WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. State Department expressed hope Tuesday that Congress will ratify a free trade pact with South Korea before South Korean President Lee Myung-bak makes a state visit here next week. "That is the hope," department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a press briefing. "We would like to see these passed quickly." President Barack Obama on Monday submitted the...

SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign exchange reserves fell by the most in nearly three years in September due mainly to the weaker dollar conversion value of non-dollar assets and suspected dollar-selling intervention. The country's foreign reserves reached $303.38 billion as of the end of September, down $8.81 billion from the previous month, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Wednesday. ...

Moody's Investors Service Monday downgraded Italy's government bond ratings to ``A2'' with a negative outlook from ``Aa2,'' the result of high debt, a weak global economy and political uncertainties that delay corrective action. While the change moves the rating down three notches, it is still investment grade. Moody's affirmed the short-term ratings at Prime-1. Moody's said the size of the rat...

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday sent long-stalled free trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to Congress and pressed lawmakers to approve them “without delay” after years of hold-ups. The pacts, signed under former President George W. Bush, are expected to boost U.S. exports by $13 billion and benefit U.S. agriculture and manufacturing, and will form part of ...

When lawyer-civic activist Park Won-soon declared his candidacy for the Seoul mayoral by-election a month ago, his approval rate hovered around 5 percent. When he won the endorsement of Ahn Cheol-soo, a wildly popular social critic and software businessman, Park’s approval figure shot up close to 50 percent. Now the sole opposition candidate for the Oct. 26 vote, after edging Democratic Party’s ...

Protests on Wall Street in New York, now in their third week, are growing in size. But the political and financial institutions they denounce show little sign of listening to them. A small group of college students started the demonstration on Sept. 17. They were joined by unionists, other students, teachers, veterans, families and unemployed people who claim they represent “the 99 percent” that...

In the term that began Monday, the Supreme Court will address issues as diverse as the limits of copyright law, the appeals process for owners of wetlands regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and whether the government of California can order reductions in Medi-Cal reimbursements. It is also likely that the court will rule on challenges to the constitutionality of the Patient Protecti...

“Only connect,” E.M. Forster advised. He had no idea. I once worked for a company so wired that the boss told me, “The real test of a relationship is how quickly you can get out of bed after making love to check your email.” That was a decade ago. Now almost everyone I know is armed with an iPhone or a BlackBerry, and the better question is whether you’d interrupt sex to read a tweet or respon...