SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Vote counting began for Wednesday's local elections, with exit polls showing the ruling and main opposition parties each winning five of the 17 metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial posts up for grabs, while running neck-and-neck in the other races.Voting took place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 13,665 polling stations nationwide, drawing 56.8 percent of eligible voters, according to a preliminary count by the National Election Commission (NEC). The turnout was the highest for nati

INCHEON (Yonhap) – Prosecutors said on Wednesday they have requested arrest warrants for two close aides of the de-facto owner of the sunken ferry Sewol as part of their expanded probe into multiple corruption allegations surrounding the owner family.Prosecutors suspect the two – Go Chang-hwan, head of Semo Group, and Byeon Ki-choon, head of Semo's shipbuilding unit Chonhaiji – inflicted losses on their firms to help the owner family create slush funds.They are deemed close aides of Yoo Byung-eu

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Three weeks after South Korea's ferry tragedy, the government on Wednesday said it miscounted the number of survivors, a stunning error and the latest of many missteps that have eroded the nation's confidence in its leaders.Coast guard chief Kim Suk-kyoon said only 172 people survived the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol – not 174, as the government had been saying since April 18. Kim said one of the survivors was accidentally listed twice, and he blamed the other mi

BRIGHTON, United Kingdom (AFP) - Gay couples across England and Wales said "I do" on Friday night as a law authorizing same-sex marriage came into effect at midnight, the final stage in a long fight for equality.Prime Minister David Cameron hailed what he said was an "important moment for our country,” and a rainbow flag flew above government offices in London in celebration.In Brighton on England's south coast, Neil Allard and Andrew Wale exchanged vows and rings in the opulent splendour of the

PERTH, Australia (AP) – No debris spotted in an area off the west coast of Australia has been recovered, a Malaysian minister involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 said Saturday, adding he hoped for some news soon.Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters near Kuala Lumpur after meeting several families of passengers on the plane that there was no new information on the objects, which could just be regular debris floating in the ocean, or could be from the missing pl

A senior judge in South Korea's southern city of Gwangju offered to resign Saturday, holding himself accountable for the much-criticized ruling that valued a day's prison labor by a former tycoon at 500 million won (US$467,726).The ruling by Chang Byong-woo, the chief of the Gwangju District Court, caused an angry uproar across the country, as it would have allowed Huh Jae-ho, 72, the former chairman of the now-defunct Daeju Group, to pay off his fines of 25.4 billion won through a mere 50 days

North Korea and Russia have agreed to boost economic ties by pushing for trilateral projects involving South Korea, including a plan to support Russian companies' entry into an inter-Korean industrial complex, a media report said Saturday.The agreement between the two was made earlier this week when Russia's Far East Development Minister Alexander Galushka visited the North for a five-day run until Friday to explore ways to boost bilateral economic cooperation, according to the Russian news agen

The South Korean stock market is expected to trade in a narrow range next week amid a series of events at home and abroad, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 2.22 percent from the previous week to close at 1,981.00 Friday, supported by the improved consumers' data from the U.S. and rosy outlook over the eurozone economy.Earlier this week, Seoul shares traded lower after British bank HSBC said the PMI for China's manufacturing sector is expected

North Korea continued its criticism of South Korea on Saturday for allegedly sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into its territory, while remaining mum on Seoul's proposals for expanded inter-Korean cooperation.An unidentified spokesman for the North's delegation to the inter-Korean high-level contact issued a statement that accused the South Korean government of disseminating leaflets critical of its regime, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).Earlier this week, the reclusiv

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin called President Barack Obama on Friday to discuss a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis, while Ukraine's fugitive leader urged a nationwide referendum that would serve Moscow's purpose of turning its neighbor into a loosely knit federation.    The statement from Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president who fled to Russia last month after three months of protests, raised the threat of more unrest in Ukraine's Russian-speaking easte

HONG KONG (AFP) - Asia's markets were mixed in edgy trade on Wednesday after Russia ratcheted up tensions in Eastern Europe by formally absorbing Crimea from Ukraine.Investors are also awaiting the end of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting, hoping for some guidance from its new head Janet Yellen on her plans for interest rates.Tokyo rose 0.36 percent, or 51.25 points, to end at 14,462.52 and Sydney added 0.21 percent, or 11.0 points, to 5,355.6.But Seoul lost 0.13 percent, or 2.53 point

LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday that G7 nations meeting next week must discuss the permanent expulsion of Russia from the wider G8 following the crisis in Crimea."I think we should be discussing whether or not to expel Russia permanently from the G8 if further steps are taken" by Russia to destabilise Ukraine, Cameron told parliament.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – Investigators are trying to restore files deleted last month from the home flight simulator of the pilot aboard the missing Malaysian plane to see if they shed any light on the disappearance, Malaysia's defense minister said Wednesday. Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference that the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, is considered innocent until proven guilty of any wrongdoing, and that members of his family are cooperating in the investigation. Files containing

China's top negotiator on the North Korean nuclear issue, Wu Dawei, has been holding talks with his North Korean counterpart in Pyongyang on restarting the six-party talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons program, the Chinese foreign ministry said Wednesday. Wu arrived in Pyongyang on Monday, the North's state media said in a one-line report, without giving details of his itinerary.China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters during a regular press briefing that Wu has b

TOKYO (AP) – Japan says it won't change its 1993 apology over a system of forced prostitution for its military during World War II, but will continue to re-examine a 20-year-old study on which it was based. Japan has come under fire from Asian neighbors for setting up a team to review history and verify the accuracy of interviews with women who said they worked as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers before and during the war.Historians say tens of thousands of women served as sex slaves, called ``c