Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG were among 16 of the world’s biggest banks sued by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for allegedly manipulating the London interbank offered rate from 2007 to 2011.The FDIC, acting as receiver for 38 failed banks including Washington Mutual Bank, IndyMac Bank FSB and Colonial Bank, claimed that institutions sitting on the U.S. dollar Libor panel “fraudulently and collusively suppressed” the rate. Also named in the suit, file

North Korea threatened to boast its "nuclear deterrence" if the United States continues to make "nuclear threats" against the communist nation, a possible warning of an additional nuclear test or long-range rocket launch.The so-called nuclear threats from the U.S. have long been the basis for North Korea's development of nuclear weapons."If the U.S.'s nuclear threats and blackmail continue, the struggle of our military and people to strengthen our self-defensive nuclear deterrence will continue,

Disappearance of Malaysian jet appears ‘deliberate’: PMMalaysia's leader Saturday said communications aboard a missing jet were switched off and its course deliberately changed by someone on board before the aircraft disappeared a week ago, but stopped short of saying it had been hijacked.Final satellite communication with the Boeing 777 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing came more than six-and-a-half hours after it vanished from civilian radar at 1:30am on March 8, Prime Minister Najib Razak t

A Malaysian investigation into the missing flight 370 has concluded that one or more people with flying experience switched off communications devices and deliberately steered the airliner off-course, a Malaysian government official involved in the investigation said Saturday.The official called the disappearance a hijacking, though he said no motive has been established and no demands have been made known. It's not yet clear where the plane ended up, said the official, who spoke on condition of

South Korean President Park Geun-hye welcomed Japan's announcement that it would stand by past historical apologies, her spokesman said Saturday, raising hopes of a turnaround in strained Seoul-Tokyo relations."We are glad that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his intention to inherit the Murayama and Kono statements," Park was quoted as saying by presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook."We hope this will be a chance to ease the pain of victims from Japan's wartime sex slavery, and further bols

A nuclear reactor at South Korea's Wolseong nuclear power plant automatically stopped operating early Saturday, plant operators said, adding that they are still investigating the cause.The 700,000-kilowatt reactor stopped operating at 6:50 a.m. when its safety shutdown system became engaged, according to Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. It added that power supply will remain stable throughout the weekend.The reactor, located in the country's southeastern provincial city of Gyeongju, began comme

Two South Korean military aircraft left for Malaysia Saturday to assist with ongoing international search efforts for a missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, military sources said.The P-3C Orion patrol aircraft and C-130 military transport airplane will arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 7:00 p.m., Seoul time.They will lend support in searching for the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared somewhere over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam last week.The plane disappeared less than an hour aft

The chairwoman of Hyundai Group vowed to invigorate the embattled conglomerate, currently undergoing a self-imposed debt reduction program, and its shipping affiliate as she launched a new vessel on Friday.“The launching of the ship will help Hyundai Group and Hyundai Merchant Marine make the next leap forward," Hyun Jeong-eun said at the christening ceremony for Hyundai Dream, a 131,000 twenty-foot equivalent container unit vessel on Geoje Island, some 470 kilometers southeast of Seoul.Hyun's a

CARLSBAD, New Mexico (AP) -- Back-to-back accidents and an above-ground radiation release have closed the U.S. government's only deep underground nuclear waste dump indefinitely, raising questions about a cornerstone of the Department of Energy's $5-billion-a-year program for cleaning up waste scattered across the country from decades of nuclear bomb making.On Feb. 5, the mine was shut and six workers sent to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation after a truck hauling salt caught fire.N

BEIJING (AFP) -- China this month arrested more than 1,000 people suspected of involvement in baby-trafficking, in a police operation which also rescued 382 infants, local media reported on Friday.A total of 1,094 suspects involved in four baby trafficking rings were detained in a nationwide operation which began on February 19, the Beijing News daily said, citing a police statement.China has a flourishing underground child trafficking industry, for which tens of thousands of children are believ

BEIJING (AFP) -- China on Friday issued a report on human rights in the US, denouncing it for foreign drone strikes, state-sponsored spying and “rampant” gun crime after Washington criticized its rights record.Beijing said the U.S. "concealed and avoided mentioning its own human rights problems,” such as a government-run intelligence program known as PRISM which it said "seriously infringes on human rights.”The document came after the State Department issued its annual global human rights report

North Korea rejected Seoul's call for the release of a South Korean Christian missionary who has been held in the communist country for more than four months, officials said Friday.South Korea had demanded that North Korea quickly release Kim Jong-uk and guarantee his safety before his repatriation to the South, according to the officials at the unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations.It was not immediately clear if the North gave a reason for its refusal of the request delive

Struggling to dispel rising public concerns over a massive leak of personal data, South Korea's financial regulator reasserted Thursday that the information stolen from several credit card firms has not been circulated.Over the weekend, the Financial Services Commission revealed that some 20 million bank clients' personal data, including bank account numbers, addresses and credit ratings, had been leaked from KB Kookmin, Nonghyup and Lotte.A leak also occurred at Kookmin Bank, which shared its c