Dongbu Insurance pays highest starting salary

Dongbu Insurance Co. pays the highest annual salaries to first-year employees, beating the former best-paying company Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance Co., according to news reports. Unlike the public conception that Samsung affiliate companies offer the highest annual starting salaries, Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance Co. ranked No. 3 despite its No. 1 performance in business Yonhap News said. Before tax reduction, the annual salaries for first-year employees with bachelor’s degrees was the

Nov. 19, 2012

KT&G to launch Tonino Lamborghini overseas

The nation’s best-selling tobacco manufacturer KT&G Corp. will export 300,000 packs of its premium tobacco brand “Tonino Lamborghini” to Hong Kong by the end of November. KT&G has already sold “Tonino Lamborghini” in Chinese duty-free shops since September, with its first import order at 488,000 packs. China and Hong Kong together form the largest, most competitive tobacco market in the world, the company said. “From the beginning, Tonino Lamborghini was meant to be launched worldwide,” a KT&G o

Nov. 19, 2012

The brains behind freestyle rap

Freestyle rap, an improvised style of the music genre associated with back-to-front baseball caps, baggy jeans and gold chains, has burst onto the science stage, shedding light on the workings of the brain.Researchers at the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders in the United States have examined freestyle rappers' brains to see which areas light up during the creative phase.The stream-of-consciousness singing style involves artists making up lyrics on the spot, guided

Nov. 19, 2012

Candidates converge on science policy

The three major presidential candidates may differ on key policies but all believe that Korea’s future depends on science and technology for growth.Their policies in the field converge in many aspects, including plans to revive the ministry for science and technology, as well as increasing support for research and innovation.The Saenuri Party’s Park Geun-hye has the most extensive agenda. An engineering graduate, she prioritizes developing the software industry, supporting start-ups and establis

Nov. 18, 2012

KT chairman wins Asia business leaders award

KT Corp. chairman Lee Suk-chae won the 11th CNBC Asia Business Leaders Award in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, the mobile operator said on Sunday.The award acknowledges Asian business visionaries with strength, innovation, ingenuity, knowledge and foresight that are especially required for the leaders of today’s global economy. One of the six awardees this year, Lee won the accolade in recognition of his personal involvement in supporting and fostering the next generation of leaders. Lee has beco

Nov. 18, 2012

Kwon ranks fifth in list of top Fortune businesspersons

Samsung Electronics CEO Kwon Oh-hyun was ranked fifth out of 50 CEOs in “2012 Businessperson of the Year” selected by global business magazine Fortune, followed by Google CEO Larry Page who ranked sixth. Fortune evaluated Kwon as a CEO who has successfully run the $149 billion Samsung Electronics empire since June 2012 as the head of component business. “Under Kwon, the Korean company became the second-largest chipmaker in the world. Now the new CEO has to contend with its top customer and compe

Nov. 18, 2012

France bans access to 'end of world' refuge

France on Friday dashed the hopes of those who had planned to take refuge in one of the few places on Earth some believe will be spared when the world ends on December 21.Local officials banned access to the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain in the southwest where rumor has it the hilltop will open on the last day and aliens will emerge with spaceships to save nearby humans.Eric Freysselinard, the state's top representative in the area, said he was blocking access to the mountain for public safety rea

Nov. 18, 2012

Mars radiation levels not lethal to humans

The Mars rover Curiosity found radiation levels on Mars are not lethal to humans, U.S. researchers say."Absolutely, astronauts can live in this environment," said Don Hassler, principal investigator for the rover's Radiation Assessment Detector, at a news conference Thursday.Hassler said characterizing the radiation on the surface of another planet has never been done before now, CNN reported.Researchers plan to collect radiation numbers over time to create a better assessment of exactly how muc

Nov. 18, 2012

Astronomers see distant ‘born-again’ star

Astronomers say evidence of a dying sun-like star coming briefly back to life after throwing off its gassy shells shows the possible fate our own solar system.The “born-again” star, Abell 30, was captured in a composite of visible images from NASA‘s Hubble Space Telescope and X-ray data from the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton and NASA‘s Chandra space telescopes, a release from the Paris headquarters of the ESA said Thursday.Astronomers know stars like our sun swell into red giants toward the

Nov. 16, 2012

Hypertension and winter

Blood pressure tends to drop during the summer and increase again in October when the weather gets colder. When the atmospheric temperature decreases, we produce less sweat and our peripheral vessels constrict, increasing the resistance to blood flow. During the winter, the systolic blood pressure increases by 7mmHg and the diastolic blood pressure increases by 3mmHg on average. This change in blood pressure with different atmospheric temperature is more significant in people with hypertension t

Nov. 15, 2012

Health expert suggests ‘license to smoke’

Health officials all around the world have introduced a variety of policies to reduce smoking rates: warning labels and graphic, almost grotesque images on cigarette packs, campaigns, and many countries including South Korea have banned or are pushing to ban smoking in public places.One researcher from Australia, however, has gone so far as to say people should carry a license if they want to buy cigarettes.Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at the University of Sydney, said it is possi

Nov. 15, 2012

Countries ranked for cigarette warnings

An international report released by the Canadian Cancer Society ranked Australia for best cigarette package health warnings, officials say.The report ranked 198 countries and jurisdictions on the size of their health warnings on cigarette packages. Australia led all the countries with more than 82 percent of their cigarette packages covered with health warnings, followed by: 80 percent in Uruguay, 80 percent in Sri Lanka, 75 percent in Canada and 75 percent in Brunei. The report was released at

Nov. 15, 2012