South Korean stocks got off to a strong start Monday led by bullish construction and tech companies, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shot up 18.74 points, or 0.93 percent to 2,024.97 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Shares gathered ground across the board, with builders and tech blue-chips leading the climb. Major construction firm Hyundai Engineering & Construction soared 4 percent, with chip giant SK hynix hiking 3.7 percent. The local currency was tra

South Korean stocks rebounded Friday from the previous session, as the U.S. Senate's nod on the motion to appoint Federal Reserve vice chair Janet Yellen as the next head relieved investors' fear about an early stimulus cut, analysts said. The local currency rose slightly against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 12.45 points, or 0.62 percent, to close at 2,006.23. Trading volume was moderate at 342.2 million shares worth 3.38 trillion won (US$3.18

The latest round of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and China ended Friday after the countries exchanged their initial offers for the level of liberalization for goods, marking what South Korean officials called a good start.The latest round of South Korea-China FTA negotiations, the eighth of its kind, had been held since Monday in South Korea's western port city of Incheon."In the latest round of negotiations, the two sides began discussions for a ro

South Korean stocks traded 0.38 percent higher late Friday morning, as public firms and telecom companies extended gains, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 7.56 points to 2,001.34 as of 11:20 a.m.State-run electricity provider Korea Electric Power Corp. shot up nearly 3 percent, with top mobile carrier SK Telecom climbing 1.7 percent. In contrast, auto blue-chips lost ground. Industry leader Hyundai Motor shed 0.2 percent and its affiliate Kia Motors fel

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, tracking its U.S. peers overnight with the Dow Jones industrial average rising to a record high on the back of economic data, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 5.06 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,998.84 in the first 15 minutes of trading. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 16,000 mark for the first time on fewer-than-expected jobless claims and getting inflation under control.Public companies and

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 16,000 for the first time Thursday as the blue-chip index races toward its best year in a decade.The Dow has been on fire lately, propelled higher by a combination of solid corporate earnings, a steadily strengthening economy and easy-money policies from the Federal Reserve.Since the start of the year, the Dow is up 22 percent and has now topped three 1,000 point milestones in 10 months. It eclipsed 14,000 in February and 15,000 in May. If it holds o

A man charged with sending poison-laced letters to President Barack Obama and other officials has been charged with trying for a second time to frame the man first arrested in the case _ an Elvis impersonator. James Everett Dutschke has been jailed since April on charges of sending ricin-tainted letters to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge, Sadie Holland. The new indictment says Dutschke, while incarcerated, tried to recruit someone to make more ricin and send it to Wicker.Th

Three women have been freed after spending 30 years held captive in a south London home, including one woman believed to have spent her entire life in domestic slavery, police announced Thursday.London's Metropolitan Police spoke about the rescues after two people _ a man and a woman, both 67 _ were arrested early Thursday on suspicion of forced labor and domestic servitude.The arrests came as part of a slavery investigation launched after one of the captives contacted a charity in October to sa

Ukraine said Thursday it was suspending preparations to sign a landmark agreement with the European Union and would focus instead on restoring ties with Russia, appearing to yield to pressure from its powerful neighbor and dealing a harsh blow to plans for the ex-Soviet nation to integrate further with the West. The cabinet's decision follows the Ukrainian parliament's refusal earlier Thursday to pass a bill allowing the release of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a key EU conditio

The Pentagon dismissed a press report Thursday directly linking Japan's envisioned exercise of its right to collective self-defense with possible emergencies on the Korean Peninsula.In a front-page story, the Chosun Ilbo, a major South Korean daily, quoted a Pentagon official as saying the U.S. includes the peninsula in the scope of Japan's right to collective self-defense.The article "mischaracterized U.S. policy with respect to Northeast Asia," Lt. Col. Jeff Pool, a Pentagon spokesman, told Yo

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday North Korea keeps making "very disturbing choices," apparently referring to its detention of another American citizen."This is obviously one of those moments when North Korea needs to figure out where it's heading and recognize that the United States of America is not engaging in belligerent and threatening behavior," he said, emerging from a Senate hearing, according to MSNBC television."These are all very, very disturbing choices by the North Koreans

A Silicon Valley jury on Thursday added $290 million more to the damages Samsung Electronics owes Apple for copying vital iPhone and iPad features, bringing the total amount the South Korean technology titan is on the hook for to $930 million.The verdict covers 13 older Samsung devices that a previous jury found were among 26 Samsung products that infringed Apple patents.The previous jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion. But U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ordered the new trial and tossed out $450 mill