Most Popular
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Trump picks ex-N. Korea policy official as his principal deputy national security adviser
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S. Korea not to attend Sado mine memorial: foreign ministry
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Toxins at 622 times legal limit found in kids' clothes from Chinese platforms
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[Weekender] Korea's traditional sauce culture gains global recognition
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BLACKPINK's Rose stays at No. 3 on British Official Singles chart with 'APT.'
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Wealthy parents ditch Korean passports to get kids into international school
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Gyeongju blends old with new
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Over 80,000 malicious calls made to Seoul call center since 2020
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Korea to hold own memorial for forced labor victims, boycotting Japan’s
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Nvidia CEO signals Samsung’s imminent shipment of AI chips
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Google says FBI watching the Web
WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Google says the FBI is monitoring the Web for potential terrorist activity. But it can’t confirm the extent of the surveillance.As part of the Google Transparency Report, the Internet giant released data this week on so-called National Security Letters ― official requests for data under the Patriot Act passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.But Google said it was only allowed to provide broad ranges of numbers: in the years from 2009 to 2012, for example, it received between
March 7, 2013
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EU fines MS for breaking browser pact
AMSTERDAM (AP) ― The European Union has fined Microsoft 561 million euros ($733 million) for breaking a pledge to offer personal computer users a choice of Internet browsers when they install the company’s flagship Windows operating system. The penalty imposed by the EU’s executive arm, the Commission, is a first for Brussels: no company has ever failed to keep its end of a bargain with EU authorities before. In 2009, Microsoft Corp. struck a broad settlement with the Commission to resolve dispu
March 7, 2013
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ECB to keep rates on hold, analysts say
FRANKFURT (AFP) ― The European Central Bank is set to keep its key interest rates steady at a policy meeting on Thursday, despite concerns about the destabilizing effects for the euro area of political gridlock in Italy.“We do not expect any change in the monetary policy stance,” said Marie Diron of Ernst & Young Eurozone Forecast.“Fears that were raised as a result of the uncertainty regarding Italy’s political situation and economic and fiscal policies seem to have abated somewhat,” the expert
March 7, 2013
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Japan nominates Nakao for ADB chief
TOKYO (AFP) ― Japan nominated a senior finance ministry official Thursday for the top job at the Asian Development Bank, as Tokyo looks to keep hold of a role it has held for almost 50 years.Tokyo said it had named Takehiko Nakao, vice finance minister for international affairs, as its pick to head the Manila-based ADB with its current chief expected to take over as head of the Bank of Japan.ADB head Haruhiko Kuroda was nominated last week as governor of Japan’s central bank, and the Oxford Univ
March 7, 2013
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Bank of Japan announces no fresh policies
TOKYO (AFP) ― The Bank of Japan wrapped up its last policy meeting under governor Masaaki Shirakawa on Thursday, announcing no fresh policy measures but offering an upbeat assessment of the economy.The BOJ, which also left rates unchanged at zero to 0.1 percent, said the world’s third-largest economy has “stopped weakening” and is “expected to level off more or less for the time being.”The bank was widely expected to take no action as Shirakawa gets set to step down about three weeks before the
March 7, 2013
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U.S. House OKs bill to avoid shutdown
WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved legislation Wednesday to prevent a U.S. government shutdown on March 27 and blunt the impact of deep spending cuts on the Defense Department.The vote sent the measure to the Senate, where Democrats who control the chamber hope to give additional Cabinet agencies similar flexibility in implementing their shares of the $85 billion in spending cuts that threaten the economy’s fragile recovery.Republicans said the measure
March 7, 2013
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Time Warner to spin off publishing unit Time Inc.
Time Warner announced Wednesday it would spin off its publishing arm Time Inc. by the end of the year, allowing the US conglomerate to focus on its television and film operations.Chief executive Jeff Bewkes said in a statement that a spinoff "provides strategic clarity" for the media-entertainment giant.The announcement comes after unsuccessful talks to sell some of the titles in the Time Inc. group, and as rival News Corp. is undergoing a similar split of its entertainment and publishing operat
March 7, 2013
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EU fines Microsoft $733M for breaking browser pact
The European Union has fined Microsoft (euro) 561 million ($733 million) for breaking a pledge to offer personal computer users a choice of Internet browsers when they install the company's flagship Windows operating system.The penalty imposed by the EU's executive arm, the Commission, is a first for Brussels: no company has ever failed to keep its end of a bargain with EU authorities before.In 2009, Microsoft Corp. struck a broad settlement with the Commission to resolve disputes over the compa
March 7, 2013
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Ferrari, McLaren unveil hybrid supercars
GENEVA (AP) ― Hybrids aren’t just for fuel economy any more.Ferrari and McLaren both on Tuesday unveiled sleek hybrid supercars sculpted from carbon fiber at the Geneva Motor Show.“LaFerrari” is the name of the new special edition Ferrari.“Owners say they have a Ferrari,” chairman Luca di Montezemolo said. “This is THE Ferrari.”Montezemolo said the electric engine has a performance appeal that is proving a draw to Ferrari owners.Only 499 of the models will be built ― and some 700 people, many of
March 6, 2013
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HP faces pressure to remove chairman Lane
Hewlett-Packard Co. faces mounting pressure to remove chairman Ray Lane and several other board members after proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. urged investors to block their reelection over failures to properly vet acquisitions.Shareholders should vote against Lane, John Hammergren and G. Kennedy Thompson, ISS said in a report released in advance of the company’s annual meeting, set for March 20. Glass Lewis urged the removal of Hammergren, Thompson, M
March 6, 2013
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‘Carmakers must push outside Europe’
GENEVA (AP) ― The European car market is going to be tough for five more years, Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn predicted Tuesday, and the only way for struggling carmakers to survive is to push into other markets.Europe’s carmakers are finding it harder to recover from the collapse of the car market in 2008 than some of their rivals in the U.S. and Asia. Europeans are buying fewer new cars as their economies grow weakly, or not at all. On top of this, automakers are struggling with idle production lin
March 6, 2013
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U.S. leaders urge Congress to ratify IMF reforms
WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Nineteen U.S. leaders, including former Treasury secretaries, urged Congress Tuesday to ratify International Monetary Fund reforms and remove the key obstacle to its implementation.“A stronger IMF, driven by U.S. leadership, supports U.S. and global interests,” they wrote in a letter to the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives.“We therefore urge the Congress to continue its longstanding, bipartisan support of the International Monetary Fund for our self-interest
March 6, 2013
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World stocks surge; Dow makes new all-time highs
The U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Index broke its all-time record Tuesday and around the world stocks rose strongly, following better-than-expected economic data in Europe and the United States and a pledge from China, the world's second largest economy, that it would meet ambitious growth targets.On Wall Street, the Dow rose 1.1 percent to 14,278.42, passing all-time highs set in October 2007. The S&P 500 advanced 1.2 percent to 1,542.96.In Germany, the DAX closed Tuesday 2.3 percent higher to 7,8
March 6, 2013
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China top luxury car market by 2016
SHANGHAI (AFP) ― China will overtake the United States as the world’s biggest luxury car market as early as 2016, as rising incomes and desire for status boost premium auto brands, a consultancy said Monday.Global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company said China is already the second biggest market for “premium” cars after the United States, with sales of 1.25 million vehicles last year.China’s premium car sales could reach 2.25 million in 2016 and 3.0 million by 2020, it added in a repo
March 5, 2013
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Apple’s iWatch could be super profitable
While Tim Cook has dropped hints that Apple Inc. is hard at work on a television to drive the next era of growth, the company’s wristwatch-style device, still in development, may prove more profitable. The global watch industry will generate more than $60 billion in sales in 2013, said Citigroup Inc. analyst Oliver Chen. While that’s smaller than the pool of revenue that comes from TVs, gross margins on watches are about 60 percent, he said. That’s four times bigger than for televisions, accordi
March 5, 2013
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U.S. budget cuts already causing airport delays
WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Travelers at U.S. airports are already being greeted with longer lines and delays due to government spending cuts launched last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday.Napolitano warned that the lines for customs and security clearance could double as the spending cuts, called the sequester, begin to hit government departments after they came into effect on Friday.“We are already seeing the effects at some of the ports, the big airports, for example. Som
March 5, 2013
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EU to bail out Cyprus
BRUSSELS (AFP) ― Eurozone finance ministers said Monday that a long-delayed bailout for Cyprus could be fixed within 10 days after Nicosia agreed to submit its financial sector to independent scrutiny amid concerns of large-scale money-laundering.Long resisted by the previous Cypriot government, the first face-to-face talks between the other 16 ministers from the euro currency area and their new Cypriot counterpart, Michael Sarris, were hailed by Eurogroup chairman and Dutch Finance Minister Jer
March 5, 2013
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China sets 2013 economic growth at 7.5% as NPC opens
China targeted 2013 economic growth of 7.5 percent and vowed an unwavering fight against corruption Tuesday at the start of an annual parliamentary session that will seal its transition to new leadership.Outgoing premier Wen Jiabao pledged to protect China's "territorial integrity" as the government laid down another double-digit rise in military spending to modernize the world's largest standing army, at a time of mounting tensions.In his final major act after a decade in charge of day-to-day g
March 5, 2013
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BP executive defends report on Gulf oil spill
The BP executive who led the company's probe of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion denied Monday that his investigators narrowly focused on rig workers' actions to spare onshore engineers and managers from blame for the disaster.At the start of the second week of a trial over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a lawyer for rig owner Transocean Ltd. asked the BP executive, Mark Bly, why his team's report doesn't mention a call from BP rig supervisor Donald Vidrine to an onshore engineer l
March 5, 2013
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News Corp. selling Sky New Zealand stake
WELLINGTON (AFP) ― Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. announced on Monday it will sell its 44 percent stake in New Zealand’s Sky Network Television for a reported NZ$815 million ($671 million).In a statement, News Corp.’s Australian arm News Limited, which owns the stake in New Zealand’s largest subscription television provider, said shares would be offered to a range of institutional and retail investors.“Following the sales, News Limited will no longer have any holding in Sky Network Television Limit
March 4, 2013