Investment by Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top smartphone and flat-screen TV maker, jumped 22 percent in the first half of the year compared with a year ago despite bleak economic circumstances, a report showed Tuesday.The tech behemoth spent a total of 19.7 trillion won (US$17.4 billion) on facility investment as well as research and development(R&D) in the January-June period, compared w

A security flaw in Apple's iOS operating system allows text messages to be spoofed, well-known hacker Pod2g says.If exploited, the flaw allows someone to send a text message with a different address on the "reply" line from what appears in the "from" field of the message, Pod2g said.Such a message could appear to be from someone a user trusts, such as a family member, with a message to asking for

An outbreak of cholera in West Africa has infected more than 13,000 people and killed at least 258 people in Sierra Leone and Guinea, authorities said as they appealed for international assistance.Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma has declared the outbreak there an ``emergency issue,'' and has set up a task force to prepare the budget that will be needed to stem the outbreak.``All of this

Apple is Wall Street's all-time MVP _that's Most Valuable Property.On Monday, Apple's surging stock propelled the company's value to $624 billion, the world's highest, ever. It beat the record for market capitalization set by Microsoft Corp. in the heady days of the Internet boom.After a four-month dip, Apple's stock has hit new highs recently because of optimism around what is believed to be the

The free online music video of "Gangnam Style," a new hit song by South Korean rapper Psy, broke the 40 million mark in YouTube views on Monday.The video had attracted 40,500,000 views by Monday morning, about a month after it was put on the free video-sharing service.Psy, whose real Korean name is Park Jae-sang, is not well known outside his country but rose to stardom on YouTube for the "Gangnam

South American nations on Sunday backed Ecuador's decision to grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, urging dialogue to end the crisis pitting Quito against London.Foreign ministers of the Union of South American Nations, meeting in Ecuador's biggest city Guayaquil, expressed "solidarity" with Quito and urged the parties "to pursue dialogue in search of a mutually acceptable solution,"

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange portrayed himself Sunday as a victim of an American “witch hunt” over his secret-spilling website in a defiant address from the balcony of an embassy where he has holed up to avoid extradition to face sex assault allegations. Surrounded by British police who want to detain him, Assange made no mention of the sex assault case in Sweden or how long he would remain in

An appellate court on Friday upheld a two-year prison term and a fine of 390 million won ($348,900) given to a cousin of President Lee Myung-bak's wife for receiving bribes from an ailing savings bank in return for influence peddling.Kim Jae-hong, the cousin of first lady Kim Yoon-ok, was convicted of taking 390 million won in kickbacks from the chairman of Jeil Savings Bank between September 2008