Spanish police arrested Tuesday a former JP Morgan trader wanted by the United States on criminal charges in the massive "London Whale" fraud case.Officers arrested Spanish national Javier Martin-Artajo Rueda on an international detention request issued by the United States for alleged fraud and tax crimes, police said in a statement.After locating Martin-Artajo, Spanish police spoke to him and managed to get him to appear at a police station where he was arrested on Tuesday morning, police said

Syria's foreign minister said Tuesday his country would defend itself using ``all means available'' in case of a U.S. strike, denying his government was behind an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus and challenging Washington to present proof backing up its accusations.The United Nations said that its team of chemical weapons experts in Syria delayed a second trip to investigate an alleged poison gas attack near Damascus by one day for security reasons.Walid al-Moallem, speaking at a p

China became on Tuesday the last of the G20 nations to sign up to an international pact to help crack down on tax evasion by stepping up the automatic data exchange, the OECD said.The Group of 20 advanced and emerging nations pledged two years ago to sign up the pact as they stepped up efforts amid the global crisis to recover billions in funds that slip into offshore tax havens each year."Today's signing is both timely and important as the G20 has endorsed automatic exchange of information as t

Leaders of China's Communist Party will hold a key policy meeting in November to discuss deepening reform measures, state media reported Tuesday. The third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is expected to unveil major economic goals by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who took office in March. "The decision to hold the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in November was made at Tuesday's meeting of the CPC Central Committee's pol

South Korea has retrieved a century-old currency printing plate that was illegally taken to the United States by a thief during the 1950-53 Korean War, prosecutors said Tuesday.The metal printing plate, made in 1892 under the rule of King Gojong of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) to print the nation's first modern currency, was stolen in 1951 by a U.S. serviceman who came to fight in the Korean War, they said. At the time it was being kept at Seoul's Deoksu Palace, one of the royal palaces from Joseo

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won called on Qatar Tuesday to expand its investment here and its support for South Korean firms' participation in major construction projects in the Gulf state.He made the request during a meeting in Doha with his Qatari counterpart Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani.Chung is in the Gulf state on the second leg of his seven-day, four-nation tour from Sunday that also includes visits to Bahrain, Sri Lanka and Turkey.He requested that Qatar "make more investments

박근혜 대통령이 27일 취임후 처음으로 국내 민간 10대 그룹 총수와 오찬을 함께하기로 한 것은 현 경제 상황에 대한 낙관적이지 않은 전망이나 지표들이 나오는 가운데 경제활성화를 위해선 재계의 협조가 필수적 이라는 상황인식 때문으로 풀이된다. 박 대통령이 올해 후반기 국정운영의 최대 중점 과제로 투자활성화와 일자리 창 출을 위한 경제 부흥을 내세웠지만 정부의 의지와는 달리 경제 현장의 기업인들은 여러 가지 애로점을 토로하고 있다는 것이 청와대의 시각이다. 박 대통령이 “투자하는 분들은 업고 다녀야 한다”고 말할 정도로 그동안 기업들의 투자를 독려해왔는데도 10대 그룹들의 올해 상반기 투자 규모는 크게 줄어든 것 이 현실이다. 기업경영 평가업체인 CEO 스코어가 10대 그룹 계열사로 매출 기준 500대 기업 중 상반기 사업보고서를 발표한 75개 사의 유형 및 무형자산 취득액을 합산해 분석 해보니 10대 그룹의 올 상반기 투자실적은 36조70억원으로 작년 상반기(39조2천880 억원)보

The head of a U.N. inquiry into human rights in North Korea appealed on Tuesday for access to the country, even as Pyongyang condemned his commission's work as slanderous and provocative.The three-member Commission of Inquiry chaired by retired Australian judge Michael Kirby has just wrapped up hearing five days of often harrowing testimony in the South Korean capital -- mostly from North Korean defectors.As he prepared to give a final press conference Tuesday, the North's official Korean Centra

North Korea's top military official proposed talks with South Korea, China and the United States to discuss its nuclear weapons program, but the proposal was met with skepticism in Seoul and Washington, a diplomatic source said Tuesday. Choe Ryong-hae, the vice marshal of the North Korean People's Army, proposed the "four-party talks" to China in May, when he visited Beijing as a "special envoy" of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the source said. The North's proposal for such talks, which inclu

Six months in office, President Park Geun-hye’s approval ratings have reached a new high buoyed by her North Korea and security policies. Park’s approval ratings have gradually climbed since taking office in February and she now enjoys the highest approval ratings recorded by democratically elected presidents after six months in office, after President Kim Young-sam’s 83 percent. At the start of her term, a Gallup Korea polls gave Park an approval rating of 42 percent, which has climbed to 59 pe

South Korea was set to launch a multipurpose satellite later Thursday, with the Russian government giving its final approval for the scheduled launch from its Yasny launch base, officials here said.The Korea Multipurpose Satellite 5 (KOMSAT-5) is scheduled for launch at 8:39 p.m. (11:39 p.m. KST), using Russia's Dnepr, a space launch vehicle converted from a Soviet-era intercontinental ballistic missile."No problems have been detected so far, and both the satellite and its launch vehicle are rea