Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Pakistan next week, Islamabad said Thursday, with investment in the energy sector and Taliban talks in neighbouring Afghanistan likely to feature on the agenda.   Xi was originally scheduled to visit Pakistan last September but Beijing cancelled the trip as Islamabad was in the grip of major anti-government street protests.   China has been a key financial and military ally of Islamabad over the years and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif secured promi

President Vladimir Putin sternly urged the West to respect Russia's interests in global affairs and defended his move to sanction the delivery of a long-range air defense missile system to Iran during a marathon TV call-in show with the nation Thursday. Putin scathingly criticized Washington for refusing to see Moscow as an equal partner and warned that Russia-West ties, in shambles over the Ukrainian crisis, could only be normalized when the U.S. and its allies show readiness for compromise. He

A Ukrainian journalist known for his pro-Russian views was gunned down in broad daylight in Kiev a day after a pro-Russian lawmaker was found dead, local police said Thursday. Oles Buzyna, 45, who worked as editor-in-chief of a leading daily until March, was killed early Thursday afternoon by two masked men shooting from a passing car, the Ukrainian interior ministry said in a statement. Buzyna, who ran for a seat in parliament on the Russian Bloc ticket in 2012 and was known for his pro-Russian

President Park Geun-hye Thursday did not rule out launching an independent counsel investigation into a bribery scandal involving some of her key aides.   She also pledged to seek every measure to quell suspicions surrounding the scandal, Kim Moo-sung, the leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, said after an impromptu meeting with Park prior to her departure for a four-nation South America tour.   The rare 40-minute one-on-one, behind-closed-doors meeting came as the government and ruling party are

Samsung Electronics Co.'s handsets emit less electromagnetic waves than Apple Inc.'s iPhones, a research report showed Sunday, with the low-end Galaxy Mega smartphone being the No. 1 radiowave-safe product.   According to the research conducted by market tracker Cnet in France, the Specific Absorption Rate, a measure of emission of electromagnetic fields, came to 0.142 watts per kilogram for the Galaxy Mega, hovering far below the 0.972 W/kg by Apple's latest iPhone 6.   The global industry requ

South Korea's benchmark stock index is expected to reach an all-time high this year, propelled by ample liquidity around the globe and other favorable conditions, securities companies said Sunday.   The local stock market could undergo a temporary correction during the first half of this year, but will likely stage an overall bull run in the second half, they said.   According to a survey of industry leader Samsung Securities Co. and nine other brokerages, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index i

The head of the ruling party called on the prosecution Sunday to conduct a thorough probe into a high-profile corruption scandal involving key politicians and close aides to President Park Geun-hye.   The South Korean political circle has been embroiled in a corruption scandal as Sung Wan-jong, the former head of a local builder, left behind a so-called "bribery list" while committing suicide last week.  Sung's death came just hours before a local court was to issue an arrest warrant for him on

South Korea's exports are likely to drop nearly 2 percent in 2015 from a year earlier due to falling oil prices and other negative external factors, the central bank said Sunday.   In its latest outlook, the Bank of Korea predicted the nation's customs-cleared exports to come to $562 billion this year, down 1.9 percent from the previous year.   Outbound shipments are expected to shrink 3.6 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, and inch down 0.2 percent in the second half of

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected the construction site of a second airport terminal in Pyongyang, calling on officials to complete the project in a way to highlight national identity, the North's media said Sunday.   The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim gave his so-called field guidance at Terminal 2 of Pyongyang International Airport, whose construction is nearing its completion. The dispatch did not give details about the date of his visit.   Kim said that it would be

LG Electronics Co.'s next flagship smartphone is expected to keep detachable batteries like its predecessors, industry sources said Sunday, a move that may allow the company to lure users unfamiliar with Samsung's new built-in batteries.   The G4 will come with 3,000 mAh batteries that can be separated from the smartphone, and also have a port which allows users to insert secure-digital memory cards to expand data capacity, the sources said.   Such features contrast with Samsung Electronics Co.'

The two South Koreans left standing at the Masters struggled to move up the leaderboard at the first major championship of the men's golf season on Saturday.   Noh Seung-yul and Bae Sang-moon both shot an even-par round of 72 at Augusta National Golf Club. Noh, playing in his first Masters, started his day with a double bogey before making three birdies against one bogey, and is sitting at even par for the tournament, good for a six-way tie for 30th.   Bae, playing at Augusta for the third time,

South Korea has been accepted as a founding member of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, China's finance ministry said Saturday.    The approval was made by existing members, including China, Britain and France, the Chinese ministry said in a statement posted on its website.    Austria and Spain were also accepted as founding members of the AIIB on Saturday, according to the statement, bringing the number of founding members to 41 nations.    On March 27, South Korea applied to