KB Kookmin Bank said Sunday its chief executive Min Byong-deok visited Beijing last week to check on the bank’s efforts to establish a new Chinese corporation and meet with Chinese financial authorities.KB Kookmin received preliminary approval from the Chinese government in January to set up a corporation and a Beijing branch, and plans to get a final endorsement in the second half of this year to begin operation in November. The corporation will overlook the bank’s existing branches in Guangzho

June 10, 2012

Hyundai Motor Co. has made steady progress in China in recent years by courting consumers on reliability and price. Now it’s betting that a new factory and an updated version of its top-selling model will give it the edge it needs to further boost sales of both small cars and more expensive -- and more profitable -- vehicles. Hyundai this month will open the 6.5 billion yuan ($1 billion) Beijing plant, where it plans to produce Elantra sedans that are slightly longer and taller than the current

MobilityJune 10, 2012

German automaker dominates expanding import market in KoreaBMW grabbed 25.5 percent of the nation’s import automobile market in May, according to statistics provided by Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.BMW’s further growth in terms of market share is drawing wide interest now that the automaker has secured its long-standing No. 1 position in Korea with a large-scale sales volume.“Theoretically speaking, a 10 percent growth in the monthly sales for BMW and, say, Volvo is no

MobilityJune 10, 2012

He risked freezing or starving to death on a doomed expedition to the South Pole 100 years ago -- but for George Murray Levick, the real horror lay in the twisted sexual mores of the Adelie penguin.London's Natural History Museum has unearthed a landmark study by Levick, a scientist with the ill-fated 1910-13 Scott Antarctic Expedition, detailing the birds' sexual shenanigans, the Guardian newspap

TechnologyJune 10, 2012

 Dogs respond to a person who is crying regardless of whether it is their owner or an unfamiliar person, researchers in Britain found.Dr. Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer, both of the Department of Psychology at the University of London, developed a procedure to examine whether domestic dogs could identify and respond to emotional states in humans.Eighteen pet dogs -- a range of ages and breeds

TechnologyJune 10, 2012

Mantis ShrimpThe unique structure of a club-like arm of a crustacean could inspire changes in military body armor and vehicle and aircraft frames, U.S. scientists say.The bright orange fist-like club of the mantis shrimp, a 4-inch-long crustacean found in tropical waters, accelerates underwater faster than a .22-caliber bullet and can smash through mollusk shells and crab exoskeletons, researchers

TechnologyJune 10, 2012

The cost to dine with investor Warren Buffett has apparently spiked in value, with one deep-pocketed bidder forking over nearly $3.5 million during a charity auction Friday night.The annual auction for a private lunch with the Nebraska billionaire closed following a flurry of activity in the final hours. In the end, the highest bid was a record-breaking $3,456,789.The auction benefits the Glide Fo

June 9, 2012

Automaker struggles to find breakthrough in sagging sales of gasoline-powered carsHit by a prolonged slump in vehicle sales, Renault Samsung Motors seems to be staking all on its mass production of electric cars from early next year to jockey for the nascent market in Korea. The automaker showcased high-end technologies in its first electric car model ― the SM3 Z.E. ― during the 2012 Busan International Motor Show, which was held from May 24-June 3.Renault Samsung, which is offering test drives

MobilityJune 8, 2012

Choi expected to aggressively push for nurturing future growth enginesSamsung Group’s new corporate strategy office chief Choi Gee-sung is expected to bring a bundle of changes to the country’s largest conglomerate as he is recognized for his aggressive business tactics.With the appointment considered to be one of the most notable events in the conglomerate’s history, Choi remained calm and modest on his first day of work as the chief of the firm’s de facto control tower on Friday.He did not sa

IndustryJune 8, 2012

Central bank sees U.S. slowdown, eurozone crisis casting shadow over Korean economyThe Bank of Korea kept its key interest rate unchanged the 12th month in a row, maintaining its cautious monetary policy due to external macroeconomic factors of the eurozone crisis and the U.S. slowdown.The central bank’s monetary policy committee froze the seven-day repurchase rate at 3.25 percent on Friday, unwilling to apply the brakes as it did in the first half of last year, despite stable exports and growth

June 8, 2012

A U.S. teenager has a “dream diet” that makes him the envy of his friends. The 15-year old boy consumes mountains of fry-ups including 56 sausages, 24 rashers of bacon and 24 burgers fried in a liter-and-a-half of olive oil every week. But he is no grease-lover -- he eats fatty foods to survive.Lee Jones suffers from a rare disease, contracted by just one in 14 million people, called GLUT1 that means he can’t process glucose and has to eat lots of high-fat foods to survive. Without his special d

TechnologyJune 8, 2012

NASA says its Spitzer space telescope has detected the faint glow of the very first objects in the universe with the best precision yet.The faint objects, which might be incredibly massive stars or voracious black holes, are too far away to be seen individually but Spitzer has captured convincing evidence of what appears to be the patterns of their infrared light, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

TechnologyJune 8, 2012