Several dozen people appeared in a Hong Kong court Thursday to face rioting charges following a violent clash earlier this week between protesters and police sparked by a clampdown on holiday street food vendors.Hong Kong police and local media reports said 37 people were attending court in Kowloon, each facing one count of taking part in a riot, a rarely used charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.Defendants were given bail and their cases adjourned until April, the report

International Feb. 12, 2016

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a South Korean shipbuilder, said Thursday it struck a deal with a Turkish counterpart to build two oil tankers tankers sized at 158,000 tons each.Under the deal estimated at US$120-140 million, Hyundai will hand over the ships to Turkey-based Ditas Shipping in 2018.It marked the first order won by the country's top three shipbuilders, which have been suffering from an earnings slump, hit by a protracted decrease in oil prices and increased costs.South Korean shipbui

Industry Feb. 12, 2016

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Abortion opponents in Mississippi, West Virginia and several other states are filing bills to ban an abortion procedure commonly used in the second trimester that opponents describe as dismembering a fetus.Courts have already blocked similar laws that Kansas and Oklahoma enacted in 2015.The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents abortion providers in legal fights, says banning the dilation and evacuation method of abortion -- commonly called "D&E"

Foreign Affairs Feb. 11, 2016

DETMOLD, Germany (AP) -- A 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard went on trial Thursday on 170,000 counts of accessory to murder in western Germany, accused of serving in the death camp at a time when hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were gassed.Former SS Sgt. Reinhold Hanning maintains that he served in a part of the Auschwitz camp complex where no gassings were taking place. Prosecutors argue that all guards helped the camp function, and that during the so-called "Hungarian action" in 1944

Foreign Affairs Feb. 11, 2016

A district court ordered chemical castration to punish a sex convict for the first time in the country since the Constitutional Court upheld the law authorizing drug treatment for sex offenders last year. 　The punishment was first implemented in 2011 to introduce stronger measures against sexual assault crimes in the country. 　In 2013, the Daejeon District Court filed a request for constitutional review of the legislation, claiming it violates basic human rights. In a 6-3 vote, the Constitutiona

Social Affairs Feb. 5, 2016

South Korea’s education law has been revised to allow all undergraduate students to continue their studies and to take semesters off if they are married or become pregnant while at school, the Education Ministry announced Friday.　Up until now, each university in the country had had different rules regarding marriages and pregnancies. 　Some universities had previously banned students from marrying and becoming pregnant while working on their degrees. Some schools would expel those who broke these

Social Affairs Feb. 5, 2016

China's culture ministry on Monday denied some South Korean media reports that it has banned singers under JYP Entertainment from performing in mainland China in the wake of a flag row involving a 16-year-old Taiwanese K-pop singer. JYP Entertainment is the South Korean management agency for the singer, Chou Tzu-yu, who waved Taiwan's national flag on a South Korean entertainment TV program in November. The image of Chou, who performs under the name Tzuyu as a member of South Korean girl band TW

Foreign Affairs Jan. 18, 2016

Carmakers that fail to fix emissions-related violations will be slapped with fines, the government said Monday, as South Korea moves to tackle concerns raised by Volkswagen's cheating scandal.The environment ministry said companies that do not recall their cars will be fined for each violation in accordance with changes to the country's air environment protection law.It said offenders could be slapped with upwards to 3 million won (US$2,500) in fines.The ministry said carmakers that fail to upda

Social Affairs Jan. 18, 2016

South Korea's foreign ministry on Monday issued a terrorism response manual to help people better cope with emergency situations when traveling abroad.The manual comes as terrorists have started to attack so-called soft targets like favorite tourist destinations, shopping malls and transportation hubs, instead of government agencies and military and law enforcement personnel.The move comes after bomb blasts killed and wounded people in Istanbul and Jakarta as part of efforts to sow confusion and

Politics Jan. 18, 2016

BERLIN (AP) -- A German court says a 95-year-old man will go on trial next month on 3,681 counts of accessory to murder for allegedly serving in the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp.Hubert Zafke is accused of working as a medic in Auschwitz in an SS hospital. Prosecutors argue that in that role, the former SS sergeant helped the death camp function.An appeals court in December ruled he was fit for trial, though the Neubrandenburg state court said Monday that when his trial opens Feb. 29, judges will

Foreign Affairs Jan. 18, 2016

BERLIN, (AFP) - German politicians waged a heated debate Thursday over whether to make it easier to expel convicted asylum seekers, after a series of sexual assaults on New Year's Eve blamed on men of foreign origin.Authorities have said there is no concrete proof that the perpetrators of the attacks in Cologne were asylum seekers, but critics of Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door approach to those fleeing war have seized on the opportunity to draw a link.Victims described their attackers as b

International Jan. 7, 2016

South Korea said Thursday that it will resume anti-Pyongyang broadcasts this week along the heavily fortified border with North Korea in retaliation of Pyongyang's claimed hydrogen bomb test. The anti-Pyongyang broadcasts will resume at noon on Friday, Cho Tae-yong, deputy chief of the presidential office of national security, told reporters."The North's fourth nuclear test is a grave violation" of the August deal, Cho said, referring to a breakthrough deal that defused heightened tension sparke

International Jan. 7, 2016