The presumptive next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, is a onetime “young gun” of the Republican Party ― a conservative with a wonkish reputation who is clearly driven by higher political ambition.Paul Ryan. APPaul Ryan was nominated by his Republican colleagues Wednesday to lead the fractious House through the end of the Barack Obama presidency and potentially beyond.It is the most important job in Congress and one that places him second in line to the presidency, after

Apple said Tuesday that surging iPhone sales helped propel a sharp rise in quarterly profits, as the tech giant delivered a record 48 million of the smartphones.Profits rose 31 percent to $11.1 billion, while revenues jumped 22 percent from a year ago to $51.5 billion, Apple said.Customers look at products during the sales launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus at the IAPM shopping mall in Shanghai, China. BloombergThe California tech giant, which in September unveiled revamped versions of t

Cho Seong-jin, the winner of the Chopin piano competition, is a new classical music icon in Korea, setting recording history even before the release of his first solo album. 　The 21-year-old pianist’s upcoming album – a live recording of his performances at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Poland – was the top seller across all music genres at Kyobo Bookstore, the country’s largest book seller, as of 3 p.m. Tuesday -- a feat that no other classical musician has come ev

Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party won an outright majority in Sunday’s general election on anti-refugee rhetoric and welfare promises, ending eight years of centrist rule.Analysts said the next government’s first moves would be closely scrutinized, given the risk that nationalist policies could inflame tensions with the European Union and Russia.Conservative Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski kisses the hand of Justice candidate for the Prime Minister Beata Szydlo (left) at the

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday that Israel had agreed on steps to calm tensions over Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, at the center of Palestinian unrest, including 24-hour security cameras.Several hours later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his pledge of "upholding unchanged the status quo of the Temple Mount", as Jews refer to the highly-sensitive site, which allows Muslims to pray at the site, and non-Muslims to visit, but not pray.U.s. Secretary of State John K

Apple Inc.'s two latest smartphones went on sale in South Korea on Friday, with the industry poised to keep close tabs on the market for possible overheating on the retail front. The country's three major mobile carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Inc. -- released the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus for sale via their respective retail stores nationwide. The iPhone 6s is available for 720,000 won ($635) for the 16GB model and 1.14 million won for the 128GB, given the subsidy of about

A 21-year-old Korean pianist won Poland’s Chopin competition Tuesday -- one of the most prestigious contests in the piano world and considered a launch pad for an international career. Cho Seong-jin beat 77 other young pianists from 20 countries to take home the gold medal and prize of 30,000 euros ($33,500) at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, held every five years in the Polish capital Warsaw and named after the 19th century pianist and composer.  Cho Seong-jin (AFP-Yon

Canada’s Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, the son of a popular former prime minister, won the general election in a landslide, television networks projected -- a stunning defeat for Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.Networks CBC and CTV projected the 43-year-old Trudeau -- who ran a combative campaign and offered up what he called a bold “new vision” for the nation -- would form a majority government with more than 170 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. Canada`s Liberal party leader Justin Tru

President Park Geun-hye’s surprising personnel shake-up on Monday was widely seen as a move to reprimand her foreign affairs team for its failed mission to persuade the U.S. to transfer fighter jet technology to Korea.Park named Kim Kyou-hyun, the National Security Council secretariat chief, as her new senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security. Kim replaces Ju Chul-ki, who had reportedly offered to resign to take responsibility for Washington’s refusal to transfer f

A German mayoral candidate active in helping refugees was seriously wounded on Saturday in what police described as a stabbing with a “racist, political” motive, heaping further pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel over the migrant crisis.　The German leader expressed her “shock” over the attack in the western city of Cologne which left mayoral hopeful Henriette Reker with serious neck wounds.　The stabbing comes as Merkel prepares to travel to Istanbul on Sunday for talks on the crisis with Turki

The purported death of Cho Hee-pal, the mastermind behind South Korea’s largest-ever fraud case, returned to the spotlight as his close aide was arrested in China last week, with fresh testimonies suggesting he is actually still alive. 　Cho is one of the most-wanted conmen in South Korea, having allegedly scammed up to 50,000 people out of an estimated 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in a pyramid marketing scheme.Cho Hee-pal (Yonhap)　The 58-year-old established a medical equipment supply company a

Angus Deaton, a British-U.S. professor at Princeton University, won the Nobel Economics Prize Monday for groundbreaking work on poverty and promptly warned that inequality is becoming a serious global threat.The 69-year-old academic, who has spent more than 30 years in the United States, was honored for using household surveys to show how consumers, particularly the poor, decide what to buy and how policymakers can help them. India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, is a key are

Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin speaks during a news conference at Lotte Duty Free’s logistics center in Incheon on Monday. Lotte GroupLotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin on Monday slammed his father and elder brother for dragging him into another family spat over the company’s management and putting the 90 trillion won ($79 billion) business empire in danger.“Let me tell you one thing about what happened over the weekend,” the chairman said in a news conference at Lotte Duty Free Store’s logi

Tunisian civil society groups won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping rescue the only democracy that emerged from the Arab Spring, in a hugely symbolic show of support for the country after a wave of jihadist attacks.The members of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize announced in Oslo: (clockwise from left) president of the Tunisian employers union Wided Bouchamaoui; Tunisian lawyer Fadhel Mahfoudh; president of the Tunisian Human Rights League, Abdessatta

Twitter is embracing Jack Dorsey as its CEO in hopes that its once-spurned cofounder can hatch a plan to expand the short messaging service’s audience and end nearly a decade of financial losses.The hiring revealed Monday in a regulatory filing ends Twitter’s three-month search for a new leader. It marks Dorsey’s second stint as CEO since he helped start the San Francisco company more than nine years ago with Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass.Jack Dorsey, chairman of Twitter Inc. (Bloomber