The Korea Herald

Shares end little changed ahead of U.S. announcement

South Korean stocks finished little changed on Thursday as investors turned cautious before the U.S. central bank’s decision on another round of monetary stimulus to boost the economy, analysts said. The local currency declined against the U.S. dollar.Swinging between gains and losses, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gained 0.66 points, or 0.03 percent, to 1,950.69. Trading volume was heavy at 956.4 million shares worth 5.97 trillion won ($5.29 billion), with gainers slightly out

Sept. 13, 2012

Vogo Fund to acquire Burger King unit from SRS Korea for $88m

South Korean private equity fund Vogo Fund will take over the local chain of Burger King from franchise restaurant operator SRS Korea Co. for about 100 billion won ($88.7 million) this year, industry sources said Thursday. According to the sources, the local fund has completed negotiations to buy the chain of global fast food restaurant Burger King in South Korea with Doosan Group that has SRS Korea under its wing and will sign a preliminary deal for the acquisition some time soon. The deal is e

Sept. 13, 2012

‘Korea best example for FTA success’

Chilean trade chief visits Seoul to share ‘flavors of Chile’Chile was the first country with which Korea signed a free trade pact, back in 2003. Amid a 4.5-fold growth in trade volume between the two countries, the Chile FTA has paved the way for Korea to seek new deals with other countries in recent years. For Chile, Korea, especially its agricultural sector, is still one of the hardest markets to enter, said Felix de Vicente, chairman of Chile’s Export Promotion Bureau. “We make jokes that if

IndustrySept. 13, 2012

FSS to probe firms that have frequent customer complaints

Financial companies which drew a relatively high number of complaints from customers will be subject to full-fledged investigations by regulators.The Financial Supervisory Service said Thursday that it has decided to conduct a large-scale probe into the overall sector including banks, brokerages, credit card firms, insurance firms and savings banks.This will mark the first time that the FSS will probe the overall financial sector simultaneously in terms of customer complaints over each company,

Sept. 13, 2012

BOK freezes key rate at 3%

Central bank wants room to maneuver in case economic conditions worsen, analysts sayThe South Korean central bank unexpectedly froze the key interest rate for two consecutive months, dashing market expectations that it would cut the rate to boost sagging domestic demand and exports. The Bank of Korea announced on Thursday that it will keep the rate at 3 percent for September. The decision came as a surprise as many expected that the bank would cut the rate as an additional measure to bolster the

Sept. 13, 2012

New iPhone lacks ‘wow’ factor: investors

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone unveiled Wednesday is lacking the so-called “wow” factor, as most of the new features introduced have already been expected, foreign investors said Thursday.Apple introduced the iPhone 5, of which new features include a faster network, a more efficient processor, a thinner design and a bigger 4-inch screen. The product will hit nine countries on Sept. 21 and 100 countries by the end of 2012.“In our view, the key difference against other recent

TechnologySept. 13, 2012

Local players confident of beating iPhone 5 with high-tech features

New iPhone meets chip plant in Xian industry expectations but lacks new conceptsLocal handset makers have expressed their delight to join the LTE handset race with the new iPhone 5 as the new gadget has failed to offer knockout features to the awaiting crowd.Apple presented its new iPhone 5 to the world early Thursday with the LTE-enabled handset to go head-to-head with contenders such as the already-released Galaxy S3 of Samsung Electronics.The latest iPhone will also have to battle with Samsun

IndustrySept. 13, 2012

Local players confident of beating iPhone 5 with high-tech features

Crisis looms large in Korea’s housing sector

Lee Ji-sun managed to sell off her small apartment in southern Seoul last month amid rising concern that a prolonged economic slowdown could send home prices into a downward spiral down the road.The price of the 73-square-meter apartment rose to its record high of 600 million won ($530,000) in late 2009, but it tumbled to 450 million won in August, a steep decline that analysts blamed on a litany of economic woes.“I sold my apartment out of fear that its price could drop further,” the 40-year-ol

Sept. 13, 2012

Samsung ready to strike back at Apple with LTE patent suit

Apple to roll out iPhone 5 LTE through SKT, KTWith Apple publicly unveiling its plan to launch the iPhone 5 LTE worldwide, Samsung Electronics is on the verge of pushing the battlefront against the U.S. firm further to include LTE patents.Apple announced at its iPhone 5 event in San Francisco early Thursday, Korean time, that it will roll out the new gadget here through the top two mobile carriers SK Telecom and KT.Although it did not specify the release date for Korea, the Cupertino-based tech

IndustrySept. 13, 2012

Samsung ready to strike back at Apple with LTE patent suit

Samsung launches construction for chip plant in Xian

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, started work on a semiconductor plant in central China on Wednesday as part of its move to diversify production lines and meet growing demand for chips.The company said earlier it will initially inject $2.3 billion to build the plant in Xian, China. The spending on the construction will reach up to $7.0 billion in the coming years, making the project Samsung’s single largest overseas investment for a chipmaking plant, according to th

Sept. 13, 2012

Samsung launches construction for chip plant in Xian

Malaysian children celebrate graduation in Korean style

Kuala Lumpur invites Booyoung to graduation ceremony to thank Korean builder for donationsPUTRAJAYA, Malaysia ― Rows of Malaysian primary school students dressed in pink and light blue traditional costumes sing the Korean song “Spring of My Hometown” in the Korean language.They sing to the music played from digital pianos donated by Korea’s Booyoung Housing Co. Ltd. to celebrate their friends’ graduation on Thursday in the Southeast Asian country’s administrative center. Visually impaired studen

IndustrySept. 13, 2012

Malaysian children celebrate graduation in Korean style

Report points to rising income inequality

GENEVA (UPI) -- Income inequality, based on trends in the past three decades, has been increasing both within countries and between them, says a U.N. report.The report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said the share of wages in total income fell in most developed and in many developing countries in the past 30 years, such as 5 percentage points or more in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States and by 10 percentage points or more in France, Germany and Ireland.“In seve

Sept. 13, 2012

Samsung’s legal move in focus after iPhone 5 unpack

Following the launch of Apple Inc.’s first long-term evolution (LTE) phone, eyes are focused on whether Samsung Electronics Co. will take legal action to bring the two top smartphone makers‘ global patent war to a new stage, market watchers said Thursday.Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 at a long-awaited launch event in San Fransisco on Wednesday, pitting its latest iPhone against Samsung’s extensive LTE line-up amid ongoing patent tussles between the two companies.Samsung and Apple have been locked

TechnologySept. 13, 2012

Samsung’s legal move in focus after iPhone 5 unpack

Omega 3 supplements may not help heart

IOANNINA (UPI) -- Taking omega-3 supplements was not associated with a lower risk of all-cause death, cardiac death, sudden death, heart attack or stroke, Greek researchers say.Dr. Evangelos C. Rizos of the University Hospital of Ioannina in Greece and colleagues performed systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the association between omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and major cardiovascular outcomes.Twenty studies were identified, which involved 68,680 randomized patients and 7,044

TechnologySept. 13, 2012

Study suggests dark energy does exist

(123rf)Dark energy, a mysterious substance thought to be responsible for accelerating the expansion of the Universe, is real, European astronomers say.Writing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers at the University of Portsmouth and LMU University Munich say their two-year study puts the possibility of the existence of dark energy at 99.996 percent."Dark energy is o

TechnologySept. 13, 2012

Double arm transplant OK’d for Texas woman

A Texas woman who lost both arms to flesh-eating bacteria has been approved for a double arm transplant, doctors in Boston said Wednesday.Katy Hayes appeared at a news conference with doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, The Boston Globe reported. She would be the first patient in the United States to undergo the procedure, although it has been carried out in Germany.Doctors told reporters if the surgery is successful Hayes will be able to bend her elbow and carry out tasks such as

TechnologySept. 13, 2012

Double arm transplant OK’d for Texas woman

BOK freezes key rate for 2nd month

South Korea's central bank unexpectedly froze the key interest rate for the second straight month on Thursday in an apparent bid to save ammunition for any worsening of economic conditions.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his fellow policymakers unanimously left unchanged the benchmark 7-day repo rate at 3 percent for September. The decision surprised the market as most analysts had pre

Sept. 13, 2012

West Nile virus deaths up 35 percent in US

Deaths linked to the West Nile virus jumped 35 percent in the United States over the past week, amid one of the worst US outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease, officials said Wednesday. As of Tuesday, a total of 118 fatalities have been blamed on West Nile virus infections since the beginning of the year, up from 87 on September 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The number of cases rose to 2,636 from 1,993 during the same time frame, a 32 percent increase.“The 2,636 case

TechnologySept. 13, 2012

West Nile virus deaths up 35 percent in US

Seoul shares open lower ahead of Fed announcement

South Korean stocks started lower Thursday as investors sat on the sidelines ahead of a key decision by the U.S. central bank, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 9.96 points, or 0.51 percent, to 1,940.07 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Most shares traded bearish, with top shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries falling 0.61 percent and steelmaker POSCO sliding

Sept. 13, 2012

Income gap between farmers, urban workers hits record high

The income gap between the country‘s farm workers and non-farm workers widened to a record high last year, with earnings of farmers shrinking due to a rise in costs, the government said Thursday.The average income of farmers stood at 59.1 percent of that of urban households in 2011, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. It is the first time that the ratio fell below the 60 percent mark.Up until the mid-1980s, the average income of farm workers exceeded that of c

Sept. 13, 2012

Income gap between farmers, urban workers hits record high