Kim In-Kyung increased her lead to three strokes in the LPGA Tour’s Portland Classic by shooting a 5-under 67 to reach 12 under after Friday’s second round.The South Korean had seven birdies and two bogeys in her morning round in cloudy, calm conditions at Columbia Edgewater.Spain’s Carlota Ciganda and South Korea’s Mi Jung Hur shot 65 to join Laura Diaz at 9 under. Diaz had a 68.South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu, the Canadian Women’s Open winner on Sunday, was 8 under along with Mina Harigae, China’s X

North Korea's main sports body reaffirmed its decision not to send a cheerleading squad to the upcoming Asian Games, putting the blame on South Korea.The North's Olympic Committee accused Seoul of "abusing sacred sports and cultural exchange" for a "sinister political purpose."The DPRK was compelled to give up the decision to send the cheerleading squad as they (South Korean authorities) decried it decision, far from rejoicing over and welcoming its sincerity," the committee said in a statement

An experimental Ebola drug healed all 18 monkeys infected with the deadly virus in a study, boosting hopes that the treatment might help fight the outbreak raging through West Africa -- once more of it can be made.The monkeys were given the drug, ZMapp, three to five days after they were infected with the virus and when most were showing symptoms. That is several days later than any other experimental Ebola treatment tested so far.The drug also completely protected six other monkeys given a slig

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korean stocks may gain with a steady flow of foreign funds, but advances are not likely to be large due to lingering geopolitical concerns, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) ended at 2,068.54 on Friday, up 4.6 percent from the previous week's closing.  Korean shares started the week on a good note as foreigners loaded up on blue-chip stocks on hints of quantitative easing in the eurozone and the continuation of a low-r

European Union leaders gather in Brussels Saturday to thrash out a response to Russia's deeper involvement in war-torn Ukraine and to bring new faces to key EU posts.The 28 heads of state and government sit down for talks as accusations rain down on the Kremlin that Russian combat troops are fighting inside Ukraine, with fears growing that Europe may soon face a full-scale war on its eastern borders.It has only been five weeks since EU states toughened their sanctions against Russia, but with th

A U.N. watchdog issued a fresh call Friday to Japan to take full blame for forcing women from Korea and elsewhere in Asia to work as sex slaves during World War II.The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said that by failing to treat the ageing survivors properly, Japan had let their suffering drag on for decades."What we're asking the Japanese government is to conclude investigations into the violations of the rights of comfort women by the military and to bring to justic

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) _ Officials from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the main groups fighting in Gaza, said Tuesday they have reached a deal with Israel to end a seven-week war that has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians. There was no immediate Israeli comment.Ziad Nakhala, a senior official in Islamic Jihad, said the deal calls for an ``open-ended'' cease-fire, and an Israeli agreement to ease its blockade of Gaza to allow relief supplies and construction materials into the war-battered territ

Tens of thousands of unionized South Korean financial workers on Tuesday voted to go on strike next month to protest what they called government interference in the local finance sector.About 100,000 union members from 37 financial companies took part in the vote, with 91 percent of them endorsing the strike scheduled for Sept. 3, their umbrella union Korea Financial Industry Union said in a news release.Ahead of the planned strike, union members plan to hold a protest rally at Yeouido, the coun

Hundreds of unionized workers at a major university hospital in Seoul will begin an indefinite strike this week in protest of a government push to privatize medical services, the union said Tuesday.The strike, which follows two rounds of similar strikes in June and July, will begin on Wednesday, involving about 300 to 400 of the Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) union's 1,500 members, it said. But the strike will exclude those working in intensive-care and emergency rooms and other essen

The foreign ministers from South Korea and Mongolia agreed Tuesday to set up a government channel to discuss trade, economic and other bilateral issues as part of efforts to strengthen their countries' strategic partnership, Seoul's foreign ministry said.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se was on a three-day visit to Mongolia starting on Monday. On Tuesday, he held talks with his Mongolian counterpart Luvsanvandan Bold, the South Korean foreign ministry said in a news release.The two top diplomats agr

Turkey said it had summoned the German ambassador Monday to demand an explanation for reports that Berlin has been spying on the country for years. German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Sunday that the country's BND secret service had spied on Turkey since 2009 and had listened in on at least one telephone conversation of US Secretary of State John Kerry.Ambassador Eberhard Pohl was asked to provide a "formal and satisfactory explanation" over the reports and was told that if the claims were tru

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sowed confusion Monday with an announcement that appeared to indicate he was leaving his embassy bolt hole, but his spokesman later clarified that that would not happen unless the impasse over his extradition were resolved.Assange made the cryptic comments during a press conference at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London following a meeting with Ricardo Patino, the Latin American nation's foreign minister. When asked about speculation _ some of it sparked by a recent

The remains of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash arrived in territory held by the Ukrainian government on Tuesday on their way to the Netherlands, after delays and haphazard treatment of the bodies that put pressure on European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels to impose tougher economic sanctions on Russia.The crash site itself, in farmland held by the pro-Russian separatists whom the West accuses of shooting down the plane, remained unsecured five days after the disaster _ another