South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday on the back of gains in blue-chip shares, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) moved up 6.84 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2009.60 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Tech shares led the market gain, with leading chipmaker SK hynix adding 3.05 percent and local handset maker LG Electronics moving up 1.93 percent. Flat panel maker LG Display gained 1.65 percent.Carmakers also opened bullish, with No. 1 Hyundai Motor increasi

Hankook Tire Co., the world's seventh-largest tire maker by sales, has decided to set up a plant in the U.S state of Tennessee, a senior U.S. auto industry official said Wednesday.Senior officials of the South Korean tire maker plan to visit the southern state next week to sign a memorandum of understanding with U.S. officials on building the plant near Nashville, the official spoke on condition of anonymity because no official announcement was made.In Seoul, a spokeswoman for Hankook Tire said

In a history-making selection, President Barack Obama nominated Janet Yellen to be chairman of the Federal Reserve, a critical post as the nation continues its fitful economic recovery. If confirmed she would be the first woman to lead the powerful central bank.Yellen, who currently holds the No. 2 spot at the Fed, would replace Ben Bernanke, whose eight-year tenure at the helm of the Fed ends Jan. 31.Obama introduced Yellen as a “proven leader.” `'And she's tough, not just because she's from Br

NASA's Jupiter-bound spacecraft hit a snag Wednesday soon after it used Earth as a gravity slingshot to hurtle toward the outer solar system, but mission managers said it's on course to arrive at the giant planet in 2016.Juno emerged from Earth's shadow in safe mode, a state that spacecraft are programmed to go into when there's some trouble. Despite the problem, “we believe we are on track as planned to Jupiter,” said project manager Rick Nybakken of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which ma

The United States on Wednesday cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to its Mideast ally Egypt, responding to the military ouster last summer of the nation's first democratically elected president and the crackdown on protesters that has sunk the country into violent turmoil.While the State Department did not provide a dollar amount of what was being withheld, most of it is linked to military aid. In all, the U.S. provides $1.5 billion in aid each year to Egypt.Officials said the aid being

Azerbaijan's president won a third five-year term by a landslide in Wednesday's election, according to preliminary results, extending decades of dynastic rule in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation allied with the West.An opposition challenger quickly cried foul, protesting what he described as widespread vote-rigging and questioning the legitimacy of the vote.With 72 percent of precincts counted, Ilham Aliyev was leading the field with nearly 85 percent of the vote, said the Central Election Commis

Sons of 16 high-ranking public officials have abandoned their South Korean nationality in an apparent attempt to evade mandatory military service, an opposition lawmaker said Wednesday.The sons became U.S. or Canadian citizens after giving up their Korean nationality when they were required by law to choose their nationality, Ahn Gyu-baek, a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, citing government data.Their fathers now all serve in the government. They include Yoo Min-bong, senior pr

The Netherlands apologized to Russia on Wednesday for the arrest and detention of a Russian diplomat _ but the move appears unlikely to be enough to ease growing tensions between the two nations.The swift apology by Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans aimed to smooth over a diplomatic spat that has further soured relations already tested by Russia's seizure last month of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship protesting oil drilling in the Arctic. Russia has charged all 30 people on board with piracy, wh

House Republican leaders are considering a short-term increase in the debt limit as a possible way out of the gridlock that threatens the nation with an unprecedented default in as little as a week, officials said Wednesday night. At the same time, there is far less urgency inside the leadership about ending a nine-day government shutdown which has caused inconvenience for many, but appears not to threaten the widespread economic damage a default might bring. Officials declined to say what condi

If she becomes the next Federal Reserve chair, the challenges that lay ahead for Janet Yellen will require both the steely intellect and the personable style that many attribute to her.The job as the world's most important banker comes with a daunting to-do list: deciding when to slow the Fed's stimulus, forging consensus from a fractious policy committee and calculating the effects of any economic slowdown from Washington's budget fight. That's in addition to monitoring volatile financial marke

South Korea's spy agency confirmed Tuesday that the North has restarted its Yongbyon reactor that had been mothballed since 2007.The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers from the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee that the five megawatt graphite moderated reactor has been in operation since around August.The confirmation is the first to come out of the NIS, although there have been much speculation that the North had recently turned on the reactor again. The reactor, locate

Samsung Electronics set out to promote its Galaxy Gear smart watch in the United States last weekend by releasing TV commercials. While some U.S. media -- namely Business Insider -- praised the new advertisements, others took issue with one of the spots with similarities to Apple’s 2007 “Hello” commercial.The Gear’s “Long Time Coming” ad consists of excerpts from old movies, cartoons and TV shows that feature characters communicating through their wrist device. Captain Kirk of “Star Trek,” Georg