The Korean police are permitted to conduct preliminary investigations into U.S. Army officers and soldiers who are caught red-handed in criminal cases before they hand them over to the U.S. military police, the National Police Agency said Sunday. The police will also have the right to investigate all types of crimes committed by the U.S. servicemen under detention.Previously the U.S. military was only required to give “sympathetic consideration” when Korea requested a transfer even before indict

South Korea's global baseball ranking fell one notch to fourth place in 2012 compared to the year before, according to the rating list released Saturday by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF).The IBAF said the country earned 56.50 ranking points for the whole of this year for a total of 518.20 points. The points are tallied by checking performance of national baseball teams in international games, with more points being given to teams that win the world championships for youths and the

North Korea's planned long-range rocket launch is aimed at sending the message that the reclusive communist country is a nuclear power, Seoul's Ministry of Unification said Saturday.The ministry said Pyongyang had revised its Constitution earlier in the year to blatantly point out that it is a country armed with nuclear weapons.It added that while the North claims that the three stage space delivery vehicle is designed to send a satellite into low orbit around the Earth, if the launch is success

South Korea's ruling party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye will appear on the cover of U.S. news magazine Time, the party said Friday. The 60-year-old conservative candidate of the Saenuri Party is a leading contender in the Dec. 19 election, who could become the country's first woman president. The cover photo of Time's Dec. 17 Asia edition, published on the magazine's Web site, shows Park seated with her head turned to the right to face the camera.The cover headline reads "The Strongman's

South Korea will gradually increase the age of eligibility for public pensions to 65 from the current 60, the country's national pension fund said, in what could be a move to ease the government's financial burden from the retiring population. The age for a retirement pension will be 61 years in 2013 and increase one year every five years to reach 65 years in 2033, the National Pension Service (NPS) said on its Web site.People born between 1953 and 1956 will become eligible to claim their benefi

South Korea and the United States have agreed to step up cooperation on shale gas, an increasingly popular source of energy, a visiting top Seoul official said Friday."In a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu yesterday, I had a lot of discussions on cooperation in the shale gas sector," South Korean Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-woo told reporters. His ministry handles trade, energy and industry affairs. He is on a trip here for the U.S.-Korea Investment and Trade Cooperation

The Korean office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the National Assembly Human Rights Forum will hold a symposium next Wednesday to discuss ways to successfully implement the new Refugee Act.The legislation, which was passed by the National Assembly in December 2011, will come into force on July 1, 2013.Experts and officials, including UNHCR Korea Representative Anne Mary Campbell and NAHRF Chairman Rep. Hwang Woo-yea, will discuss refugee policies under the new law.This

BERLIN (AP) -- An international watchdog group says a new survey shows the countries worst hit by the European financial crisis are also seen as among the most corrupt in the European Union.Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index released Wednesday shows Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece with the lowest scores in western Europe.Where 0 is ``highly corrupt'' and 100 is ``very clean,'' Greece scored a 36, Italy 42, Portugal 63 and Spain, 65.By comparison, Denmark and Finla

The prosecution picks up the pace in rebuilding its tarnished reputation and cutting the Gordian knot of corruption inside the prosecutorial body. The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said Tuesday that it will fire trainee prosecutor Jeon Jae-mong who was involved in a sex scandal.Jon was accused of having sex allegedly in return for favors with a female suspect whom he was interrogating.Choi Jaek-kyung, the head of the SPO’s Central Investigation Unit, on the same day was acquitted of accusations he

Internal inspectors at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office are investigating another corruption case involving a prosecutor who allegedly introduced a suspect he was investigating to a law firm where his brother-in-law worked.The inspectors raided the prosecutor’s office Monday and are looking into whether he took any illegal benefits in exchange for favorable treatment of the suspect, they said.“The SPO is currently investigating a prosecutor suspected to have been involved in influence peddling,”