A string of attacks across Iraq, including a coordinated wave of evening bombings in Baghdad, killed at least 45 people Monday as al-Qaida claimed responsibility for a recent spate of rare suicide attacks in the relatively peaceful Kurdish north.Monday's bombings marked the third day in a row that insurgents were able to unleash attacks powerful enough to claim fatalities numbering in the dozens. The mounting bloodshed is heightening worries that the country is returning to the widespread sectar

South Korea's economy is showing signs of recovering from its prolonged slump, the country's top economic policymaker said Tuesday, citing the latest major indicators pointing to the overall improvement. "Given major economic indicators, our economy is recently showing signs of recovering," Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said at a meeting with other government officials. He cited a 1.8 percent growth in industrial output in August and the upward trend in home prices in Seoul and its surrounding a

An unusual issue has cropped up in the gubernatorial race of the U.S. state of Virginia -- what to call the body of water between Korea and Japan.Terry McAuliffe, a Democratic candidate, on Monday threw his weight behind a grass-roots campaign to have the name "East Sea" used in the textbooks of public schools in the state just south of Washington, D.C."The body of water known, alternately, as the East Sea or the Sea of Japan, should be properly labeled with both names,"McAuliffe told reporters

North Korea has placed its troops on an emergency posture in protest against joint drills here by South Korea, the U.S. and Japan which involved a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Pyongyang’s state media said Tuesday. The General Staff of the Korean People’s Army lambasted the deployment of the USS George Washington in the East Sea, which arrived in Busan on Sept. 30 for four-day Seoul-Washington maritime exercises and trilateral programs with Tokyo scheduled for Oct. 8-10. The latter drills we

As the federal government shutdown entered its second week with no end in sight, the prospect of a U.S. default loomed next after the top Republican in Congress ruled out any measure to boost U.S. borrowing authority without concessions from President Barack Obama.Washington will be closely watching the financial markets on Monday to see if the uncompromising talk rattles Wall Street and worldwide economies just 10 days before the threat of default would be imminent.Treasury Secretary Jack Lew w

The purchase of 31 A350 planes deals a blow to U.S. rival Boeing, which had been JAL's star supplier for decades.Airbus Chief Executive and President Fabrice Bregier and Japan Airlines President Yoshiharu Ueki signed the deal Monday in Tokyo, which includes an option for JAL to buy 25 more Airbus planes. They declined to give the actual price tag on the deal. Ueki said the decision to turn to the European manufacturer, based in Toulouse, France, for replacements for retiring Boeing 777 jets was

The financial regulator said Monday it will ask the prosecution to investigate the chairman of Tong Yang Group for allegations that he sold his company debts to investors even though he knew about their default risks stemming from the group's liquidity shortage. "We found that there is a need for an investigation on (Tong Yang's) controlling stakeholders in relation to their financial transactions between the group's affiliates," Kim Gun-sop, the deputy governor of the Financial Supervisory Serv

Ex-president Chun Doo-hwan's closest aide and former intelligence chief has been probed over the wealth the former leader illegally accumulated during his rule in the 1980s, prosecution sources close to the investigation said Monday.Chang Se-dong was questioned last Tuesday over suspicions that he actively helped his former boss create a slush fund and received some of the money as a reward while serving as the head of the Agency for the National Security Planning, which later became the Nationa