A North Korean patrol boat retreated after briefly crossing the west sea border into South Korea on Thursday, the South's military officials said."A North Korean patrol boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and sailed up to 0.36 kilometers into waters east of South Korea's Baengnyeong Island at about 11 a.m. while trying to cracking down on Chinese fishing boats illegally operating there," one of the officials said.The Northern vessel retreated at around 11:07 a.m. after warning signs were

President Lee Myung-bak's only son appeared before a special counsel on Thursday to face questioning over alleged irregularities in a land deal for his father's now-scrapped retirement home project.The 34-year-old Lee Si-hyung entered the counsel's office in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul, at 10:11 a.m. in his capacity as a criminal suspect in the alleged attempt to misuse taxpayer money through the aborted land deal. This is the first time in South Korean history a child of a sitting president has

South Korea started a final systems check on its space rocket on Thursday, a day ahead of its planned launch from a space center on the country's south coast, the government said.The outcome of the dress rehearsal on the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), also known as Naro-1, will come out at around 11 p.m., according to The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.The Naro-1 was erected and fastened to the launch pad at the Naro Space Center, some 485 kilometers south of Seoul, on Wed

China should play a key role in addressing global imbalances amid growing calls that emerging countries should shift their export-dependent growth models into domestic demand-centered growth, a U.S. economist said Thursday.The global economy is sputtering, mainly driven by sluggishness in major economies. Emerging countries, which recovered quickly from the 2008 global financial crisis, have faced criticism from some advanced nations which argue their export-driven growth contributes to global i

South Korean stocks started lower on Thursday as a grim outlook for local firms' third-quarter earnings dented investor sentiment, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 4.86 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,909.10 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Tech blue chips led the decline, with market bellwether Samsung Electronics sliding 0.46 percent and flat panel giant LG Display losing 0.33 percent.Leading carmaker Hyundai Motor fell 2.06 percent and its smaller af

A U.S. trade commission has ruled in favor of Apple Inc.'s patent infringement claims against Samsung Electronics Co., granting another home-turf victory to the iPhone maker.In a preliminary ruling on Wednesday, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) found some Samsung mobile devices infringed four Apple patents, including one design patent and three software patents, according to the documents by the agency's Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender.The preliminary ruling awaits the approv

A Chinese company says it is developing a smartphone with a display akin to those on e-readers to create an Android phone you only have to charge once a week.Chinese manufacturer Onyx International is working on the phone that would use the same kind of easy-on-the-eyes, long-lasting "e-ink" technology used in current e-readers, TG Daily reported.E-ink screens can be read in even the brightest conditions, but many consider their best feature to be extended battery life.Onyx is apparently looking

Group wants to slim down, put SK people in Hynix to revamp 　SK Hynix, the brainchild of SK Group’s highly publicized merger with Hynix Semiconductor this year, is expected to dismiss up to 20 percent of its executives within the next two months. Industry sources said the dismissal rate could go up to as high as 30 percent when including some of the non-executive employees.The sources said SK Hynix has been without an owner for too long, and had become too big and unwieldy for SK to cope with.“Th

Five teachers in Japan who sneaked off school grounds for a crafty cigarette in between lessons have been hit with hefty fines, officials said Tuesday.Education board bosses docked up to 500,000 yen ($6,300) from each of the five after they were caught smoking outside school gates during the working day.The five, who all work in the western city of Osaka, fell foul of a 2008 diktat by then-prefectural governor Toru Hashimoto, who imposed a total ban on lighting-up at all schools run by the autho

Athletic shoe company Reebok said it has created a custom pair of size 24 shoes for a New York state man known as the tallest in the United States.Igor Vovkovinskiy, 30, who stands at 7-foot-8 1/3, tried on the three pairs of custom-made size 24, 10E sneakers Thursday at the Rochester Athletic Club, the Rochester Post Bulletin reported Friday."It feels so good, like I'm walking on pillows or mattresses," said Vovkovinskiy, who moved to the United States in 1989 to receive surgery for tumors on h