The Korea Herald

Fed survey finds moderate growth across U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The U.S. economy strengthened in all regions of the country in July and August, in areas from consumer spending to auto sales to tourism, the Federal Reserve reported in a survey released Wednesday.All 12 of the Fed’s regions reported growth. Six ― New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas and San Francisco ― characterized growth as “moderate.” The other regions reported somewhat slower expansion. Four described growth as “modest,” and two noted signs of improvement.The

Sept. 4, 2014

Fed survey finds moderate growth across U.S.

U.S. regulators set rules meant to ward off bank crisis

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Federal regulators are requiring big banks to keep enough high-quality assets on hand to survive during a severe downturn, the latest move under congressional mandate to lessen the likelihood of another financial meltdown. The Federal Reserve adopted rules on a 5-0 vote Wednesday that will subject big U.S. banks for the first time to so-called “liquidity” requirements. Liquidity is the ability to access cash quickly. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Treasury Departme

Sept. 4, 2014

Argentine lawmakers OK debt payment alternatives

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) ― Argentina’s lawmakers approved a measure early Thursday that would transfer the payment site for the country’s restructured debt obligations from New York to Buenos Aires, as the country grapples with fallout from its 2001 default.France was also added as an alternative payment source in the vote after a marathon session that began Wednesday. The measure was passed by the Senate passed by a vote of 39 to 27 with two abstentions, and now goes to the Chamber of Deputies.The me

Sept. 4, 2014

Celeb hacking scandal shows digital vulnerability

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― To keep private pictures private, never upload them online.That’s the advice experts offer after hackers broke into female celebrities’ personal accounts, stole nude photos and posted them on the Web. Jennifer Lawrence and Mary Elizabeth Winstead have said they were victims of the hack attack.Federal investigators are looking into the theft, and Apple confirmed Tuesday that while individual accounts were breached, its iCloud and Find My iPhone services remained secure.This lat

Sept. 3, 2014

Uber faces ban in Germany

A German taxi organization won a fast-track ruling that may halt the use of Uber Technologies Inc.’s ride-hailing application in the country. Uber drivers don’t have the necessary permits to carry passengers under German law, a Frankfurt court said in the emergency ruling dated Aug. 25, citing evidence provided by Taxi Deutschland Service Gesellschaft fuer Taxizentralen eG. The Frankfurt case is one of at least four legal actions against the company in the country. Governments and regulators in

Sept. 3, 2014

New Washington Post publisher spells end of era

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The Washington Post has a new publisher, owner Jeff Bezos said Tuesday in his latest move to reshape the prestigious daily for the digital age, ending a long era of family management.Bezos, the Internet entrepreneur and founder of Amazon, named Fred Ryan as publisher and chief executive, replacing Katharine Weymouth, the scion of the family that has run the paper for decades.Ryan is a former Reagan administration official and part of the founding leadership team of Politico, a

Sept. 3, 2014

New Washington Post publisher spells end of era

Home Depot suffers credit card breach

NEW YORK (AP) ― Home Depot may be the latest retailer to suffer a major credit card data breach.The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer told the Associated Press Tuesday that it is working with both banks and law enforcement to investigate “unusual activity” that would point to a hack.“Protecting our customers’ information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers,” said Paula Drake, a spokeswoman at Hom

Sept. 3, 2014

China fines insurance firms $18m for price collusion

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― A total of 23 Chinese insurance firms have colluded to fix fees, authorities said Tuesday, slapping them with a total of $18 million in fines in the government’s latest antimonopoly move.The companies negotiated and agreed on unified commissions from auto insurance premiums through meetings organized by industry group the Zhejiang Insurance Association, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement.The government agency fined 22 of the insurers a combined 11

Sept. 3, 2014

Swiss, Singapore, U.S. top economic rankings

GENEVA (AP) ― The United States’ competitiveness among global economies has risen to the No. 3 spot behind Switzerland and Singapore in rankings published annually by the World Economic Forum. In its latest survey, released early Wednesday, the Forum said the U.S. ― the world’s largest economy ― moved up two spots from fifth position last year, thanks to improvements in its financial markets and public institutions. Six European countries dominated the top 10: Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the

Sept. 3, 2014

Swiss, Singapore, U.S. top economic rankings

Google working on super-fast computer chip

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ― Google on Tuesday said it is working on a super-fast “quantum” computer chip as part a vision to one day have machines think like humans.The Internet titan added renowned researcher John Martinis and his team at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to the Quantum Artificial Intelligence team at Google, according to director of engineering Hartmut Neven.The new hires are part of a “hardware initiative” to design and build chips operating on sub-atomic levels in ways

Sept. 3, 2014

Mexico plans $9.2 billion airport project for capital

MEXICO CITY (AP) ― President Enrique Pena Nieto announced the construction of a new international airport for Mexico City on Tuesday, saying it will quadruple the capacity of the current one. Costing an estimated $9.2 billion, the facility will have six runways and a capacity of 120 million passengers a year. Pena Nieto said it has been clear for decades that the capital’s overtaxed airport needed to be replaced. “The current saturation restricts travel between the different states of the countr

Sept. 3, 2014

Ukraine taps into EU gas via Slovakia

BRATISLAVA (AFP) ― Ukraine began receiving gas from the European Union via Slovakia on Tuesday, part of a deal brokered by Brussels to reduce Kiev’s energy dependence on Russia amid an escalating armed crisis.Russia in mid-June cut its deliveries to Ukraine after a pro-Western government took power, saying that Kiev had not be paying its bills on time. Visiting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Slovak counterpart Robert Fico presided over the switching on of a pipeline linking Slova

Sept. 3, 2014

Inflation in leading economies slows in July: OECD

PARIS (AFP) ― Inflation in advanced democracies slowed in the year to July but was well above the eurozone level now flirting with deflation, OECD data showed on Tuesday.Inflation across the OECD 34 members was 1.9 percent in the year to July from 2.1 percent in June. This is a sharp fall from one month to the next, but still leaves inflation around the level of 2 percent which central banks in advanced economies consider to be appropriate for ensuring reasonable price stability.“This slowdown i

Sept. 3, 2014

Ukrainian economy at risk

BRUSSELS (AP) ― While Ukraine’s leaders are trying to win the war against Russian-backed separatists in the east, they appear to be losing the battle to resurrect the country’s battered economy. Ukraine might need billions in additional support if the fighting between the military and the separatists in the country’s east persists through next year, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. Only covering the shortfall in the central bank’s reserves would require an additional $19 billion b

Sept. 3, 2014

Apple probes report iCloud hacked to gain stars’ photos

Apple Inc., which is poised to unveil new iPhones next week, and the FBI are probing reports hackers used the company’s iCloud service to illegally access nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities. Hackers posted the nude photos on the anonymous image-sharing website 4chan, the Telegraph in London reported. The photos targeting more than 100 U.S. and U.K. celebrities were allegedly obtained by breaking into iCloud accounts, the newspaper said. A representative for Oscar winn

Sept. 2, 2014

Heineken to sell Mexican packaging business for $1.2b

Dutch brewing giant Heineken on Monday announced it is selling Mexican-based packaging business Empaque to U.S.-based Crown Holdings in a deal worth more than $1 billion.“Heineken ... has signed a binding agreement for the sale of its Mexican package business Empaque. The total enterprise value of the transaction amounts to $1.225 billion, the brewer said in a statement.“The sale of Empaque is expected to result in a post-tax book gain of 300 million euros,” it added.The Amsterdam-based Heineken

Sept. 2, 2014

‘Revving’ economy calls for higher wages: Obama

MILWAUKEE (AP) ― President Barack Obama renewed his push for Congress to raise the minimum wage Monday in a buoyant accounting of the economy’s “revving” performance, delivered on behalf of Democrats opening their fall campaigns for the midterm congressional elections.“America deserves a raise,” he told a union crowd in Milwaukee, vowing to keep a hard sell on Congress in much the way he once courted his wife. “I just wore her down,” he cracked.Timing his push to Labor Day, the traditional start

Sept. 2, 2014

‘Revving’ economy calls for higher wages: Obama

Apple said to team up with Visa, MasterCard on iPhone wallet

Apple Inc. plans to turn its next iPhone into a mobile wallet through a partnership with major payment networks, banks and retailers, according to a person familiar with the situation. The agreement includes Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and American Express Co. and will be unveiled on Sept. 9 along with the next iPhone, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The new iPhone will make mobile payment easier by including a near-field communication chip for the f

Sept. 1, 2014

Apple said to team up with Visa, MasterCard on iPhone wallet

Iliad in talks with buyout firms on new bid for T-Mobile

Billionaire Xavier Niel’s Iliad SA is talking to private-equity firms about teaming to make an improved offer for Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile U.S. Inc. unit, according to people familiar with the matter. Iliad’s discussions with potential partners may accelerate after Deutsche Telekom indicated it is willing to negotiate a sale if an offer puts a valuation of at least $35 a share on the business, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The German company

Sept. 1, 2014

Iliad in talks with buyout firms on new bid for T-Mobile

New village toilets a small step for poor Indian women

KATRA SHAHADATGANJ, India (AFP) ― Decorated with marigolds and ribbons, 108 toilets unveiled in a tragedy-hit village are a small step in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to end open-air defecation for impoverished Indian women.The spotlessly clean toilets were donated on Sunday to the village in northern Uttar Pradesh state, where scared and vulnerable women had long been forced to trek nightly into the fields to relieve themselves.“I believe no woman must lose her life just because she has

Sept. 1, 2014