Korea calls for global efforts to prevent oil speculation

Korea will seek to gather international efforts to tighten rules on derivatives trading, the Finance Ministry said on Sunday, pledging to fight speculative investments in crude oil.“Korea, as a major importer of crude oil, will urge the international community to cooperate in stabilizing oil prices,” its report said. It assessed volatile crude prices as a major threat to global growth and called for concrete regulatory measures to tame the speculative forces in the next two Group of 20 meetings

April 8, 2012

Private think tank warns against optimism on inflation

The government should not loosen its anti-inflation efforts though consumer price growth declined to the 2-percent range in March, a private think tank warned Sunday.South Korea’s consumer price index rose 2.6 percent in March from a year earlier, slowing down from a 3.1 percent gain in February and marking the first time since August 2010 that inflation has fallen to the 2 percent range.“Last month’s slowdown was mainly helped by a low base of comparison and government efforts to clamp down on

April 8, 2012

Petroleum products lead Korea’s exports in Q1

Petroleum products led South Korea’s exports in the first quarter of this year mainly due to higher crude prices, a local industry organization said Sunday.The findings by the Korea Petroleum Association showed the country shipping out $13.67 billion worth of refined oil products in the first three months of this year, up a sharp 27.8 percent from a year earlier.The total is equivalent to 10.1 percent of the country’s exports in the January-March period that reached $134.95 billion, it said.Auto

April 8, 2012

Audit regulators to seek new standards

Forum in Busan to discuss how to supervise accounting firmsGlobal audit regulators are likely to map out new standards in oversight of accounting firms during their scheduled gathering in Korea this month.The 11th plenary meeting of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators is slated for April 16-18 in the nation’s second-largest city of Busan.For the local industry, the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea stressed the significance of the meeting in terms of advanced countries’

April 8, 2012

Is Italy’s Ducati an object of German desire?

Sporting the same flaming red racing colours, Ducati motorcycles are sometimes referred to as Ferraris on two wheels.The Italian brand has achieved success on the race track despite competition from much larger manufacturers including the likes of Japan’s Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki and Germany’s BMW.For years dominant in the Superbike World Championship, Ducati in 2007 clinched top honours in the premiere Moto GP category with rider Casey Stoner. The buzz around the team increased last year when i

MobilityApril 8, 2012

Toyota increases U.S. auto sales forecast

Toyota Motor Corp. raised its forecast for 2012 industrywide U.S. sales of cars and light trucks to the low- to mid-14 million unit range from 13.6 million, citing rising consumer confidence.“We’re starting to see improvement in consumer confidence and, combined with rising fuel prices and aging vehicles, the market is starting to move,” Bob Carter, Toyota’s group vice president for U.S. sales, told reporters Wednesday at the New York auto show. “It’s happening quicker than anyone thought.”U.S.

MobilityApril 8, 2012

Chinese teen sells kidney to buy iPhone, iPad

BEIJING (AP) -- Authorities have indicted five people in central China for involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPhone and an iPad.The case has prompted an outpouring of concern that not enough is being done to guard against the negative impact of increasing consumerism in Chinese society, particularly among young people who have grown up with mor

TechnologyApril 8, 2012

Some Alaska polar bears losing their fur

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska polar bears are losing their fur and U.S. Geological Survey scientists don't know why.In the past two weeks, nine of 33 bears checked by scientists in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were found to have alopecia _ loss of fur _ and skin lesions, said Tony DeGange, chief of the biology office at the USGS Science Center in Anchorage.Three of four bears in

TechnologyApril 8, 2012

Yeosu Expo kicks off online registration for pre-opening

The organizing committee of Yeosu Expo 2012 announced on Friday that it will hold a pre-opening event on the national holiday of Children’s Day on May 5.According to the committee, more than 60,000 people signed up for the event in the first three days of the online registration period starting April 1. It added that it plans to attract many more. The organization revealed its plan to grant the first 110,000 arrivals free passes for exhibition halls and cultural art performance. To mark Children

April 6, 2012

Libya geopolitical risks challenge STX

STX Group, Korea’s shipping and shipbuilding conglomerate, is seeking to win Libya’s huge energy infrastructure projects, which company officials said could be worth up to $10 billion.STX Group officials said STX Heavy Industries signed a memorandum of understanding on building energy, steel desalination and other facilities in Libya’s northern region of Tobruk early last month. The group became the first Korean company to tap projects in the post-civil war region.A spokesperson for STX said tha

IndustryApril 6, 2012

KDB due diligence starts to take over HSBC Korea unit

KDB Financial Group said Friday that it will conduct due diligence on HSBC Korea for about a month, starting next week, to take over their 11 retail branches.Under an agreement between the two sides, any either have the right to nullify the provisional deal according to the inspection results, state-run KDB officials said.“The two sides will make public the provisional agreement possibly early next week. But either side is entitled to scrap the deal as the agreement will be nonbinding,” a KDB sp

April 6, 2012

Samsung puts Q1 operating profit at record 5.8 trillion won

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of memory chips and smartphones, estimated Friday it had posted a record operating profit of 5.8 trillion won (US$5.15 billion) in the first quarter of the year.The preliminary estimate for the January-March period marked a96.6 percent rise from 2.95 trillion won a year earlier, and a 9.4 percent gain from the previous quarter, the company said in

IndustryApril 6, 2012

Hackers hitting Macs with virus: industry experts

The computer security industry buzzed Thursday with warnings that more than a half-million Macintosh computers may have been infected with a virus targeting Apple machines.Flashback Trojan malware tailored to slip past "Mac" defenses is a variation on viruses typically aimed at personal computers (PCs) powered by Microsoft's Windows operating systems.The infections, spotted "in the wild" by Finlan

TechnologyApril 6, 2012