Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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US 'incredibly concerned' about suspected NK-Iran military ties
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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[Kim Seong-kon] Democracy and the future of South Korea
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Seoul says Fu Bao loan 'not going to happen'
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Oil decline will strengthen U.S. recovery
The sharp drop in oil prices will support U.S. growth by boosting spending, two top Federal Reserve officials said, playing down the risk that plunging energy costs could push inflation further below the Fed’s goal. Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and New York Fed President William C. Dudley, speaking at separate events Monday in New York, both stressed the positive impact on the U.S. economy from the steepest decline in oil prices for five years. “I’m not very worried,” Fischer told an audien
Dec. 2, 2014
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Hacker group targets firms’ financial info
WASHINGTON (AFP) ― A hacker group has tapped into email accounts of executives in more than 100 companies that could give them lucrative access to market-moving information, a U.S. security firm said Monday.San Francisco-based FireEye said the mysterious group, dubbed FIN4, showed deep familiarity with the way businesses work and appeared to target the accounts of officials with knowledge of merger and acquisitions and other valuable corporate secrets.Based on information from its corporate secu
Dec. 2, 2014
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Oil at $40 possible
Oil’s decline is proving to be the worst since the collapse of the financial system in 2008 and threatening to have the same global impact of falling prices three decades ago that led to the Mexican debt crisis and the end of the Soviet Union. Russia, the world’s largest producer, can no longer rely on the same oil revenues to rescue an economy suffering from European and U.S. sanctions. Iran, also reeling from similar sanctions, will need to reduce subsidies that have partly insulated its growi
Dec. 1, 2014
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Foreign automakers find Iranian market has gone local
TEHRAN (AFP) ― Foreign automakers seeking a return to the potentially huge Iranian market with the lifting of international sanctions will find the business environment has changed: former joint venture partners now want to play the game by their own rules.Iran’s auto industry has been a major casualty of penalties imposed over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, with production plummeting and workers laid off because of the ensuing economic slowdown.France’s PSA Peugeot-Citroen and South Ko
Dec. 1, 2014
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Swiss voters reject plan to hoard gold
BERN, Switzerland (AP) ― Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected three citizen-backed proposals to protect the country’s wealth by investing in gold, drastically limit immigration and eliminate a special tax that draws rich foreigners.The separate proposals ― put to voters nationwide Sunday by conservative politicians, ecologists and a liberal group ― had needed a majority of voters and Switzerland’s 26 cantons (states) to pass.A proposal to require the central bank to hold a fifth of its reserves
Dec. 1, 2014
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China manufacturing growth at 8-month low in November
BEIJING (AFP) ― China’s manufacturing growth skidded to an eight-month low in November, an official survey showed Monday, signaling further downward pressure on the world’s second-largest economy.China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index released by the National Bureau of Statistics came in at 50.3 last month, lower than the 50.8 recorded in October and the weakest since a similar 50.3 reading in March.The index, which tracks activity in factories and workshops, is considered a key indicator o
Dec. 1, 2014
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Moody's downgrades Japan credit rating
TOKYO (AP)--Moody's downgraded the Japanese government's credit rating Monday in the wake of the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to delay an increase in sales tax. The ratings agency said the debt rating was lowered by one notch. Its statement cited "heightened uncertainty" about the government's ability to meet its debt reduction goals and uncertainty about the timing and effectiveness of measures to boost economic growth.Japan, the world's third-largest economy, has the heaviest debt bur
Dec. 1, 2014
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Online sales spike on a less chaotic Black Friday
WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The top U.S. shopping “holiday” saw a surge this year in online sales with smaller crowds in stores ― but Black Friday still brought some of its trademark shopping mall pandemonium.Businesses usually offer deep discounts starting early Friday morning, prompting massive crowds that have led to numerous injuries and a number of deaths in years past. This year, businesses continued a trend in starting shopping deals earlier and extending them longer, leading to smaller crowds.But
Nov. 30, 2014
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OPEC move puts U.S. shale in tight spot
NEW YORK (AFP) ― In taking no action on production, OPEC did the opposite of what it usually does. It effectively rubber-stamped a supply glut that already has sent prices plunging.But to many analysts, the cartel’s seeming enthusiasm for lower crude oil prices was not really all that surprising. Rather, the tactic made sense in light of an American shale boom that has put OPEC on the defensive.“OPEC is all in and will continue to flood the globe with oil in an effort to bury the U.S. shale oil
Nov. 30, 2014
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Slowing inflation paves way for more ECB action
FRANKFURT (AFP) ― Slowing eurozone inflation is likely to make the European Central Bank increasingly nervous and pave the way for further monetary easing, analysts say. But the ECB looks unlikely to fire the latest weapon in its anti-deflation armoury as early as this coming week when it holds its last monthly policy meeting of the year. According to official data last week, inflation in the 18 countries that share the euro slowed to 0.3 percent in November from 0.4 percent the previous month,
Nov. 30, 2014
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Swiss to vote on gold-buying plan
GENEVA (AP) ― In Switzerland, a campaign is on to protect the country’s wealth by investing in gold ― a lot of gold. In a test of their sense of financial security, the Swiss are being asked to vote on a proposal to make the central bank hold a fifth of its reserves in gold within five years. That would mean buying about 1,500 metric tons, or 1,650 short tons, of gold worth more than $60 billion. If the initiative wins the backing of a majority of voters this Sunday, the Swiss National Bank woul
Nov. 30, 2014
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Ruble scrapes new lows as Russia braces for cheap oil
MOSCOW (AFP) ― Energy-rich Russia’s currency extended Friday its slide into record low territory and the government lowered its crucial oil price forecast in the wake of OPEC’s decision to leave its output target unchanged.The ruble shed another 1.6 percent against the dollar and stood near the 49.35 mark in evening trading on the Moscow Exchange. It gave up the same percentage point and was valued at almost 61.55 against the euro ― also a historic low.The beleaguered currency has been trying to
Nov. 30, 2014
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OPEC’s move to keep oil output sparks price slump
VIENNA (AFP) ― OPEC’s decision against cutting oil production, despite a global glut in supplies, triggered a $5 collapse in crude prices and prompted a fall in early trading on Asian markets Friday.The cartel pumping out one-third of the world’s oil opted to stick by its output target, even after prices have plunged by 35 percent in value since June.The 12-nation cartel “decided to maintain the production level of 30 million barrels per day” where it has stood for three years, the Organization
Nov. 28, 2014
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‘Russia seen risking junk status’
Russian ruble banknotes. (Bloomberg)Russia has limited room for tapping one of its sovereign wealth funds before jeopardizing its investment-grade debt rating, according to Standard & Poor’s.“If money is spent to support the economy, to support specific companies ― that would lead to a decline of those fiscal buffers beyond what we currently expect,” S&P analyst Christian Esters said in an interview in Moscow. The rainy-day funds “are strong mitigating factors for the stresses Russia has been ex
Nov. 27, 2014
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Alibaba plans to invest more in India
NEW DELHI (AFP) ― E-commerce giant Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma promised Wednesday to invest more in India where online sales are soaring, predicting that the Internet will transform the country’s future.Ma, on a whirlwind 48-hour trip with a nearly 100-member Chinese business delegation to India, has been scouting for investment opportunities to drive Alibaba’s revenues following its record $25-billion initial public offer in September.“We’ll invest more in India, work with Indian entrepreneurs, I
Nov. 27, 2014
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Indonesia joins China-led regional bank
China said Thursday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia that allows Jakarta to join a regional bank led by Beijing to fund infrastructure projects in Asia. South Korea, Australia and Indonesia were absent last month when China and 20 other countries in the region agreed to set up the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), amid Washington's concerns over the new regional lender seen as a counterweight to established multilateral lenders such as the Asian Developme
Nov. 27, 2014
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Pre-OPEC meeting fails to deliver oil output cut
Nations supplying a third of the world’s crude oil failed to pledge output cuts after meeting in Vienna. Russia can withstand prices even lower than they are now, the country’s biggest producer said. Officials from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Russia said Tuesday only that they would monitor prices. Crude futures sank to a four-year low in New York. OPEC meets tomorrow, with analysts split evenly over whether the group will lower output in response to the crash in prices. Crude fell into
Nov. 26, 2014
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Apple tops $700b valuation, fueled by new products
Apple Inc., already the world’s largest company by market capitalization, hit a record intraday value: $700 billion. Shares of Apple rose to as much as $119.75 at the start of trading in New York Tuesday, giving the company a valuation of more than $702 billion, a milestone that no other U.S. company has ever reached. The stock ended up falling less than 1 percent to $117.60 at the close in New York, putting its market capitalization at $690 billion. That still gave the iPhone maker about 1.7 ti
Nov. 26, 2014
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U.S. economy posts even stronger growth in Q3
WASHINGTON (AP) ― The U.S. economy grew even faster in the third quarter than initially thought, posting the strongest six months of growth in more than a decade and pulling further ahead of other big economies of the world.The gross domestic product, the country’s total output of goods and services, expanded at a healthy 3.9 percent annual rate in the July-September period, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. That’s a notable jump from its first estimate of 3.5 percent. The revision was p
Nov. 26, 2014
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Juncker unveils $390b plan to ‘kick-start’ EU economy
STRASBOURG, France (AFP) ― New EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled Wednesday an eagerly awaited 315 billion euro ($390 billion) investment plan to “kick-start” the economy, saying it would show the world that Europe was back in business after years of crisis.Juncker said the proposal, which must be approved by European leaders at a summit in December, would mix an investment fund with a scheme to match new projects with private money.“Europe needs a kick-start and today the commissi
Nov. 26, 2014