SEOUL (AFP) – Korean Air and European aerospace giant Airbus have signed an agreement to jointly bid for an $8-billion jet fighter project, an airline spokesman said Sunday, pitting them against a team comprised of Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries. The project is designed to develop and produce 120 fighter jets of a new "indigenous" type to replace the country's ageing fleet of F-4s and F-5s."We've signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus," a Korean Air spokesman told AFP.O

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis praised big families on Wednesday as a gift from God, after his comments that Catholics don't have to breed ``like rabbits'' made headlines this week.Francis said numerous children don't cause poverty in the developing world, as some have suggested, and that the real cause of poverty is an unjust economic system that idolizes money over people.Francis reviewed his recent trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines during his weekly general audience. During the trip, Fr

PARIS (AFP) – France unveiled a raft of measures Wednesday to curb radicalization and better monitor jihadists two weeks after an Islamist killing spree in Paris that sent shockwaves across Europe.Jitters from the worst attack on French soil in decades have spread to the country's neighbors and the European Union is also expected to reveal new counterterrorism measures on Wednesday.In Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced more than 700 million euros ($800 million) will be spent over the n

TOKYO (AP) – Japan is doing all it can to free two hostages the Islamic State group is threatening to kill within 72 hours, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday, vowing never to give in to terrorism. Abe returned to Tokyo from a six-day Middle East tour slightly ahead of schedule and convened a Cabinet meeting soon after.``We are fighting against time, and we'll make an all-out effort and use every diplomatic route that we have developed to win the release of the two,'' he said.Abe said he w

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea said Thursday that a recent series of cyberattacks on its nuclear power operator would not cause any direct danger to the operation of 23 nuclear reactors in the country.Over the past week, an anonymous anti-nuclear group had posted a series of documents and operating manuals for some South Korean nuclear reactors on the Internet, causing a safety concern in the country. But the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., the operator of 23 nuclear reactors in the country, cla

HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong police arrested 12 protesters blocking several roads as pro-democracy demonstrators returned to a site they had occupied for more than two months before police dispersed them, officials said Thursday.A statement said police used pepper spray and batons overnight to break up the protest in the Mong Kok neighborhood and arrested demonstrators on charges ranging from assaulting a police officer to failing to produce proof of identity. The statement said two police officer

BEIJING (Yonhap) – A high-ranking Chinese official's visit to the North Korean Embassy in Beijing last week to pay homage to the country's late leader, Kim Jong-il, suggests that China intends to develop a "normal" relationship with its estranged ideological neighbor, multiple Chinese scholars said in a media report Thursday.Liu Yunshan, who ranks fifth in China's ruling Communist Party hierarchy, visited the North's embassy on the eve of the third anniversary of the death of the North's late le

TOKYO (AP) – Five South Korean men have been arrested in southern Japan on suspicion of stealing an ancient Buddha statue, police said Tuesday.Four suspects were found Monday evening in possession of a copper Buddha statue that went missing from the Bairinji temple in Tsushima city, said Keiichi Matsushita, deputy chief of the South Tsushima division of the Nagasaki prefecture police. The statue, measuring about 10 centimeters (4 inches), was found in a paper bag carried by the suspects. They we

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea's economy is expected to grow 3.8 percent in 2015 on the back of the government's efforts to boost it through fiscal stimulus and monetary policy easing, a report by a leading international economic organization showed Tuesday.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its Economic Outlook report that South Korea's gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic performance, will move up from the 3.5 percent growth foreca

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) – North Korea held a mass rally Tuesday in its capital to protest a United Nations resolution condemning its human rights record.Thousands of protesters in Kim Il Sung Square carried banners praising their leaders and condemning the United States. Such mass rallies are organized by the government and are used to express its official line.North Korea has denounced the U.N. resolution, which is the first to urge the Security Council to refer the issue to the Internation

MONROVIA (AFP) – They carry photos, bags of food – and hope. But what the families idling at the gate of this Ebola centre in Monrovia lack is news of the fate of their sick loved ones inside.George Williams brought his wife and daughter to the Island Clinic on Tuesday and since then has had "no news, no contact with my family"."I trust the doctors and the government," he says.But his faith draws hoots of laughter from the 40-odd others also waiting. For days, they say, no news of their family h

INCHEON (Yonhap) – The South Korean duo of Lim Yong-kyu and Chung Hyeon reached the final of the men's doubles tennis at the Incheon Asian Games on Sunday, after a come-from-behind victory over an Indian team in three sets.In the semifinals held on the center court of Yeorumul Tennis Courts, Lim and Chung pulled off a 2-1(6<8>-7 7-6<6> 11-9) win against India's Divij Sharan and Yuki Bhambri in 2 hours, 15 minutes.The South Korean men lost the first set, but tied the match in the second set. As t

SANILURFA, Turkey (AP) – Airstrikes likely carried out by a U.S.-led coalition struck an oil refinery in Syria held by the Islamic State group Sunday, a witness said, shaking buildings and sending flames shooting into the air near the Turkish border.Explosions lit the sky ``for two hours'' at the refinery in the northern Syrian town of Tel Abyad around 2:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Saturday), local businessman Mehmet Ozer said.  ``Our building was shaking and we saw fire, some 60 meters (65 yar