The Korea Herald

Amazon snags sorting from FedEx to avert package pileups

Amazon.com Inc., seeking to avoid shipping delays that marred last year’s holiday season, is taking more control of its delivery system by opening “sorting centers” around the country.One of those facilities is surrounded by cornfields and cabbage farms in the town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. Unlike the online retailer’s 50 U.S. fulfillment centers where workers gather items to be packed in boxes, the 500,000-square-foot building -- which opened in October -- takes

Dec. 9, 2014

BMW in top leadership shake-up

FRANKFURT (AP) -- BMW shook up its top leadership Tuesday, saying that CEO Norbert Reithofer would leave his post to become chairman of the board as part of ``generational change'' at the head of the German luxury automaker.The end of Reithofer's tenure as CEO, combined with the departure of a key manager for rival Volkswagen, means significant turnover in the executive team at the Munich-based maker of the X5 sport utility and the 3-Series sedan.Reithofer is to be replaced by chief production e

Dec. 9, 2014

Berkshire's Decker says CEO pay to be board issue after Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s board will have a bigger responsibility weighing compensation for its next chief executive officer after Warren Buffett is no longer leading the company, said director Susan Decker.Buffett, 84, and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charles Munger, 90, have requested their annual salaries be set at $100,000 for decades. Both are among the biggest shareholders in the Omaha, Nebraska-based company.“The compensation questions for the board are really not too important today,” Decker

Dec. 9, 2014

Fed proposing big U.S. banks boost capital cushions

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators are proposing that the eight biggest U.S. banks be required to further increase the amount of capital they set aside to cushion against unexpected losses.The proposed requirements are aimed at lessening the chances of future taxpayer bailouts of troubled banks, while also encouraging the behemoths to shrink so they pose less of a risk to the financial system.The Federal Reserve governors were to vote at a meeting Tuesday to advance the so-called ``capital su

Dec. 9, 2014

Moscow metro’s Wi-Fi revolution as city gets wired

MOSCOW (AFP) ― Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin built Moscow’s spectacularly beautiful metro as an example to the world, a symbol of “radiant Communist future.”Now under strongman Vladimir Putin there are plans to make it the most connected in the world, with free, fast Wi-Fi even in the deepest tunnels.By the end of the year, all lines of the Russian capital’s famous subway system ― the world’s second busiest, with some seven million passengers a day ― will be connected to broadband Internet.Opene

Dec. 8, 2014

Moscow metro’s Wi-Fi revolution as city gets wired

Japan’s recession worse than thought: data

TOKYO (AFP) ― Japan’s economy contracted more than initially thought in the July-September quarter, revised official data revealed Monday, showing the world’s third largest economy sank deeper into recession.The economy shrank 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter, worse than the 0.4 percent estimated in initial data released three weeks ago, the Cabinet Office said.The reading was much worse than the median forecast of a 0.1 percent quarterly shrinkage in a survey by the Nikkei economic daily.The drop

Dec. 8, 2014

Japan’s recession worse than thought: data

Calls for rate cut grow as Australian economy falters

SYDNEY (AFP) ― Pressure is building on Australia’s central bank to cut interest rates from their record lows as growth in the resources-driven economy, already faltering on the back of China’s slowdown, takes a further hit, analysts say.The Reserve Bank of Australia has repeatedly said it will continue to maintain a “period of stability in interest rates,” but softening GDP growth figures last week sparked a flurry of economists forecasting further monetary policy easing.That would take the cash

Dec. 8, 2014

BIS warns of market fragility despite bullish mood

ZURICH (AFP) ― The Bank for International Settlements warned Sunday that global financial markets appeared to be increasingly fragile despite bullish sentiment.The Basel-based institution, considered the central bank for central banks, also voiced concern in its quarterly report about the impact of the rising U.S. dollar and falling oil prices, particularly on emerging economies.Claudio Borio, the head of the BIS monetary and economic department, highlighted events in mid-October when stock pric

Dec. 8, 2014

France wants to increase Sunday shopping

PARIS (AFP) ― The French government wants shops to open on more Sundays, according to a proposed reform to be unveiled this week, but the measure is running into opposition.In a country where stores are currently subject to tight restrictions on opening hours, the move is seen as a spur to much-needed consumption in an economy badly in need of a boost.The government also believes the measure, one of a number due to be signed off by the cabinet on Wednesday before going to parliament early in 201

Dec. 8, 2014

Uber loses preliminary suit in Netherlands

A Dutch court has ruled in a preliminary judgment that Uber, the ride-sharing service, must stop working with drivers who charge fares but do not possess a taxi license.The Commerical Appeals Court in The Hague sided with the Ministry of Transportation that Uber's "UberPop" service violates current taxi laws, which are under review. Use of Uber by licensed taxi drivers, or by individuals who don't seek payment, remains permissible. The court rejected a proposal by Uber to allow UberPop to operat

Dec. 8, 2014

Uber’s $40 billion valuation. Worth it?

NEW YORK (AP) ― Can a company that didn’t exist five years ago, an upstart with a knack for angering regulators who could close it down, really be worth $40 billion?That is the figure that had investors from Wall Street to Silicon Valley abuzz a day after Uber announced it had received more money from venture capitalists than any private company this year. The investment places a value on the car-service company that is higher than American Airlines or Kraft Foods ― a stunning vote of confidence

Dec. 7, 2014

Jobs gives posthumous testimony in trial

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Three years after the tech world mourned his passing, Apple mastermind Steve Jobs was back from the dead Friday giving posthumous testimony in a video at a U.S. antitrust trial.Jurors in an Oakland court have been submerged since the beginning of the week in a debate over whether consumers who bought Apple’s iPod between 2006 and 2009 were effectively forced to purchase their music from the California titan’s online iTunes store.Jobs’ testimony from a few months before his death

Dec. 7, 2014

Jobs gives posthumous testimony in trial

‘Developing world may need $500b for climate by 2050’

LIMA (AFP) ― Developing countries may need up to $500 billion per year by 2050 to adapt to the ravages of climate change, dwarfing previous estimates, a U.N. report said Friday.The figure was about 20 times today’s public spending on climate adaptation, according to the United Nations Environmental Program that warned of a “significant funding gap after 2020.”And the number could be further inflated if countries fail to meet the U.N. target of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius over

Dec. 7, 2014

‘Developing world may need $500b for climate by 2050’

Job market hits turning point in U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Look past the booming November job gain of 321,000 reported Friday ― the best figure in three years in the strongest year for U.S. hiring since 1999.The job market has reached a new milestone on its road to full health: For the first time since the Great Recession ended 5 years ago, America’s unemployed are now as likely to be hired as to stop looking for a job. It means that employers have grown confident enough to fill more job vacancies. And it means the unemployed are now l

Dec. 7, 2014

China eyes stimulus, growth target cut

BEIJING (AFP) ― China is poised to cut its growth target for the first time in three years and ramp up stimulus as the economy comes under increasing downward pressure, analysts say ahead of a key policymakers’ conference expected this week.President Xi Jinping and other top leaders are trying to put China’s increasingly affluent consumers at the center of the world’s second-largest economy, rather than investment and exports, and are ready to tolerate slower expansion in GDP to achieve more sus

Dec. 7, 2014

ECB prepares antideflation gun

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― The European Central Bank on Thursday announced it was ready to act early next year should the euro area show signs of tipping into deflation and kept its key interest rates at record lows unchanged.At its final policy meeting of the year, the ECB held its main “refinancing” rate steady at 0.05 percent, and its two other rates ― the marginal lending and the deposit rates ― at 0.3 percent and minus 0.2 percent respectively.But the ECB’s decision to “substantially” downgrade its

Dec. 5, 2014

Western sanctions, ruble crash hit Russians hard

MOSCOW (AP) ― Oyster Bar built a thriving business serving mollusks to well-heeled Muscovites. Then came Western sanctions, and the restaurant was forced to rechristen itself this fall. Today, it serves up burgers and pizza under a new name: No Oyster Bar.Coowner Ilya Sokhin said a Russian ban on European oyster imports hit hard, and the average check at his restaurant ― a sleek new building in the famous Gorky Park ― has more than halved.Russia’s economy has been battered this year by uncertain

Dec. 4, 2014

Western sanctions, ruble crash hit Russians hard

Takata rejects broader airbag recall

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― A senior Takata Corp. executive on Wednesday defended the Japanese company’s rejection of a nationwide U.S. recall of its potentially deadly airbags, insisting that testing data did not back such an action.But the top U.S. auto safety official warned that Takata had not yet solved the reason for shrapnel-firing airbag eruptions thought to have killed five people, and said the company and car makers could face court action for their reticence to widen recalls. Hiroshi Shimizu,

Dec. 4, 2014

Cyber Monday sales jump 17 percent to over $2b

NEW YORK (AP) ― Online shoppers set a set a single-day spending record on Cyber Monday, despite deals being stretched out this holiday season.Online sales Monday jumped 17 percent from last year, totaling nearly $2.04 billion, research firm comScore Inc. said Tuesday. That represents the heaviest online spending day in history and the first to surpass $2 billion in sales, said the firm, which tracks online sales. Retailers from Target to Amazon have been offering online deals since the beginning

Dec. 3, 2014

Carmakers to jointly probe Takata air bags

DETROIT (AP) ― At least seven automakers are teaming up to find the cause of a problem with air bags used in their vehicles and how many cars to recall because of it. Inflators in certain air bags made by the Japanese supplier Takata Corp. can explode with too much force and spew shrapnel into the passenger compartment. So far, 14 million vehicles worldwide have been recalled due to the problem, including 8 million in the U.S. Takata has yet to pinpoint a cause, even though the recalls started a

Dec. 3, 2014