SEOUL, South Korea - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has met South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul to discuss ways to stimulate entrepreneurship and venture firms in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Park's office said Zuckerberg assured the South Korean leader that Facebook would continue to invest in the country, and he invited South Korean firms to jump on Facebook to reach global users.
BANGKOK - The price of oil rose slightly Tuesday, a day after briefly touching a nine-month high, as traders awaited the start of a Federal Reserve policy meeting.
Benchmark oil for July delivery rose 5 cents to US$97.82 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Monday, the contract fell slightly after it climbed to $98.74, its highest level since mid-September, as stock and commodity markets wait for Fed policy-makers to meet this week.
DETROIT - In one of the biggest-ever showdowns between an automaker and the government, Chrysler on Tuesday is expected to file papers explaining its refusal to recall 2.7 million older Jeep SUVs that are at risk of catching fire in rear-end collisions.
The government says 51 people have suffered fiery deaths in Jeep Grand Cherokees and Libertys with gas tanks mounted behind the rear axles. But Chrysler is expected to stick to its contention that the SUVs are as safe as similar vehicles on the road. The Jeeps, it says, met all federal safety standards when they were built, some more than two decades ago.
WASHINGTON - There's good news for most companies that provide health benefits for their employees: America's slowdown in medical costs may be turning into a trend, rather than a mere pause.
A report Tuesday from accounting and consulting giant PwC projects lower overall growth in medical costs for next year, even as the economy gains strength and millions of uninsured people receive coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law.
TOKYO - Jitters over a possible change in U.S. stimulus efforts by the Federal Reserve helped pull share prices mostly lower in early Asian trading Tuesday.
Asia's biggest benchmark, Japan's Nikkei stock average, shed early gains to fall 0.6 per cent by mid-morning in choppy trading, to 12,956.78. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 0.7 per cent to 21,075.01, while South Korea's KOSPI index rose 0.1 per cent to 1,885.77.
BEIJING, China - A Chinese university has built the world's fastest supercomputer, almost doubling the speed of the U.S. machine that previously claimed the top spot and underlining China's rise as a science and technology powerhouse.
The semiannual TOP500 listing of the world's fastest supercomputers released Monday says the Tianhe-2 developed by the National University of Defence Technology in central China's Changsha city is capable of sustained computing of 33.86 petaflops per second. That's the equivalent of 33,860 trillion calculations per second.
DETROIT - In one of the biggest-ever showdowns between an automaker and the government, Chrysler on Tuesday is expected to file papers explaining its refusal to recall 2.7 million older Jeep SUVs that are at risk of catching fire in rear-end collisions.
The government says 51 people have suffered fiery deaths in Jeep Grand Cherokees and Libertys with gas tanks mounted behind the rear axles. But Chrysler is expected to stick to its contention that the SUVs are as safe as similar vehicles on the road. The Jeeps, it says, met all federal safety standards when they were built, some more than two decades ago.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Netflix said Monday that it would offer new TV shows from DreamWorks Animation starting in 2014 in what the company described as its biggest transaction ever for original first-run content.
Though financial details were not disclosed, Netflix Inc. said the agreement includes more than 300 hours of new TV episodes in a multi-year deal. Analysts estimated the contract could be worth several hundred million dollars over time.
HARTFORD, Conn. - The governors of Texas and South Dakota visited Connecticut on Monday to court gun manufacturers that have threatened to leave since the state passed tough new gun-control laws this year in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
While gun makers may be unlikely to leave behind their factories and skilled workforces, executives say Texas is an appealing location — and some said the out-of-state attention marked a stark contrast with a Connecticut governor they say has shown little regard for a local industry that dates to the Revolutionary War.
TERRACE, B.C. - Canada will be vulnerable to economic disaster should the Northern Gateway pipeline be rejected, the proponent told a federal review panel Monday as the final phase of public hearings got underway.
Richard Neufeld, the lawyer for Calgary-based Enbridge (TSX:ENB), said there are billions of dollars at stake in the pipeline that would link the Alberta oil sands with a tanker port on the coast of British Columbia, and the lucrative oil markets of Asia beyond.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The promoter of Michael Jackson's ill-fated series of comeback shows created a conflict of interest with the singer's physician when it negotiated terms of his deal, an expert testifying for the superstar's mother told a jury Monday.
David Berman told jurors hearing a negligent hiring lawsuit against concert promoter AEG Live LLC that the company should not have negotiated with Jackson's physician without notifying the singer's representatives of the discussion.
NEW YORK, N.Y. - A former intern has filed a class-action lawsuit against Warner Music Group and Atlantic Records over his unpaid internship.
The suit was filed Monday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - A single mother who worked briefly at a northeastern Pennsylvania McDonald's franchise is suing the owners after she said she was given a fee-laden debit card and told that she must use it to access her earnings.
A lawyer filed a lawsuit Thursday in Luzerne County on behalf of Natalie Gunshannon and other employees, The Citizens' Voice (http://bit.ly/12QuR6T) and the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre reported (http://bit.ly/12DELaJ).
WASHINGTON - The White House is threatening to veto the House version of a massive, five-year farm bill, saying food stamp cuts included in the legislation could leave some Americans hungry.
The House is preparing to consider the bill this week. The legislation would cut $2 billion annually, or around 3 per cent, from food stamps and make it harder for some people to qualify for the program. Food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, cost almost $80 billion last year, twice the amount it cost five years ago.
CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has signed legislation giving the state the nation's strictest regulations for high-volume oil and gas drilling.
In a news release, Quinn's office says the governor signed the bill Monday. Quinn says the law will "unlock the potential" for thousands of jobs in southern Illinois while protecting the environment.
CHICAGO - The company that owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and more than 20 television stations, made slightly less money last year as it ended a lengthy ordeal in bankruptcy court.
A financial statement released Monday shows the Tribune Co.'s profit dropped 6 per cent to $422.5 million in the year ending Dec. 30. The Tribune Co. emerged from a four-year stint under bankruptcy protection the day after it closed the books on its 2012 performance.
MONTREAL - The sounds of hammering, drilling and digging at Quebec's bustling construction sites were replaced by chants and waving picket signs as workers walked off the job Monday in a general strike.
Among the sites paralyzed by the walkout that began at midnight is the construction of Montreal's superhospitals, which are among the biggest construction projects in Canada. One of those hospitals is mired in corruption scandals that have rocked Quebec's industry.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Merchants in the Dominican Republic have shuttered a large border market in protest over neighbouring Haiti's ban on poultry and egg imports.
The Dajabon market was closed Monday seeking to pressure Haiti to drop the ban. A Dominican board says the country sells about 25 million eggs and 8 million chickens to Haiti every month.
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Shareholders of Irish drugmaker Elan Corp. PLC have potentially ended a takeover bid from Royalty Pharma by voting in favour of an Elan share buyback plan.
The Dublin-based company's shareholders also rejected at a Monday meeting three separate deals that the Elan board has pushed instead of the Royalty takeover bid.
WINNIPEG - New Flyer Industries Inc. (TSX:NFI) has been awarded a contract by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority for up to 265 heavy-duty buses with compressed natural gas propulsion systems.
The value of the contract was not disclosed in Monday's announcement, but it contains a firm order for eight low-floor restyled CNG 30-foot buses and 80 Xcelsior CNG 40-foot buses.
MONTREAL - Three Montreal police officers have been suspended amid an RCMP investigation into misbehaviour on the force.
A city police spokesman said Monday that the suspensions were an internal disciplinary matter for the moment, but they stemmed from a Mountie investigation that's ongoing.
TERRACE, B.C. - Canada will be vulnerable to economic disaster should the Northern Gateway pipeline be rejected, the proponent told a federal review panel Monday as the final phase of public hearings got underway.
Richard Neufeld, the lawyer for Calgary-based Enbridge (TSX:ENB), said there are billions of dollars at stake in the pipeline that would link the Alberta oil sands with a tanker port on the coast of British Columbia, and the lucrative oil markets of Asia beyond.
MONTREAL - The Montreal replacement mayor who recently took office amid a corruption scandal, and who promised to restore public trust, has now been arrested in a bribery case.
Mayor Michael Applebaum was picked up at his home Monday by Quebec's anti-corruption unit as part of a broader investigation into construction deals involving Mafia-linked figures and a public official who recently committed suicide.
MONTREAL - Quebec and Vermont have partnered to help owners of electric vehicles recharge their rides.
Premier Pauline Marois and Gov. Peter Shumlin announced the plan to set up charging terminals along a stretch between Montreal and Burlington.
OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau remained under fire Monday for taking hefty speaking fees from charitable groups after becoming an MP, despite promising to pay back any organization that was dissatisfied.
The Conservatives maintained Trudeau should never have accepted any money from any charity — before or after becoming an MP.
MONTREAL - The sounds of hammering, drilling and digging at Quebec's bustling construction sites were replaced by chants and waving picket signs as workers walked off the job Monday in a general strike.
Among the sites paralyzed by the walkout that began at midnight is the construction of Montreal's superhospitals, which are among the biggest construction projects in Canada. One of those hospitals is mired in corruption scandals that have rocked Quebec's industry.
MONTREAL - A little more than a year ago, Saulie Zajdel joined Stephen Harper for a happy-hour pub stop in Montreal as perhaps the Conservatives' best hope to win their first seat in this city in a quarter-century.
Today, Zajdel is facing a list of criminal charges after his arrest Monday as part of Quebec's ongoing anti-corruption crackdown.
VANCOUVER - One of the four RCMP officers involved in Robert Dziekanski's death sat in court Monday with his head bowed as his perjury trial watched the now-infamous video of the confrontation that left the Polish man dead.
The amateur recording, released a month after Dziekanski was stunned with a Taser at Vancouver's airport in October 2007, fuelled a debate about Taser use and prompted a public inquiry in which the shaky video clip became a key piece of evidence.
WATERLOO, Ont. - BlackBerry (TSX:BB) says it remains confident in the security of its smartphones after a newspaper reported that the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ repeatedly hacked into devices belonging to foreign diplomats at the G20 meetings in 2009.
A document cited by the London-based Guardian newspaper appeared to boast of GCHQ's ability to tap into smartphones.
OTTAWA - In his nearly four years as Barack Obama's envoy to Canada, David Jacobson has always stressed his desire to bring Americans and Canadians closer, to make them more familiar with each other.
But in the wake of the intense debate over the U.S. National Security Agency collecting large swaths of data on its citizens from major Internet companies, Jacobson makes one large distinction.
OTTAWA - A witness who is helping Elections Canada unravel a Conservative MP's 2008 campaign expenses says he has been publicly bullied, discredited and intimidated.
Frank Hall, who ran an Ottawa-based polling firm that did work for Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, has written to both the Speaker of the House of Commons and the prime minister saying Del Mastro has abused the concept of parliamentary immunity.
TORONTO - A new study confirms that statin drugs and some antibiotics can interact badly.
The study finds that while the interactions are rare, they can be serious.
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland - Cast as the outlier of the Group of Eight leaders by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the eve of their meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin is not wavering in his seemingly unshakable support for the Syrian regime.
Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama both admitted Monday that their two countries do not see eye-to-eye on the deepening crisis in Syria that has so far killed at least 93,000 people and wounded countless others.
Canadian post-secondary students feel stressed, overwhelmed, lonely and some have even considered suicide in the past year, a new study released Monday suggested.
More than 30,000 students were surveyed for the report, which sheds light on mental health and other health issues faced by students at Canada's colleges and universities.
OTTAWA - The U.S. manufacturer of the oft-maligned F-35 has signed a deal with a leading Canadian maker of flight simulators in anticipation of the Harper government choosing to stick with the controversial stealth fighter program.
The agreement between Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and CAE (TSX:CAE) was reached Monday at the Paris Air Show and announced as associate defence minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay was telling the House of Commons that no decision has been made on replacing the existing fleet of CF-18s.
WINNIPEG - Canada's western premiers say bullying is a serious issue and all provinces and territories need to find ways to tackle the new dimension that the Internet brings to the torment.
Following a brief meeting of Canada's western leaders in Winnipeg, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said they are putting bullying on the agenda when the country's premiers meet in Ontario next month.
HALIFAX - An Independent politician in the Nova Scotia legislature pleaded guilty Monday to fraud and breach of trust, but said outside court he would like to keep his job as a lawmaker.
Trevor Zinck entered the pleas on the fifth day of his trial at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax, becoming the last of four politicians to plead guilty to offences stemming from the province's spending scandal that erupted two years ago.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said the charge of theft over $5,000 was dropped.
OTTAWA - Public health and the public purse are in danger because of cuts to refugee health funding, doctors and refugee advocates said Monday as they protested the cuts across the country.
The federal government overhauled the health care coverage it provides to refugees and refugee claimants one year ago as part of a cost-cutting measure it also said was designed to make Canada less vulnerable to fake asylum claims by curbing access to free health care.
GENEVA - Norway and the International Committee of the Red Cross are raising concerns about pending legislation from the Harper government that would make Canada a full member of a treaty to ban deadly cluster bombs.
Their questions represent a significant addition to a growing list of international organizations and foreign governments that say a loophole in Canada's bill would undermine the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
LONDON, Ont. - Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz has been named to the advisory council of Western University's Lawrence National Centre of Policy and Management.
Poloz was among five new appointments announced Monday by the Richard Ivey School of Business at the university in London, Ont.
BOSTON - They are still two wins away from their destination, but the Boston Bruins are gathering steam.
Daniel Paille and Patrice Bergeron scored second-period goals and Tuukka Rask made 28 saves Monday as the hard-charging Bruins blanked the Chicago Blackhawks 2-0 to take a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup final.
TORONTO - Maicer Izturis made sure a strong outing from Blue Jays starter Josh Johnson didn't go to waste.
Izturis drove in the game's only runs with an RBI single in the eighth inning Monday as Toronto pushed its win streak to six games with a 2-0 interleague victory over the Colorado Rockies.
ATLANTA - The cast of an Atlanta sports radio show has been fired after mocking a former NFL player who has Lou Gehrig's disease, a station official said Monday.
The show, Mayhem in the AM, was broadcast on 790 The Zone Monday morning. In a statement, General Manager Rick Mack said the station regrets comments made about ex-New Orleans Saints safety Steve Gleason.
BOSTON - The Chicago Blackhawks have scratched forward Marian Hossa from Monday night's Stanley Cup final game against the Boston Bruins.
Hossa was tied for the team lead with 15 points in the playoffs. He was third in the regular season on the Blackhawks with 17 goals.
TORONTO - Her athletic trainers call it a "rebuild."
It's the painstaking process of taking apart something that wasn't assembled quite right and putting it back together properly.
EDMONTON - It's become a game of numbers for Canadian golfer Lorie Kane.
She's 48, tees it up with kids half her age, hopes to play another decade but knows to do it she must find five more minutes of concentration on the course.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A contrite Chad Johnson apologized Monday for disrespecting a judge when the former NFL star slapped his attorney on the backside in court last week and was released from jail after only a week instead of 30 days.
Broward County Circuit Judge Kathleen McHugh accepted Johnson's apology and cut back his jail term for a probation violation to the seven days he had already served since the rear-swatting. Johnson, a flamboyant wide receiver formerly known as Chad Ochocinco, said in court that he'd had time to think about why his flippant attitude was wrong — especially in a domestic violence case.
MONTREAL - The concussion is clearing up and Davy Arnaud is back where he wants to be — on the field with his Montreal Impact teammates.
But there is one more test to pass before the Impact captain can play in a game. He has to head some balls, the very act that caused the concussion in the first place.
Pacino Horne has gone from Grey Cup hero to being unemployed.
The speedy cornerback was among 11 players released Monday by the Toronto Argonauts. Horne started the club's 35-22 CFL championship win over the Calgary Stampeders at Rogers Centre last November and delivered a key play in the victory.
WASHINGTON - George McPhee had to take a call. Alex Ovechkin was on the other line, reaching out to the Washington Capitals general manager shortly after winning his third Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.
Ovechkin's message to McPhee was that this latest award wasn't just another trophy for his case.
TORONTO - Flanker Nanyak Dala will captain Canada at the IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament later this month in Moscow.
The Canadian men are in a pool with World Series Sevens champion New Zealand, the U.S. and Georgia.
VANCOUVER - Vancouver Whitecaps striker Kenny Miller has been named Major League Soccer's player of the week.
The Scottish international scored two goals and drew a penalty kick to propel the Whitecaps to a 4-3 win over the New England Revolution Saturday night at BC Place.
MIAMI - The Miami Heat weren't supposed to be in this situation. Not now, anyway.
Coming home from Texas with their season on the line in 2011 was one thing. They were at the end of their first year together — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh still trying to figure it all out and clearly a long way from it.
BOSTON - Two years ago, Tuukka Rask was all but ignored as the Bruins mounted their Stanley Cup charge.
The lanky Finn attracted virtually no attention as reporters swarmed his teammates at a hotel restaurant on the Vancouver waterfront during a media availability session.
BOSTON - Viktor Stalberg will replace Brandon Bollig in Chicago's Game 3 lineup against Boston.
Stalberg was a healthy scratch the first two games of the series.
A Dutch court convicted six young footballers and the father of one of the players of manslaughter on Monday for kicking to death a volunteer linesman after a youth match last December in a brutal attack that shocked this football-loving nation.
Judges in Lelystad sentenced the 50-year-old father, identified only as El-Hasan D, to six years in prison. Five teenaged players were given two-year sentences in youth detention for their roles in the attack and another was sentenced to a year. A seventh player, age 15, was sentenced to 30 days detention for assault.
DEVIZES, England - The hand-written official team sheet from Alex Ferguson's first game as manager of Manchester United is expected to raise up to 3,000 pounds ($4,700) when it is sold at auction on Saturday.
United's 2-0 loss to Oxford United on Nov. 8, 1986, was the first of 1,500 league games under Ferguson, who retired last month after nearly 27 years in charge.
BOSTON - As the NHL playoffs wind down and referees put away their whistles, the hit parade is in full gear.
The Chicago Blackhawks led the battle of hits in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, edging the Boston Bruins 61 to 59 in a thrilling matchup that went to triple overtime. In Game 2, the Bruins outhit the Hawks 50-34 in single OT en route to tying the series at one game apiece.
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a three-run homer that capped a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the New York Mets salvaged what had been shaping up as another sorry afternoon, startling the Chicago Cubs 4-3 on Sunday.
Matt Garza pitched seven scoreless innings, and the Cubs scored twice on a madcap play that featured three bad throws by Mets infielders, giving Chicago a 3-0 lead.
