The Korea Herald

Shares end almost flat on eurozone jitters

South Korean stocks closed nearly unchanged Thursday as jitters over Spain’s banking sector weighed down the market, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged down 0.08 percent, or 1.39 points, to 1,843.47. Trading volume was moderate at 439 million shares worth 4.55 trillion won ($3.84 billion), with losers outpacing gainers 446 to 384.“The European Union’s troubles took a turn for the worse when Madrid tried to bolster

May 31, 2012

April industrial output unchanged on-year

South Korea’s industrial output growth remained unchanged in April from a year earlier mainly due to weak exports, but it inched up from the previous month, a government report showed Thursday.Production in the mining and manufacturing industries remained flat last month from April 2011, compared with a 0.7 percent on-year gain tallied for March, according to the report by Statistics Korea.The monthly output number, however, represents a 0.9 percent increase from March.The manufacturing sector,

May 31, 2012

Nonghyup exports 40kg of ‘hanwoo’ to Jordanian royals

Korea’s National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, announced Wednesday that it has exported premium cuts of Korean beef, or “hanwoo,” to the Jordanian royal family.Forty kilograms of frozen top-grade hanwoo arrived in Amman, Jordan, on May 26, a day after the Korean supplier put the beef on an overseas flight, officials said.The cuts include 20 kg of tenderloin, 15 kg of sirloin, and 5 kg of shank. The shank is used for making bulgogi. Nonghyup also sent bulgogi sauce to accompan

May 31, 2012

Court upholds price-fixing fine against Samsung Fire & Marine

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance suffered a blow to its brand image when the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in favor of the nation’s anti-trust watchdog’s decision to fine the company for price-fixing with other insurers.The court said the Fair Trade Commission’s imposition of fines on the Samsung firm, which allegedly agreed with other insurers on discount levels for insurance products and lower reimbursement payouts, was just.The Samsung insurer had filed a nullification suit against the FTC o

May 31, 2012

Overseas card spending rises in first quarter

South Koreans’ overseas credit card spending rose to a record high in the first quarter as more people bought products and services from abroad, the central bank said Thursday.Overseas credit card bills totaled $2.27 billion in the January-March period, up 5.2 percent from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. The figure covers purchases made by credit, debit or check cards.The amount also marks the second highest quarterly spending total after the $2.96 billion reported for the

May 31, 2012

Talks on software pricing expected between Microsoft, Defense Ministry

Two sides are unlikely to settle dispute in court, officials sayKorea’s Ministry of National Defense and Microsoft are expected to engage in talks over the price of software licensing provided by the global software developer following heightening tension between the two sides on the matter.An official with the ministry said that it is currently reviewing an official document sent by MS on May 29, and will seek to negotiate with MS to fine-tune their differences over the price, without giving a

IndustryMay 31, 2012

Ssangyong E&C wins top honors for building hotel in Singapore

Ssangyong Engineering and Construction recently won the Building and Construction Authority Awards ― one of the industry’s greatest honors ― in three categories for its recent construction of Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. The Marina Bay Sands, developed by U.S.-based resort company Las Vegas Sands, is an integrated resort near Marina Bay in Singapore, featuring 2,561 rooms, a 120,000 square-meter convention center and a 74,000 square-meter shopping mall. Adding to the uniqueness of the re

IndustryMay 31, 2012

Ssangyong E&C wins top honors for building hotel in Singapore

Time to invest in U.S. real estate: experts

Backed up by its increasing national wealth and population, Korean investors could become major customers in the U.S. retail real estate market, a U.S. expert said in Seoul on Thursday.“Korea is in a great position with its wealth and population … and needs to invest overseas to diversify.” Joseph F. Coradino, president of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, told The Korea Herald. The U.S. market will likely continue to rise, as shown by the history of market change after recessions, Cora

May 31, 2012

Time to invest in U.S. real estate: experts

S-Oil Corp. donates w10b for pavilion restoration

S-Oil Corp. said Thursday that it will donate 10 billion won for the restoration of Ulsan’s Taehwa Pavilion, a cultural and historical landmark in Korea’s seventh largest metropolitan city.S-Oil CEO Nasser Al-Mahasher made the announcement at the opening ceremony of the project, which took place on Thursday on the banks of the Taehwa River in Ulsan. The donation will cover the entire cost of restoring Taehwa Pavilion, a historical structure built during the reign of Queen Seon-deok during the Si

May 31, 2012

S-Oil Corp. donates w10b for pavilion restoration

Customer service for luxury brands not up to prices

A piece of cubic kept falling out from a Chanel earring 30-year-old Lim Joo-hyun received from a friend several months ago. When she took it to a Chanel boutique in central Seoul, however, she was disappointed to hear that it would take about a month to be fixed. “I was told that they do not have the same piece and that it would be replaced with a similar one which might not fit as well. The cubic fell out about two more times since then. Now I usually keep the earrings safe at home because I’m

IndustryMay 31, 2012

Customer service for luxury brands not up to prices

KT executive becomes first Asian GSMA strategy chief

KT said Thursday that the firm’s executive Yang Hyun-mi became the first Asian seated as chief strategy officer for the Global System for Mobile Communications Association.The nomination indicates that Yang, executive vice president of the customer strategy business unit at KT, will be leaving KT to serve in the GSMA position in London beginning June 15.Yang, 49, will focus on cooperating with operator members of GSMA to identify opportunities which will upgrade the mobile communications industr

IndustryMay 31, 2012

KT executive becomes first Asian GSMA strategy chief

320,000 Koreans have sleep disorders

About 320,000 people have been treated for sleeping disorders last year, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment said Monday. The figure is a 73 percent jump from 180,000 in 2007, the state insurance-auditory body said. About one-third of the patients were in their 40s and 50s. According to HIRA, the factor behind the spiraling cases of sleep disorders is extreme stress from work. The fact that they suffer from obesity, hypertension and other illnesses stemming from an unbalanced diet and lac

TechnologyMay 31, 2012

Raw milk, and raw emotion, go to court

MINNEAPOLIS ― Melinda Olson has given her 12-year-old son raw milk for years. When he walked away virtually unscathed from a serious bike accident last year, she credited his healthy diet of raw milk dairy products.Matthew Caldwell fed his 2-year-old son, Owen, raw milk in the spring of 2010. The boy was hospitalized for 13 days, victim of an E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak traced to raw milk producer Mike Hartmann.The two parents’ stories are bookends to a debate that is on high boil in Minnesota. One

TechnologyMay 31, 2012

Nasal obstruction

The nose has an important cosmetic function and also serves an even more important physiological role especially in respiration. Any problems with the respiratory function of the nose will lead to symptoms of nasal obstruction. People with normal respiratory function are not conscious of their breathing but patients with nasal obstruction as well as those around them experience stuffiness as a result.There are several conditions which cause nasal obstruction, the most common of which is rhinitis

TechnologyMay 31, 2012

Mom and baby yoga not a stretch, participants say

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. ― Babies can be good yoga partners. Just ask the folks at Pacific Cultural Center’s Ashtanga Yoga Institute.Babies live in the present moment, are flexible and like to stretch. But the Mama & Baby Yoga classes are really for the moms.One or two volunteers attend, holding and distracting the little ones who have had their fill of a quiet yoga practice, allowing their moms to continue with the asanas, or poses.A mother of two, instructor Treea Clements said she started teaching

TechnologyMay 31, 2012

Mom and baby yoga not a stretch, participants say

Research links coffee to lower death rates

LOS ANGELES ― Researchers have some reassuring news for the legions of coffee drinkers who can’t get through the day without a latte, cappuccino, iced mocha, double-shot of espresso or a plain old cuppa joe: That coffee habit may help you live longer.A new study that tracked the health and coffee consumption of more than 400,000 older adults for nearly 14 years found that java drinkers were less likely to die during the study than their counterparts who eschewed the brew. In fact, men and women

TechnologyMay 31, 2012

Research links coffee to lower death rates

How to stay away from cigarettes

The health hazards of smoking are well known: Cigarettes are known to contribute to the prevalence of cancers of the mouth, head, lung, breast, bladder, stomach and other parts of the body. It is also linked to coronary heart disease and many other fatal disorders. It is suspected of causing infertility in women and raises the risk of fetal deformity during pregnancy. The World Health Organization said it kills 5 million people worldwide a year, which is equivalent to one person dying every six

TechnologyMay 31, 2012

'Bloodletting' may be beneficial

Bloodletting as a medical treatment was abandoned in the 19th century, but German researchers said blood donation is beneficial to the donor.Professor Andreas Michalsen of the Charite-University Medical Centre in Berlin and colleagues at the University Duisburg-Essen said donating blood can provide medical benefits for obese people with metabolic syndrome -- which includes insulin resistance, glu

TechnologyMay 31, 2012

Scientists decode tomato genome

Scientists have sequenced the entire genome of the tomato in an international project that promises enhanced versions of the fruit.The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, has been conducted since 2004 by more than 300 scientists from 14 countries including a Korean team that mapped out one of the 12 chromosomes.“We have identified 35,000 genes in the tomato genome. This will be of

TechnologyMay 31, 2012

Americans' skulls getting bigger over time

American heads are getting larger although it's unclear why that is happening, forensic anthropologists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said.Examining 1,500 skulls dating back to the mid-1800s through the mid-1980s, the researchers found U.S. skulls have become larger, taller and narrower as seen from the front and faces have become significantly narrower and higher, a UT release report

TechnologyMay 31, 2012