South Korean stocks traded 0.29 percent lower late Monday morning as investors took a wait-and-see approach on U.S. economic data slated to be announced this week, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 5.44 points to 1,857.88 as of 11:20 a.m.Tech blue chips led the market decline, with leading Samsung Electronics falling 0.97 percent and top flat panel maker LG Display losing 1.64 percent.Mobile carriers also traded bearish, with SK Telecom falling 2.86 perce

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee once again topped the list of Korea’s 400 richest individuals of 2013 with total assets standing at 12.8 trillion won.Each of the 28 richest Koreans held assets worth more than 1 trillion won ($875 million) this year, financial information provider Chaebul.com reported on Monday.At nearly half of Lee’s total wealth, or 6.8 trillion won, Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo came in second, while the son of Samsung chairman and the vice chairman of S

Business sentiment among major Japanese manufacturers turned positive for the first time in nearly two years, a signal that companies are reacting positively to the weaker yen and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies to revive the stagnant economy.The Bank of Japan's closely-watched quarterly “tankan” survey for June showed that the index for major manufacturers rose to positive 4 from negative 8 in March. The survey released Monday was the first to be higher than zero since September 2011. A po

The ratio of younger people in South Korea's total working population has dropped sharply over the past three decades, data showed Monday, raising concerns the decline could undermine the country's overall growth potential.According to the data by Statistics Korea, the number of people aged 15-29 stood at 3.82 million in May, accounting for 15.1 percent of the total 25.39 million working population.The ratio is about half the corresponding figure recorded in May 1983 when related data started to

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top maker of smartphones, memory chips and flat-panel TVs, is projected to reap a record 10 trillion won ($8.76 billion) in operating profit in the second quarter thanks to steady sales of its latest Galaxy smartphone line-up and improved display and chip businesses, data showed Monday.Samsung Electronics' operating profit in the April-June period is expected to reach some 10.22 trillion won, according to the data compiled by financial information provider Fn

South Korea's consumer price growth stayed in the 1-percent range for the eighth straight month in June, indicating that inflation remains in a quite stable mode, a government report showed Monday.The country's consumer prices index rose 1 percent on-year in June, unchanged from the figure tallied in the previous month, which was the slowest growth since September 1999, according to the report by Statistics Korea. The June figure represented the eighth straight month since November that the pric

Fireworks were ready and champagne was flowing as festive crowds gathered on the streets on Sunday to mark Croatia's entry into the European Union, a major milestone some 20 years after the country won independence in a bloody civil war that shook the continent.Croatia will become the 28th EU member on Monday, the bloc's first addition since Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. Though enthusiasm for the country's achievement has been dampened by the EU's financial turmoil, it is a historic turni

North Korea lambasted South Korean President Park Geun-hye Monday for her remarks made in China that Pyongyang should give up its nuclear weapons.In a statement issued in the name of an unidentified spokesman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), the North warned such remarks "constitute unacceptable provocations against the country's dignity."Park on Saturday called for the North's denuclearization at a lecture given at Beijing's Tsinghua University during her four-da

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Monday, dented by losses in top-listed firms, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 7.98 points, or 0.43 percent to 1,855.34 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Leading carmaker Hyundai Motor fell more than 1 percent, with steelmaker POSCO dropping 1.2 percent. Tech giant Samsung Electronics traded flat. The local currency was trading at 1,143.20 won against the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 1.05 won from Frida

Edward Snowden is “under the care of the Russian authorities” and can't leave Moscow's international airport without their consent, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told The Associated Press Sunday in an interview telegraphing the slim and diminishing possibility that the National Security Agency leaker will end up in Ecuador. Russian President Vladimir Putin has distanced himself from the case since Snowden arrived in Russia last week. But Correa portrayed Russia as entirely the masters of Sn

Fred scored two goals and Neymar added another as host Brazil defeated world champion Spain 3-0 to win the Confederations Cup on Sunday as protesters clashed with riot police outside the Maracana Stadium.Fred put Brazil on the board less than two minutes into the match, Neymar added to the lead just before halftime and Fred netted his fifth goal in five matches early in the second half to give Brazil victory. The win for the host nation was surprisingly easy against the current world champion.Se

Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured out onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him. Waving Egyptian flags and carrying posters of Morsi crossed out in red, crowds packed central Cairo's Tahrir square, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against auto

NASA launched a satellite late Thursday on a mission to explore a little-studied region of the sun and to better forecast space weather that can disrupt communications systems on Earth.Unlike a traditional liftoff, the Iris satellite rode into Earth orbit on a Pegasus rocket dropped from an airplane that took off around sunset from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's central coast. About 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the coast and at an altitude of 39,000 feet, the airplane released t