The Korea Herald

China, EU reach settlement on panels

BEIJING (AP) ― The Europe Union and Chinese solar panel exporters said Saturday that they had reached a settlement in their long trade dispute, with the exporters agreeing to sell their products at a minimum price in the EU market.The agreement ends one of the biggest-ever trade disputes between China and Europe ― a row that threatened to escalate into a full-blown trade war involving European wines and to disrupt EU-China relations.The settlement comes after negotiations that began in June when

July 28, 2013

Obama narrows choices for new Fed chairman

President Barack Obama said his nominee for Federal Reserve chairman will be someone who embraces the central bank’s dual mandate to promote price stability and maximum employment, and he has narrowed his choice “to some extraordinarily qualified candidates.” “I think you can anticipate that over the next several months, an announcement will be made,” Obama said in an interview with the New York Times on July 24, according to a transcript published Sunday on the newspaper’s website. Obama said h

July 28, 2013

Obama narrows choices for new Fed chairman

Greece wins 2.5 billion-euro aid loan, buying time in crisis

Greece won the release of a 2.5 billion-euro ($3.3 billion) loan installment to tide it through the coming weeks, as European governments put off debate over Greek debt relief until after Germany’s election in September. Euro-area governments approved the payment Friday on a conference call of senior finance officials, European Commission spokesman Simon O’Connor said, after Greece took steps to pare public-sector payrolls, meeting the last of 22 conditions set by creditors. “As a result, with

July 28, 2013

Greece wins 2.5 billion-euro aid loan, buying time in crisis

Improving economy gives ECB breathing space on rates

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― An apparent improvement in the eurozone economy will allow the European Central Bank to hold its fire on interest rates for the time being at its meeting this week, analysts said. “The ECB will likely see no pressing need to ease monetary policy still further given the recent improvement in economic data,” Postbank analysts wrote in a note to investors.In particular, activity in the eurozone private sector has picked up in July, suggesting that the recession in the 17 countries

July 28, 2013

Improving economy gives ECB breathing space on rates

Japan logs first consumer price rise in over a year

Japan's consumer prices rose in June for the first time in 14 months, official figures showed Friday, as Tokyo looks to tackle years of deflation that have crippled growth in the world's third-largest economy.Excluding volatile prices of fresh food, prices rose 0.4 percent in June, the first increase since a 0.2 percent rise in April last year, according to the internal affairs ministry.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to pull Japan out of 15 years of falling prices with active government spe

July 26, 2013

China’s Li vows support measures from rail projects to tax breaks

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the nation will speed railway construction, especially in central and western regions, adding support for an economy that’s set to expand at the slowest pace in 23 years. The State Council also Wednesday approved tax breaks for small companies and reduced fees for exporters, according to a statement after a meeting led by Li. China plans a railway development fund, the government said. Additional spending would help the world’s second-largest economy, after the go

July 25, 2013

Obama: Economy ‘highest priority’

GALESBURG, Illinois (AP) ― Seeking to build momentum for looming fiscal fights, President Barack Obama on Wednesday cast himself as the champion for middle-class Americans struggling to make ends meet. He chided Washington for having “taken its eye off the ball” and declared that the economy would be the “highest priority” of his second term. Obama, in an hour-long address that was at times deeply partisan, also accused Republican lawmakers of succumbing to “an endless parade of distractions and

July 25, 2013

U.S. door-to-door mail delivery could disappear

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Americans for generations have come to depend on door-to-door mail delivery. But with the U.S. Postal Service facing billions of dollars in annual losses, that service could be virtually finished by 2022 under a proposal being considered in Congress.Curbside delivery, which includes deliveries to mailboxes at the end of driveways, and cluster box delivery would replace letter carriers walking right up to homes’ front doors ― a scene deeply embedded in movies and other popular c

July 25, 2013

U.S. door-to-door mail delivery could disappear

Ford’s 2nd quarter shines as N. America, Asia lead the way

DEARBORN, Michigan (AP) ― Ford Motor Co. is finally becoming the well-rounded company it aspires to be. Almost bankrupt last decade because it relied too heavily on selling big trucks and SUVs in North America, the second-largest U.S. automaker is now making small and midsize cars at a profit and selling them across the globe. Ford’s Asian operations earned a record quarterly profit of $117 million in the three months ended June 30, and 20 percent of Ford’s sales came from the region. That’s up

July 25, 2013

Google launches new Nexus 7 tablet

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Google is betting consumers will pay slightly more for a sleeker, more powerful version of its Nexus 7 tablet as the Internet company escalates its rivalry with Apple and Amazon.com in technology’s key battleground ― the mobile computing market. The fancier devices unveiled Wednesday in San Francisco will go on sale in the U.S next Tuesday in Google’s online store and numerous retailers with brick-and-mortar stores. Among other things, the souped-up line of Nexus tablets wil

July 25, 2013

‘Google built better culture than Apple’

Julian Robertson, whose Tiger Management LLC was once one of the world’s largest hedge-fund firms, said Google Inc. has established a better leadership culture than Apple Inc. to ensure long-term success. Steve Jobs, the deceased co-founder of Apple, “was a maverick person and really couldn’t establish a great, long-term entity,” Robertson said Tuesday in an interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene, Sara Eisen and Scarlet Fu. “I think that the Google people have a better way of getti

July 24, 2013

Nokia unveils low-cost 4.7-inch Lumia 625

Nokia Oyj, the mobile-device manufacturer striving to regain market share lost to Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., introduced a smartphone for its Lumia line targeted at developing economies. The Lumia 625 is cheaper than some previous models and comes with a 4.7-inch LCD screen and the ability to connect to the speedier fourth-generation wireless networks. The phone will cost 220 euros ($290) before mobile-operator subsidies and will go on sale in Asia, Africa and Latin America this quar

July 24, 2013

Japan logs $1.8b trade deficit on export jump

TOKYO (AP) ― Japan’s trade deficit was a smaller than expected 180.8 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in June, though the rise in exports failed to keep pace with a nearly 12 percent increase in imports from a year earlier. The deficit reported by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday was smaller than most forecasts but more than triple the 56.1 trillion yen deficit recorded in June 2012. That’s largely due to higher costs for fuel imports since most of Japan’s nuclear reactors have been shut down sinc

July 24, 2013

World Bank delivers record aid to poorest countries

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The World Bank said on Tuesday it had delivered record aid to the poorest countries in the past year, half of it to Africa, despite a difficult global economy.Commitments for the International Development Association, the Bank arm that provides interest-free loans and grants to the world’s poorest countries, reached an all-time high of $16.3 billion in the 2013 fiscal year that ended June 30, the institution said in a statement.That marked an almost 11 percent jump from a year

July 24, 2013

World Bank delivers record aid to poorest countries

U.S. urges steps to open Japanese markets

WASHINGTON (AP) ― A House Democratic leader on trade policy on Tuesday said the time is right to press Japan on its closed markets as Japan formally joins the United States and 10 other Asia-Pacific nations in negotiations to create a major new trade bloc. Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, proposed that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, talks should link the reduction of U.S. auto tariffs to the opening of the Japanese auto market. He said there sh

July 24, 2013

Japan trade deficit narrows on June export jump

Japan's trade deficit was a smaller-than-expected 180.8 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in June as the weaker yen boosted exports. The deficit reported by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday was smaller than most forecasts and down from May's deficit of 996.4 billion yen. Still, it was more than triple the 56.1 trillion yen deficit recorded in June 2012. That's largely due to higher costs for fuel imports since most of Japan's nuclear reactors have been shut down since the March 2011 tsunami and nuc

July 24, 2013

U.S. lawmaker urges steps to open Japanese markets

A House Democratic leader on trade policy on Tuesday said the time is right to press Japan on its closed markets as Japan formally joins the United States and 10 other Asia-Pacific nations in negotiations to create a major new trade bloc.Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, proposed that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, talks should link the reduction of U.S. auto tariffs to the opening of the Japanese auto market. He said there should also be an enf

July 24, 2013

Apple's 3Q earnings sag, but top Street estimates

Apple's sales of older, less expensive iPhones climbed in its latest quarter, highlighting the challenges facing the world's most valuable technology company as it tries to reverse a recent decline in its earnings and prove that it can still innovate.The results announced Tuesday topped the projections of analysts who steer the way investors tend to react to financial reports. That helped lift Apple's stock by $14.61, or more than 3 percent, to $433.60 in extended trading after the numbers came

July 24, 2013

Apple developing iPhones, tablets with bigger screens

TAIPEI (AFP) ― Apple could roll out smartphones and tablets with bigger screens in a move analysts say is an attempt to catch up with a trend set by its major rival Samsung.The Californian tech giant and its Asian suppliers are testing smartphone screens larger than four inches and tablet screens slightly less than 13 inches, the Wall Street Journal reported, without naming the suppliers.Samsung, which has released a series of handsets and tablets with increasingly larger screens, has seen its g

July 23, 2013

Apple developing iPhones, tablets with bigger screens

Google, Facebook want a piece of Japan’s digital sticker business

A craze coming out of Japan is now catching on in Silicon Valley: stickers. In the last few months, Facebook and Google have added digital stickers, basically oversize emoticons, to their chat applications. Venture-backed startups such as MessageMe and Path are also chasing the sticker fad.They have Japan-based Line to thank for the sticker sensation. The app, which has nearly 200 million users, is developed by a unit of NHN, South Korea’s biggest Internet search provider. The app allows feature

July 23, 2013