U.S. President Barack Obama made yet another push for cyber-security legislation on Friday, hosting a conference with industry leaders and others and signing a new executive order promoting the sharing of threat information.Obama has made cyber-security a top priority in the remainder of his term, capitalizing on North Korea's alleged hacking attack on Sony Pictures late last year to highlight the country's vulnerability to cyber-attacks and the need for stronger protective measures.Last month,

South Korean stocks advanced Friday as a cease-fire agreement between Russia and Ukraine and a rally in U.S. stocks boosted investor sentiment, analysts said. The local currency sharply firmed against the dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 15.87 points, or 0.82 percent, to finish at 1,957,50. Trading volume was moderate at 342.7 million shares worth 3.95 trillion won($3.6 billion), with gainers outpacing losers 498 to 307.Analysts said investors took heart from the ea

South Korea plans to help Cuba increase its food production and fight poverty with the World Food Program starting this year, its first move to promote development cooperation with Havana, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.  Seoul and the U.N. food agency inked a preliminary deal on Tuesday to join a US$3 million project aimed at beefing up food production in Cuba between 2015 and 2017, officials said.  "It is meaningful as the project will be Seoul's first development project with Cuba," the

South Korean government officials left for Ebola-hit Sierra Leone on Wednesday in a bid to support the third and final batch of Seoul medical workers who will treat Ebola patients in the West African country, officials said.  The departure came as a military medical team consisting of two doctors and three nurses left for Britain on Saturday for safety training. After that, they will kick off a four-week operation on Feb. 23 in Goderich, near the capital Freetown.  To support the medical team, o

HONG KONG, (AFP) -- Investors in a Hong Kong-based Bitcoin trading company fear they have fallen victim to a scam after it closed down, a lawmaker said Monday, adding losses could total HK$3 billion ($387 million).Leung Yiu-chung said his office recently received reports from dozens of investors in Hong Kong who paid a total of HK$40 million ($5.16 million) into the scheme run online by MyCoin, but the total loss may be vastly more."The number of cases is increasing. These two days I received ca

South Korea dispatched the 18th batch of troops to the Gulf of Aden on Monday to continue its commitment to the international effort to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia, the Navy said. The 4,400-ton destroyer, Wanggeon, departed the southern port city of Busan earlier in the day carrying a 300-strong contingent of the Cheonghae Unit for an anti-piracy mission, according to the Navy.The service personnel, composed of special forces including Underwater Demolition Team, Navy SEAL team, Marin

The top diplomats from South Korea and Russia have held talks in Germany to discuss North Korea's nuclear weapons program and ways to promote the steady development of bilateral ties, Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday.South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Germany on Sunday (local time) on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that wrapped up a three-day run on the same day.Yun appreciated Russia's efforts for doing its part in t

The United States strongly supports academic freedom, the State Department said Sunday, as history scholars criticize Japan for pressuring an American textbook publisher to change the description of Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Asian women during World War II.A group of American history scholars have issued a protest statement denouncing Japan's demand for U.S. publisher McGraw-Hill to alter the description of the sexual slavery issue in one of its textbooks, saying no government should have th

Female activists from around the world will march from Pyongyang to Seoul in May to express their wish for inter-Korean peace, a global non-profit said Sunday.The Peace Development Fund said around 30 female activists will be participating in the march, which will see them cross the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone bisecting the Korean Peninsula, on May 24.The activists include American feminist Gloria Steinem, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and Chung Hyun-kyung, a professor at U

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken arrived in South Korea Sunday to discuss North Korea's nuclear issue and the Seoul-Washington alliance, government officials said.The No. 2 official at the State Department, will stay in Seoul until Tuesday, the first leg of his trip to Asia that also includes stops in China and Japan. He took office in December after serving as U.S. President Barack Obama's deputy national security advisor.Blinken plans to have talks with his South Korean counterpart

A US gunman opened fire at a house near Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, killing four people and wounding two children including relatives in a domestic dispute before turning the gun on himself.A total of seven people were shot in the case in Douglasville, west of Atlanta, said Lieutenant Glenn Daniel of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office."It was a domestic situation," Daniel told AFP, adding that the shooter was a man, and that the two injured were children, who are now being treated in local ho

South Korea and the United States have "effectively" concluded their nuclear cooperation accord that would allow Seoul to reprocess spent nuclear fuel for the purpose of research and development, albeit in a limited way, government sources said Sunday.Seoul and Washington have been negotiating for more than four years to revise the 1974 accord over Seoul's civilian nuclear energy use, also known as the "123 agreement." Under a revised accord, South Korea is likely to secure some autonomy in deal

Discord between Uber Technologies Inc. and South Korea is growing deeper after the government sharply rebuffed the U.S. cab-hailing app creator's request to allow its driver become legal through a registration system.  The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport rejected Uber's proposal on Thursday, saying the registration system is unacceptable as it runs counter to government policy, which aims to scale down the number of operating taxis because they are already oversupplied.  "A driver

South Korea's foreign minister plans meet with his Russian counterpart in Germany on the weekend to discuss North Korea's nuclear weapons program and other issues, the foreign ministry said Friday.  The meeting between Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Sergey Lavrov is scheduled for Sunday in Munich, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Yun departed for Germany a day earlier for his meetings with foreign ministers from around the world, including Germany and the U.S., on the margins of

China has been "closely watching" the possibility of a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Russia in May, but has no conclusive evidence yet that Kim's trip will take place, a senior South Korean diplomat said Friday.  Russia has said that Kim would be among those attending the May 9 ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. If realized, it would be Kim's first foreign trip since taking the helm of the reclusive state about three years