S. Korean satellite successfully reaches earth's orbit

South Korea's multipurpose satellite equipped with a high-resolution camera successfully reached the earth's orbit after blasting off from a Japanese space center, the government said Friday.The Arirang 3 satellite, which lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center south of Kyushu Island at 1:39 a.m. on Japan's H-IIA rocket has made contact with ground stations, indicating that it has entered a c

May 18, 2012

Effects of Apple’s Elpida orders on Samsung, Hynix limited

Apple’s reported placing of large orders for Elpida Memory’s mobile DRAM chips will not affect Samsung Electronics shares or its global supply chain in the long-run, analysts said Thursday.The effects of the unconfirmed news are likely to be short-lived and limited to boosting the fundamentals of Korean semiconductor players, including SK Hynix, whose production capacity still outweighs that of the Japan-based chip maker.“Elpida’s production capacity lags behind that of Samsung and Hynix, still

May 17, 2012

Samsung supplies 40% of handsets with Android, Gartner says

Samsung Electronics Co. sold more than 40 percent of all Android mobile phones in the first quarter as the South Korean manufacturer became the world’s largest handset maker, research company Gartner Inc. said. Global handset sales declined 2 percent to 419 million, dragged down by a drop in low-end handsets, Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner said on Thursday in a report. Smartphone sales rose 45 percent, the researcher said. Samsung, which also makes screens and other hardware used in smartph

May 17, 2012

Seonam Hospital to provide free smoking cessation program

Seonam Hospital is holding a free clinic to help people quit smoking from May 24 through June 28. The program consists of nicotine-dependence measurement; free provision of nicotine patches, gum and candies; once-a-week face-to-face consultation; and regular educational sessions.After the program wraps up, the hospital plans to stay in touch with the patients through SMS messages for another six months to keep them focused on the goal. “Smoking is more than a habit. It is a disease. Seeking prof

May 17, 2012

All hospitals to display patents’ rights on site

From August all medical institutions should post patients’ rights and responsibilities on a wall or on LED panels inside their main building, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Tuesday. According to a relevant law revision that will come to effect from Aug. 2, rights and responsibilities should be exhibited on the walls of reception sections, emergency rooms and websites. The patients have the right to be treated, notified and decide their own treatments; to have their personal information

May 17, 2012

Mechanism of delirium identified

A group of medical doctors here said they have identified the mechanism causing delirium, or sudden severe confusion and rapid changes in brain function that occur in physical or mental illness, a first internationally.According to professor Kim Jae-jin and his team at Gangnam Severance Hospital, one of the main mechanisms causing the mental disease is the incongruity of the basal ganglion of the cerebrum and the midbrain. Lack of congruity allows only one of them to operate actively to cause th

May 17, 2012

Flesh-eating germ rare, especially for the healthy

ATLANTA (AP) ― Aimee Copeland, a Georgia grad student, is fighting for her life because of the flesh-eating bacteria that infected her after she gashed her leg in a river two weeks ago. One of her legs was amputated and her fingers will be too, her father says, because of the spreading infection.She has a rare condition, called necrotizing fasciitis, in which marauding bacteria run rampant through tissue. Affected areas sometimes have to be surgically removed to save the patient’s life.● How oft

May 17, 2012

Coffee buzz: Study finds java drinkers live longer

 One of life's simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn't matter.The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure an

May 17, 2012

iPhone with larger screen said imminent

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

May 17, 2012

GM to pull ads from Facebook: report

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

May 16, 2012

Samsung keeps top spot in TV market

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

May 16, 2012