South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Friday following overnight losses on Wall Street as investors remained jittery over the global economic slowdown, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 0.90 points, or 0.05 percent, to trade at 1,932.19 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 0.38 percent, and top carmaker Hyundai

A small farming town in Romania is reeling Friday after learning angry pigs knocked a farmer's wife unconscious and began eating her.The Sun of London reported Irma Molnar, 56, somehow fell into the animals' sty in Brasov, and likely frightened them badly.Her husband, Sandor, found her badly maimed and rushed her to a local hospital where she died."Her ears and half her face were missing. Her fing

In isolated rural areas, the Internet, Skype, email and social networking sites are keeping older people "connected," Australian researchers say.Lead author Dr. Helen Feist, deputy director of the Australian Population and Migration Research Centre at the University of Adelaide, spent the past three years investigating how technology can be used in remote and rural areas of Australia to improve th

Researchers in New Zealand say they have genetically engineered a cow to produce milk free of a protein that causes allergies in children.The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used a technique known as RNA interference to block the production of the protein beta-lactoglobulin, which is produced in cows but not found in human milk.Study co-author Dr. Stefan Wagner

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. retained the top spot in the global mobile phone market in August on the back of steady sales of its products worldwide, industry data showed Friday.According to the data released by Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research, Samsung topped the world's handset market last month with a market share of 29 percent.The research firm attribu

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan issued an unusually sharp criticism Thursday of Japan's territorial claims and refusal to offer a sincere apology for its wartime atrocities.On a visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly's annual meeting, the minister made clear there will be "no compromise" on the matters unless Tokyo changes its attitude."Our position has always been firm and th

A North Korean nuclear envoy said Friday she held an informal meeting with her U.S. counterparts on the sidelines of a security conference here, where long-standing tensions over the North's nuclear ambition top the agenda.Choe Son-hui, the North's deputy chief envoy to the six-party talks, told Yonhap News Agency she met with U.S. representatives on Thursday evening during the two-day Northeast A

Massachusetts Gov. Patrick plans to appeal a ruling ordering a state-funded sex change for a convicted murderer, sources told WCVB-TV, Boston, Wednesday.Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf ruled Sept. 4 surgery is the "only adequate treatment" for Michelle Kosilek's gender identity disorder.Kosilek, 63, previously known as Robert, was convicted of his wife's 1990 murder and has attempted to castrate and kill

Police said Thursday they have assigned a security detail of about 10 officers to independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, the same level of protection given to candidates of major political parties.The National Police Agency said the bodyguards were sent on assignment Wednesday after two weeks of specialized training and will guard the candidate around the clock until the Dec. 19 polls.T

Kim Mi-hyun, a South Korean golfer with eight LPGA Tour wins, will retire from the sport after an LPGA stop on her home soil next month, officials said Thursday.Organizers of the LPGA KEB•HanaBank Championship, set for Oct. 19 to 21 in South Korea, said Kim had informed them of her plan to call it quits after the 54-hole tournament."She will be a special invitee for our tournament," an organizing

The United States government has formally notified Congress of a plan to seek the sale of 36 advanced attack helicopters to South Korea.A deal under the Foreign Military Sales program, if sealed, would be worth up to US$3.6 billion.In two separate notifications to Congress, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency at the Pentagon provided details of proposed sales of Boeing's AH-64D Apache Longbow

U.S. actress Kristen Stewart and British actor Robert Pattinson are living together again after a two-month separation, a source told UsMagazine.com.The couple of three years parted in July after Stewart, 22, publicly admitted she cheated on Pattinson, 26, with her married 41-year-old "Snow White and the Huntsman" director, Rupert Sanders."They are living together and have reconciled," an insider