the center of a bitter dispute with Beijing.China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the remarks in response to Japanese media reports that Tokyo was considering revising the guidelines to describe the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, as Japan's "indigenous territory."The reported move by Jap

Pentagon officials often say defense cooperation between South Korea and Japan shouldn't be affected by often prickly political and diplomatic ties between the two neighboring nations.But they were guarded, if not speechless, when South Korean peacekeeping troops in South Sudan returned 10,000 rounds of rifle ammunition to Japan last week."We don't have anything on that issue," Maj. Robert Firman, a Pentagon spokesman handling Africa affairs, said.Asked again via email, he replied, "Still nothin

WASHINGTON, (AFP) -- Orbital Sciences Corporation's unmanned Cygnus cargo ship on Sunday made rendez-vous with the International Space Station on the company's first regular supply mission to the research outpost.The event took place at 1108 GMT just northeast of Madagascar over the Indian Ocean, according to the US space agency NASA's television network.Once Cygnus approached the orbiting lab, the space station's robotic arm reached out and grabbed the incoming cargo carrier.US astronaut Mike H

 DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- Sheikh Hasina has been sworn in for her second straight term as Bangladesh's prime minister and third overall, following one of the most violent elections in the country's history.Hasina took the oath of office Sunday, a week after her Awami League party won an election marred by street fighting, low turnout and an opposition boycott that made the results a foregone conclusion.President Abdul Hamid also swore in 29 Cabinet ministers and 19 deputies.The election was one

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) -- A lawyer says a gay man in Cameroon who was jailed for sending a text message to another man saying "I'm very much in love with you," and who Amnesty Interational later declared a prisoner of conscience, has died.Lawyer Alice Nkom said Roger Jean-Claude Mbede, 34, died on Friday after his family removed him from the hospital where he had been seeking treatment for a hernia.Mbede was arrested in March 2011 and charged with violating a Cameroonian law that imposes up to f

Japan may revise guidelines for middle and high school textbooks to describe the South Korean islets of Dokdo as the country’s “indigenous territory,” Japanese media reported Saturday.Tokyo’s education ministry is reportedly considering the revision of the Course of Study ― a guideline for creating textbooks used in middle and high schools ― to reflect the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s viewpoint and stance on territorial issues. It is not mandatory for textbook authors to follow the manual,

South Korean President Park Geun-hye will make state visits to India and Switzerland next week before attending an annual meeting of global business leaders and politicians at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, the presidential office announced Thursday.The Jan. 15-18 trip to India is aimed mainly at enhancing economic cooperation with Asia’s third-largest economy with a massive market of 1.2 billion people. Economic issues are expected to top the agenda for Park’s summit with Prime Minister Manmoha

South Korea and the United States will meet again in April for negotiations on renewing a bilateral nuclear energy pact, the foreign ministry said Wednesday after the allies closed their two-day talks on the accord without progress.Seoul and Washington kicked off their ninth round of talks on the renewal of the accord, also known as the "123 agreement," on Tuesday in South Korea's central city of Daejeon, home to major nuclear research facilities. "The two sides agreed in the latest talks that t