SHANGHAI - CHINA'S booming economy is a magnet for foreign firms, but the saga of four Rio Tinto executives detained for spying shows the risks of doing business in a tightly controlled country run as a one-party state.

SEOUL - NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Il's latest public appearance is spurring fresh speculation that his health might be worsening, almost a year after he reportedly suffered a stroke.

SEOUL - SOUTH Korea was on high alert on Thursday for more cyber attacks amid suspicions that North Korea was behind a recent wave of Web site outages in the South and in the United States.

A computer security company warned that another wave of attacks was expected in South Korea later in the day.