Regular wages in Japan rose for a seventh consecutive month as the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presses businesses to boost salaries.Base pay climbed 0.4 percent in September from a year earlier, the labor ministry said Monday. Overall labor cash earnings, which include overtime and special payments, increased by 0.6 percent and wages adjusted for inflation advanced 0.5 percent.The central bank needs to see higher earnings so Japanese consumers can buy more to help sustain price gains

The Korea-based United Nations climate fund has endorsed eight initial projects worth $168 million to help developing countries deal with climate change, Seoul's finance ministry said Sunday.In the 11th meeting of the board of directors in Livingston, Zambia, from Nov. 2-5, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved the landmark public works -- three for Africa, three for the Asia-Pacific region and two for South Africa, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.They are the first full-scale

TAIPEI, (AFP) - Angry protesters tried to storm parliament in Taiwan and 27 were arrested at the airport Saturday as leader Ma Ying-jeou headed to a historic summit in Singapore with Chinese President Xi Jinping.There were also reports that three members of the anti-China Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) were escorted by police from a hostel in Singapore -- it is not clear whether they are under arrest.Demonstrators say they will gather outside the presidential office in Taiwan Saturday afternoon a

CHICAGO, (AFP) -- Two law enforcement officers were arrested on charges of murder and attempted murder Friday over the fatal shooting of a six-year-old boy in the US state of Louisiana, authorities said.The death of Jeremy Mardis will add to growing criticism in some quarters about perceived brutality in US police forces after several high-profile incidents in the last year.Marshals Norris Greenhouse and Derrick Stafford were placed on administrative leave after the vehicle chase on Tuesday that

SINGAPORE (AP) -- China's President Xi Jinping on Saturday promised to safeguard freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, where tensions have flared over overlapping claims and the U.S. Navy's moves to challenge Beijing's massive island building.   Speaking at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, Xi said that there has never been any problem with freedom of navigation and overflight and "nor will there ever be in the future."He said that China ne

TOKYO (AP) -- The crew's decision to use the most direct route to bring out the injured is the likely cause of a U.S. military helicopter crash that killed 13 people during earthquake rescue operations in May in Nepal, the U.S. Marine Corps said Saturday.The choice, which may have been made because one or more of the injured was in need of urgent treatment, took the UH-1Y ``Huey'' helicopter for a brief period over unfamiliar terrain in unstable weather, according to a news release from the 3rd

BEIJING, (Yonhap) -- South Korea and China will hold a fresh round of bilateral talks on the delimitation of sea boundaries next month, China's foreign ministry has said, an issue that has been a constant source of diplomatic tension between Seoul and Beijing.President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to launch a new round of talks on sea boundary demarcation this year during their summit last year.South Korea and China have long been at loggerheads over the submerged,

South Korea and the European Union have reaffirmed their commitment to deepening their strategic partnership as their top diplomats discussed bilateral and regional issues including North Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini held talks in Luxembourg on Thursday on the sidelines of a foreign ministers' session of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), which ended a two-day session on Friday.ASEM brings together

The South Korean Embassy in Cairo has advised South Koreans in Egypt not to travel to the Sinai Peninsula where a recent plane crash killed all 224 people on board.  The embassy sent an e-mail to all South Korean residents in the country Thursday, asking them to refrain from traveling to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and the surrounding area while an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the Oct. 31 disaster.  It also urged South Koreans currently in the Sinai Peninsula to

South Korea has become the 186th party to a United Nations convention against transnational organized crime, the government said Friday.  South Korea recently ratified the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three optional protocols. Justice Minister Kim Hyun-woong delivered the related documents to Miguel de Serpa Soares, under secretary general for legal affairs and U.N. legal counsel, at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday (local time), the ministry said in

The U.S. alliance with South Korea has stood firm for more than six decades regardless of politics in Washington, a U.S. Defense Department official said Wednesday.  Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman made the remark in response to a question about Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's accusations that South Korea is getting a defense free ride from the U.S.  "We have 65 years of alliance with the Republic of Korea, decades-old alliance with the Republic of Korea. I don't see t

The return of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to power provided a firmer foundation for cooperation with the United States, but at the same time "jeopardized" American interests in the region by inflaming historical tensions, a congressional report said.  The Congressional Research Service also said in a recent report on U.S.-Japan relations that the U.S. has tried to strike a balance between deepening the alliance as part of its Asia rebalance policy and "quietly pressuring Japan to avoid up

The EU urged Volkswagen Wednesday to hurry up its investigation into the pollution-cheating scandal after revelations that the row may also involve petrol engines and not just diesel.The comments by the 28-nation bloc came as shares in embattled German auto giant took a renewed battering on the latest revelations."The commission invites VW to speed up its internal investigation," European Commission spokeswoman Lucia Caudet told a daily briefing."We need to clarify without delays what kind of CO