Security on the Korean Peninsula worsened in the second quarter of the year to one of the lowest levels in recent years, a report showed Wednesday, as North Korea launched a long-range rocket and escalated belligerent rhetoric against the South.The Samsung Economic Research Institute said in a report that its Korean Peninsula Security Index (KPSI), which is calculated based on a survey of about 40

South Korea's stock market has seen trading volume and market capitalization plunge as investor sentiment worsened with the U.S. and Chinese economies showing signs of slowing down amid the eurozone financial crisis, market watchers said Wednesday.The benchmark KOSPI market's capitalization has dropped to 1,061 trillion won ($898 billion) as of May 31, a level similar to August last year. The seco

Paraguay's president and former priest Fernando Lugo has recognized a second love-child. This time it's a 10-year-old boy, born to a nurse in the northern state where Lugo served as a Catholic bishop before renouncing the priesthood and turning to politics. Lugo's lawyer, Marcos Farina, says the president has told him to file the paperwork needed to change the boy's last name to Lugo. His mother i

Google is escalating its rivalry with Microsoft with the purchase of Quickoffice, the maker of a widely used mobile application for working on documents created in Microsoft's programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.The deal announced Tuesday gives Google Inc. a new weapon to foil Microsoft Corp. as more people get work done on smartphones and tablet computers. Quickoffice mak

The United States is in the process of selling hundreds of cutting-edge weapons to South Korea, a deal expected to be worth $325 million, according to a defense agency here.The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it has notified Congress of possible sales to South Korea of 367 cluster bombs and associated parts, equipment, logistical support and training. The bombs, formally the sensor-fuzed

A U.S. drone strike in northwest Pakistan has killed al-Qaida's second-in-command, officials from both countries confirmed Tuesday, the most significant victory so far in the controversial bombing campaign and the biggest setback to the terror network since the death of Osama bin Laden.Abu Yahya al-Libi was considered a media-savvy, charismatic leader with religious credentials who was helping pre

The chairman of the troubled Korea Savings Bank was arrested Tuesday on charges of embezzlement and stealing bank funds as part of a probe into alleged irregularities by suspended savings banks, prosecutors said. Yoon Hyun-soo, 59, was accused of issuing some 150 billion won ($127.6 million) in illegal loans to a subsidiary of Taihan Electric Wire Co. and embezzling an unspecified amount of bank f

A Pennsylvania family who obtained a locket believed to have belonged to a Titanic survivor said they may have identified the original owner.Betty and Buz Carbone of Hempfield said their son bought the locket, which bears the letters "AMA" or "AWA" in intricate script, from an antiques dealer about 15 years ago and they now believe the item originally belonged to Annie Moore Ward of Philadelphia,

Libya's government has retaken control of the country's main airport from disgruntled militiamen who stormed the Tripoli site with heavy machine guns and armored vehicles on Monday, Libya's interim leader said.In an interview with the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera, the head of the country's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said the airport was attacked and held for several

A Canadian porn actor suspected of murdering and dismembering a Chinese student and mailing his body parts to Canada's top political parties was reading about himself on the Internet when he was arrested Monday at a cafe in Berlin. Canadian investigators say 29-year-old Luka Magnotta's obsessions led him to post Internet videos of his killing kittens, then a man, and finally to his arrest at the c