Apple Inc. is getting ready to launch an iPhone with a larger screen than its previous models, The Wall Street Journal reported.The company has ordered screens measuring at least 4 inches diagonally from its Asian suppliers, the Journal reported Wednesday, calling its sources “people familiar with the situation.”The sixth-generation iPhone would be the first in Apple‘s phone line to have a screen

TechnologyMay 17, 2012

The Korea Gas Corp. announced on Wednesday that it has detected a new deposit of natural gas off the coast in Mozambique for the fourth time. The gas company had previously discovered deposits of natural gas three times in Mozambique, in October 2011, February 2012 and March 2012. Now it has made its fourth discovery in the 12,956 square-kilometer basin area in Rovuna, northern Mozambique, the company said.Eni S.p.A. of Italy holds a 70 percent stake in the project. KOGAS, Portugal’s Galp Energi

May 16, 2012

Hyundai Rotem Co., a South Korean rolling stock manufacturer, said Wednesday it has reached a $100 million train maintenance service contract with Ukraine’s public railroad company.The deal with Ukraine Railway Speed Company, the operator of state-run Ukrainian Railways, calls for maintenance and repair work to be conducted on the 90 high speed inter-city trains built by Rotem for the country under an agreement sealed in late 2010. The electric-powered trains have a top speed of about 160 kilome

IndustryMay 16, 2012

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Wednesday that free trade agreements benefit domestic companies that export products to the U.S. and Europe. From May 7-10, KCCI conducted a survey for 600 companies that export both to the U.S. market and the European market. The survey inquires whether these companies can actually benefit from the free trade agreements.According to the survey, 68 percent of the companies found Korea-EU FTA helpful, and 59 percent found Korea-U.S. FTA favorable to

May 16, 2012

South Korea should seek to resuscitate its economic vitality and plot a policy of long-term sustainable growth to counter mounting global financial uncertainty, the top economic policymaker said Wednesday.Minister of Strategy and Finance Bahk Jae-wan told a weekly meeting of economic officials that anti-austerity election results in European countries such as Greece have fueled financial market jitters.“To effectively cope with such developments, the country must take steps to ensure long-term e

May 16, 2012

South Korea’s jobless rate decelerated in April thanks mainly to more positions created in the service sector, a government report showed Wednesday.The jobless rate stood at 3.5 percent last month, down from 3.7 percent a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea. Last month’s tally also represents a drop from a jobless rate of 3.7 percent reached in March.A total of 455,000 jobs were added to payrolls in April with 24.75 million people employed in the country overall, the report

May 16, 2012

The nation’s top financial regulator on Wednesday slapped seven banks with fines of up to 50 million won ($42,000) each for making borrowers purchase financial products to have their loan applications approved. The seven banks were found to have sold financial products such as deposits and insurances worth 33 billion won in exchange for issuing loans between Sept. 26, 2009 and June 30, 2011, the Financial Supervisory Service said. “The banks failed to establish or run internal control systems to

May 16, 2012

Volatility likely to increase unless EU resolves crisis: analystsSeoul stocks took a nosedive Wednesday amid increasing concerns over the European debt crisis, driving foreign investors to sell and seek safer investment assets such as the U.S. dollar and gold, analysts said.Also, the news that Apple is likely to decrease its DRAM memory chip orders from Samsung Electronics, Korea’s biggest blue chip traded on the Seoul market, increased downward pressure on Korean stocks. The benchmark KOSPI fin

May 16, 2012

NEW YORK (AFP) ― General Motors plans to stop advertising on Facebook because it determined paid ads had little impact on consumers, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.The news comes at a bad time for Facebook, which is expected to launch an initial public stock offering Friday valuing the social networking site at around $100 billion.GM’s pullback comes as other marketers are questioning the value of paid ads on Facebook despite the vast amounts of

TechnologyMay 16, 2012

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest maker of TVs, maintained its dominant global market position in the first quarter of this year, international market researchers said Wednesday.According to the Germany-based GfK Group and NPD Group, a U.S. market researcher, Samsung products accounted for 30.2 percent of all flat-panel TVs sold throughout the world in the January-March period.Flat-panel TVs cover liquid crystal display, plasma display panel , and three-dimensional units, as well as s

TechnologyMay 16, 2012

 South Korea's jobless rate decelerated in April thanks mainly to more positions created in the service sector, a government report showed Wednesday.   The jobless rate stood at 3.5 percent last month, down from 3.7 percent a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea. Last month's tally also represents a drop from a jobless rate of 3.7 percent reached in March.   A total of 455,000

May 16, 2012