The United States moved closer to the possibility of the first-ever default on the government's debt as Speaker John Boehner adamantly ruled out a House vote on a straightforward bill to boost the borrowing authority without concessions from President Barack Obama.With no resolution in sight, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned Sunday that Congress is “playing with fire” as he called on lawmakers to quickly pass legislation re-opening the government and a measure increasing the nation's $16.7 tri

Clashes erupted on Sunday across much of Egypt between security forces and supporters of the ousted president, leaving 44 killed, as rival crowds of supporters of the military and backers of the Islamist Mohammed Morsi it deposed poured into streets around the country to mark a major holiday.The capital, Cairo, saw multiple scenes of mayhem as street battles raged for hours in some neighborhoods, with Morsi supporters firing birdshot and throwing firebombs at police who responded with gunshots a

NongHyup Bank said Friday that it will demand 5 billion won ($4.7 million) from AhnLab Inc., an antivirus software firm, for damage from an allegedly North Korea-led cyber attack in March.The banking unit of NongHyup Financial Group Inc. said AhnLab's software program failed to deal with malicious code attacks on March 20, inflicting financial damage to the company."Since April, NongHyup has been negotiating with AhnLab concerning damages of the cyber attack," an official from the bank said. "If

4일 오전 3시50분께 강원도 춘천시 국군춘천병원 생활관에서 오모 일병이 동료병사인 권모 일병을 흉기로 찔러 숨지게 했다.오모 일병은 권모 일병을 찌른 뒤 난동을 부리다 부대 내 당직장교가 쏜 실탄 1발을 어깨에 맞아 중태에 빠져 수술을 받았다.군 당국은 사고현장을 통제하고 당직장교와 부대원들을 대상으로 사고 원인을 조사중이다. (신대원 기자) <관련 영문 기사>Soldier stabbed to death by colleague in military hospital A Korean soldier was stabbed to death early Friday morning by his colleague at a military hospital in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. An enlisted cadre at the hospital, only identified by his surname Oh, reportedly attacked a colleague who

Political disputes escalated Friday over the handling of the transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit after the prosecution found that it was not transferred to the National Archives at the end of the Roh Moo-hyun administration.The ruling Saenuri Party stepped up its attack on former president’s aides in the opposition bloc. The party claimed that they might have intentionally deleted the minutes before transferring other presidential records, to conceal Roh’s remarks, which allegedly made a

South Korean stocks closed little changed Friday after a choppy trading, as investors took to the sidelines on speculation that the partial government shutdown in the U.S. could last longer than expected, analysts said. The local currency rose slightly against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slipped 2.49 points, or 0.12 percent, to finish at 1,996.98. Trading volume was light at 236.5 million shares worth 4.24 trillion won ($3.95 billion) with decliners f

A T-shirt company which set out to fight homophobia on Wednesday heralded a man who threatened to disown his daughter for disowning her openly gay son.“We were blown away by how this guy stands by his grandson and stands up against his own homophobic daughter. This is real love!” FCKH8.com, a company which raises money for gay rights by selling t-shirts with anti-homophobic messages, said on its Facebook page after receiving a letter detailing the story.Luke Montgomery, the spokesperson of FCKH8

The United States will not agree to South Korea's reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel for commercial purposes due partly to proliferation concerns, a former U.S. State Department adviser on arms control said Friday. Seoul and Washington are in negotiations to renew their bilateral pact, dubbed the 123 agreement, with the latest and eighth round of negotiations held in Washington earlier this week.The agreement, last revised in 1974, was to expire in 2014, but the two countries agreed earlier this

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes posted the fastest times in both practice sessions at the Formula One Korean Grand Prix here on Friday, setting the pace early as the only F1 stop in the country got underway.The British driver clocked a lap time of 1 minute and 38.673 seconds in the afternoon practice at the Korea International Circuit here, about 400 kilometers south of Seoul. In the morning session, Hamilton topped the field with 1:39.630."It's been a good day," Hamilton said. "I feel like I have a

Adobe Systems Inc., the biggest maker of graphic-design software, said hackers broke into its networks and stole personal data on 2.9 million customers and source code for popular products including Acrobat and ColdFusion. The customer information includes names and encrypted credit- and debit-card numbers, and Adobe is notifying victims and resetting the passwords for affected accounts on its website, Brad Arkin, chief security officer, wrote yesterday in a blog post. The San Jose, California-b

South Korea's central bank said Friday it plans to aggressively pursue measures to stabilize the financial market, if speculation over U.S. monetary stimulus reduction increases market jitters.Uncertainty over the timing of the Federal Reserve's stimulus cut has grown as the U.S. central bank surprised the market last month by deciding to delay tapering its US$85 billion monthly bond-buying stimulus program.The Bank of Korea (BOK) said in its monetary policy report that if necessary, it will car

South Korean stocks traded 0.44 percent lower late Friday morning, dented by losses in large-cap exporters, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 8.83 points to 1,990.64 as of 11:20 a.m.Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's largest shipyard, slumped more than 3 percent, with LG Chem, a leading chemical maker, dipping 2.6 percent. In contrast, tech firms, though paring earlier gains, stayed in positive terrain. Samsung Electronics was up 0.4 percent, and SK h

The number of medical doctors arrested for sexual crimes has jumped almost two-fold over the last four years, data showed Friday.A total of 83 medical doctors were apprehended on charges of rape and sexual assaults last year, almost two times higher than 43 in 2008, according to the data compiled by the National Police Agency (NPA).The NPA data submitted to Rep. Kang Ki-youn of the ruling Saenuri Party indicated 39 doctors were arrested for the same charge in the first half of this year."Doctors