Gunmen have demanded a ransom of 500 million pesos ($11.3 million) for the release of a Chinese tourist abducted last week from a Malaysian resort off Borneo island, a Malaysian minister said Thursday.The gunmen, believed to be Abu Sayyaf militants, kidnapped a 28-year-old Shanghai woman and a 40-year-old Filipino woman from the Singamata Reef Resort in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah on April 2.Philippine authorities believe the women were taken to the island township of Simunul in Tawi-Ta

Japanese consumers are keeping their wallets firmly closed after the first sales tax rise in 17 years, with luxury items and appliances suffering as one major department store reported a 25 percent drop in sales.The precipitous plunge comes after millions of shoppers made a last-minute dash to stores before the national levy rose to 8.0 percent from 5.0 percent on April 1, a rise that sparked fears of a drop in consumer spending in turn derailing Japan's nascent economic recovery.Like many retai

India will offer visa-on-arrival (VOA) to South Korean tourists at its major airports for their convenience starting from next week, its embassy in Seoul said Thursday.The decision was made during South Korean President Park Geun-hye's state visit to India in January to improve ties between the two nations, the Indian embassy said. Korean visitors will be able to apply for a single entry tourist visa available for one month on arrival at eight airports for a fee of US$60 or the equivalent amount

Former Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Kim Byung-hyun was traded to his hometown club in the top South Korean league on Thursday.The Nexen Heroes in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) shipped the 35-year-old submarine pitcher to the Kia Tigers, in exchange for 23-year-old left-hander Kim Young-gwang.The Tigers are based in Gwangju, a metropolitan city about 330 kilometers south of Seoul. Kim was born and raised in the city, before entering a college in Seoul and signing with the Arizona

SMEC, a local machinery and communications network provider, is scheduled to attend a machine tool show in Seoul to unveil its new products. The Seoul International Machine Tool Show, one of four global machine tool shows, opened Wednesday. The event is expected to draw 800 companies from 30 nations, along with more than 90,000 visitors. At the show, SMEC plans to unveil various new products including its 5-axis machining center for high precision and high productivity, and 9-axis multitasking m

Samsung Group has pushed forward with internal restructuring of its key petrochemical units to boost competitiveness and efficiency, with the market expecting more deals involving Korea’s largest conglomerate.The latest Samsung General Chemicals’ acquisition of Samsung Petrochemical was seen as part of chairman Lee Kun-hee’s succession process for his three children.This merger, which was announced on Thursday, is said to be for the sake of Lee’s daughter Lee Boo-jin, in the view of market obser

SK Telecom failed to see a significant rise in mobile-service subscribers through Samsung Electronics’ new smartphone Galaxy S5 despite pushing for an early roll-out.As the nation’s largest mobile carrier is due to begin a business suspension on April 5 for doling out excessive handset subsidies, the company reportedly pushed Samsung to move up the release date to March 27 from the initial launch on April 11. However, the launch of the Galaxy S5 did not seem to positively affect sales. The numbe