Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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Oil price slump puts at risk clean energy push
Falling oil prices could have a negative impact on global efforts to develop renewable energy sources, experts warned Saturday at a conference in Abu Dhabi.Oil prices have fallen by almost 60 percent since June, crashing on worries over global oversupply and weak demand in a faltering world economy.Participants at the International Renewable Energy Agency conference that opened Saturday in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates said the trend could spell doom for plans to shift to clean energy.The fa
Jan. 18, 2015
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Carlos Slim boosts New York Times stake with options
NEW YORK (AFP) ― Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has boosted his stake in the New York Times, exercising an option to convert some $100 million from loans to equity, the media company said Wednesday.A statement from New York Times Co. said Slim ― estimated to be the world’s second richest individual ― has agreed to exercise an option to buy 15.9 million Class A shares at $6.35.That gives him around 16.8 percent of the Times Co. common stock. But control of the newspaper will remain with the Sulz
Jan. 15, 2015
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GM sees slower global growth as buyers resist price rises
General Motors Co., the largest U.S. automaker, sees slowing global auto sales growth and said it will invest more in new cars as consumers pay less for the company’s older models. The automaker’s shares fell. Global auto sales may increase about 3 percent to 98 million vehicles, said Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens. President Dan Ammann said China, GM’s biggest market, is “maturing rapidly” amid a global slowdown of industry growth. The Detroit-based automaker is boosting capital expendit
Jan. 15, 2015
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Google to test its first modular smartphone
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ― Google announced Wednesday that it will unveil a modular smartphone in Puerto Rico this year as part of a pilot program that will allow people to choose their own hardware based on their needs and interests.The company will partner with Mexico-based carrier Claro and local carrier Open Mobile to offer the product, which will be sold from free-standing stores that look like food trucks, said Jessica Beavers, a Google marketing executive.She said Puerto Rico was chosen
Jan. 15, 2015
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Obama touts high-speed Internet
WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama is once again challenging major cable and telephone companies by encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to preempt state laws that stifle competition for high-speed Internet service.Obama wants to expand access to broadband communications services, siding with local communities that want either to expand competition or provide municipal services themselves. To promote it, he is announcing that his administration will provide technical and finan
Jan. 15, 2015
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Wall Street now sees oil falling to $40
Brace for $40-a-barrel oil. The U.S. benchmark crude price, down more than $60 since June to below $45 Wednesday, is on the way to this next threshold, said Societe Generale SA and Bank of America Corp. And Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says that West Texas Intermediate needs to remain near $40 during the first half to deter investment in new supplies that would add to the glut. “The markets are continuing to price in huge oversupply in the first half of 2015,” Mike Wittner, head of research at Socie
Jan. 15, 2015
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U.S. economy continues moderate growth: Fed survey
WASHINGTON (AP) ― The U.S. economy was growing at a moderate pace in December and early January, helped by gains in sales of autos and other consumer products, but a big drop in oil prices was starting to have an impact in Texas and other energy regions, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.The Fed said business contacts in its 12 regional banking districts were seeing “modest” or “moderate” growth. General merchandise retailers in the New York area reported largely sluggish holiday sales whil
Jan. 15, 2015
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U.S. House eases bank, Wall St. rules
WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted to soften a law that brought the strictest rules for banks and Wall Street since the 1930s, more than six years after the 2008 financial crisis struck.The bill is one of several that President Barack Obama has threatened to veto as he clashes with newly empowered Republicans who now control all of Congress. The vote was 271-154 on legislation pushed by the newly bulked-up Republican majority in the House. It now goes
Jan. 15, 2015
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Hollande to join Merkel, Li at Davos next week
GENEVA (AFP) ― World leaders including France’s Francois Hollande, Germany’s Angela Merkel and China’s Li Keqiang will gather at the annual Davos forum next week, seeking to chart a path away from fundamentalism towards solidarity.“We are in a critical situation, at the crossroads,” the World Economic Forum’s founder Klaus Schwab said Wednesday.“We have two roads in front of us, one is the road of disintegration, hate and fundamentalism, the other is the road of solidarity,” he said, citing the
Jan. 15, 2015
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Oil prices under pressure before U.S. energy report
World oil prices slid Wednesday after major crude producers stressed they will maintain output levels despite global oversupply, while traders awaited the latest update on U.S. crude inventories.Oil sentiment was also soured after the World Bank slashed its global 2015 economic growth forecast to 3.0 percent from 3.4 percent, raising fresh doubts about future crude demand.In early afternoon deals in London, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery lost 10 cents to $46.49 per barrel.U.S. bench
Jan. 15, 2015
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Big and bad is back
DETROIT (AFP) ― Big and brash is beautiful after all.Or so it appears in the world of the American vehicle enthusiast, after the Detroit auto show this week rolled out a series of ever-larger cars and menacing trucks.At a time when there is a trend for many objects to become smaller, and after some hints the auto world was going the same way, this year’s Detroit auto extravaganza presents a stark contrast.It has much to do with the low cost of gasoline, experts say, but is also about taste.Take
Jan. 14, 2015
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Automakers salivate over ‘oasis’ Cuba
DETROIT (AFP) ― The world’s most prominent automakers are hungrily eyeing up Cuba after its rapprochement deal with the United States.But trade restrictions that are still in place for Americans and a litany of concerns about Havana’s policies means they are unlikely to dive in any time soon. Washington and communist Cuba in December began the painstaking process of restoring diplomatic relations and easing the five-decade-old trade embargo.President Barack Obama declared that the United States
Jan. 14, 2015
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‘No change in OPEC policy’
A customer removes a fuel pump from its holder at a BP gas station in London. (Bloomberg)ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ― The energy minister for the United Arab Emirates said Tuesday there are no plans for OPEC to curb production to shore up falling crude prices, and instead put the onus on shale oil drillers for oversupplying the market. Oil prices have lost well over half their value since late June, with benchmark U.S. crude trading below $45 a barrel. OPEC, which includes the Emirates
Jan. 14, 2015
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Oil collapse of 1986 shows rebound could be years away
The last time excess supply caused a plunge in oil, it took almost five years for prices to recover. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark, tumbled 69 percent from $31.82 a barrel in November 1985 to $9.75 in April 1986 when Saudi Arabia, tiring of cutting output to support prices, flooded the market. Prices didn’t claw back the losses until 1990. Oil has dropped 57 percent since June and OPEC members say they’re willing to let prices sink further. Surging prices in the 1970s led to th
Jan. 14, 2015
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Long and tough road to make India ‘easiest’ place to do business
GANDHINAGAR, India (AFP) ― Narendra Modi may have pledged to make India the “easiest” place to do business but experts remain skeptical about how the prime minister intends to overcome obstacles such as corruption, red tape and an arduous tax regime.Hundreds of executives gathered this week in Modi’s longtime fiefdom of Gujarat to hear him promise to transform India’s business climate, with “unlimited” reforms designed to attract foreign investment. Everyone from World Bank president Jim Yong Ki
Jan. 14, 2015
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World Bank cuts global growth outlook
The World Bank cut its forecast for global growth this year, as an improving U.S. economy and low fuel prices fail to offset disappointing results from Europe to China. The world economy will expand 3 percent in 2015, down from a projection of 3.4 percent in June, according to the lender’s semiannual Global Economic Prospects report, released Tuesday in Washington. The report adds to signs of a growing disparity between the U.S. and other major economies while tempering any optimism that a plung
Jan. 14, 2015
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Airbus to equip long-haul jets with floatable black boxes
PARIS (AFP) ― Long-haul Airbus A350 and A380 passengers jets will soon come equipped with ejectable black boxes that can float, making them easier to find in an air crash at sea, aviation sources said Monday.“At the end of last year Airbus got the green light from EASA (European Air Security Agency) to work on the necessary modifications to its planes in order to install these new black boxes in the rear of the planes,” one of the sources told AFP.An EASA spokesman confirmed that the agency was
Jan. 13, 2015
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Hot Ford, Acura supercars upstage rivals in Detroit auto show
DETROIT (AFP) ― Ford and Honda stole the spotlight Monday at the Detroit auto show with the debuts of two hot new supercars, reviving long-absent favorites: The legendary GT and the Acura NSX.While muscle and speed were abundant at the premier U.S. car and truck exposition, little could measure up to the dazzle from the sleek track-ready-but-street-legal rockets from the two big automakers.The unveilings marked a new stage for the U.S. industry, symbolizing a “full clear” from the more austere c
Jan. 13, 2015
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‘ECB should act fast to fight deflation risk’
Ewald Nowotny. (Bloomberg)European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said policymakers must take deflation risks seriously and shouldn’t wait too long to react. While the euro area isn’t in a situation where price declines lead to postponed spending, “it is important that one takes deflation risks seriously and addresses them,” Nowotny, who is also governor of the Austrian central bank, said during a panel discussion late Monday in Vienna. “We shouldn’t wait too long with a rea
Jan. 13, 2015
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June U.S. rate hike ‘reasonable’
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams, who will vote on policy this year, said raising interest rates in June would be a close call amid “strong momentum” in the labor market and weaker wage gains. “I would expect by June that the argument pro and con for lifting off rates will be probably a close call” assuming that inflation doesn’t fall further, Williams said Monday in a telephone interview from his San Francisco office. “It’s a reasonable guess.” His remarks dovetaile
Jan. 13, 2015