Seven companies have submitted bids to open two new duty-free stores in downtown Seoul, the customs agency said Monday, in what is seen as a major opportunity for retailers to boost sales amid anemic consumer spending.The seven bidders include market giants Hotel Lotte and HDC Shilla Duty Free, who are affiliated with Lotte Duty Free and Shilla Duty Free, respectively, according to a press release by the Korea Customs Service.Other companies who took part in the bid, the first for large corporat

Industry June 1, 2015

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Tens of thousands of people have gathered in the center of the Macedonian capital Skopje to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.The Sunday protest follows the release of a massive cache of wiretapped conversations by the head of the opposition Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev. He claims that Gruevski was behind the mass wiretapping of more than 20,000 Macedonians.The conversations purport to reveal corruption at the highest levels of governm

World News May 17, 2015

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis canonized two nuns from what was 19th century Palestine on Sunday in hopes of encouraging Christians across the Middle East who are facing a wave of persecution from Islamic extremists.Sisters Mariam Bawardy and Marie Alphonsine Ghattas were among four sisters who were made saints Sunday at a Mass in a sun-soaked St. Peter's Square. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and an estimated 2,000 pilgrims from the region, some waving Palestinian flags, were on hand for

World News May 17, 2015

BEIRUT (AFP) - A U.S. special forces raid in eastern Syria killed 32 members of the Islamic State jihadist group, including four leaders, a monitoring group said Sunday."The U.S. operation killed 32 members of IS, among them four officials, including IS oil chief Abu Sayyaf, the deputy IS defence minister, and an IS communications official," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.U.S. officials have said "about a dozen" people were killed in the operation on Frid

World News May 17, 2015

ATHENS (AFP) - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had warned foreign officials that Athens would not be able to pay the 750 million euros ($845 million) due this month to the International Monetary Fund, Greek newspapers said Sunday.The reports came less than a week after Athens admitted that it tapped into an emergency account to pay back the loan, in order to avoid crashing out of the eurozone.On May 8, Tsipras wrote to European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank officials to warn them that

World Business May 17, 2015

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in South Korea where he will be discussing security issues amid fresh fears of North Korean belligerence.Kerry arrived in Seoul on Sunday from Beijing and will see top South Korean officials on Monday, less than a week after South Korea's spy agency said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his defense chief executed with an anti-aircraft gun for complaining about the young ruler. The allegation, if true, adds to concerns about the erratic nature of Kim's

Foreign Affairs May 17, 2015

Unionized public workers and teachers vowed Saturday to fight vigorously against a proposed pension reform bill now before the National Assembly for approval, arguing that it is unfairly disadvantageous to them.After months of negotiations, rival parties agreed on a bill Friday that would require civil servants to pay more into and receive less in pension over the next two decades. Reform of the money-losing public servants' pension system is one of President Park Geun-hye's key campaign pledges

Social Affairs May 2, 2015

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Nepal ruled out the possibility Saturday of finding more survivors buried in the rubble from a massive earthquake that killed more than 6,700 people and devastated vast swathes of one of Asia's poorest countries.One week on from Nepal's deadliest quake in over 80 years, hopes of detecting more signs of life among the ruins of the capital Kathmandu had all but disappeared and the focus was shifting to reaching survivors in far-flung areas who have yet to receive relief supplies.

World News May 2, 2015

South Korean activists and victims demanded at a U.N. meeting on Friday that Japan should apologize to and compensate Koreans who were taken to Japan as forced laborers and fell victim to the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.The demand was made at the Review Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It was the first time that the issue of Korean A-bomb victims has been raised at a U.N. meeting.Previous conferences have dealt only with the issue of Japanese victims.The Hiro

Foreign Affairs May 2, 2015

South Korea's chief nuclear envoy will visit Washington and Beijing next week for talks with his counterparts on how to restart long-stalled negotiations with North Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.Hwang Joon-kook, special representative for Korean peninsula affairs, will meet with his U.S. counterpart, Amb. Sung Kim, in Washington on Monday before visiting Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement also released in Washing

Foreign Affairs May 2, 2015