The Korea Herald

New iPhone iteration lost in a bar: CNET

IndustrySept 1, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- Technology news website CNET on Wednesday reported that a new version of Apple’s coveted iPhone went astray in a bar in a replay of an embarrassing loss that took place last year. In this June 7, 2010 file photo, Apple CEO Steve Jobs,then, holds the new iPhone 4 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. (AP-Yonhap News) An Apple employee lost a ye...
Marine-boy Park Tae-hwan will be teaching

More sportsSept 1, 2011

South Korean Olympic medalist Park Tae-hwan will be teaching at a high school for four weeks in Dankook Technical High School in Seoul, according to reports. As a physical education major at Dankook College of Education, he has to spend four weeks practicing teaching before he graduates, Yonhap News reported. (Yonhap News) His teaching practice was supposed to take place around April or May. H...
Graphene could lead to super-fast internet

ScienceSept 1, 2011
Ancient humans used hand axes earlier than thought

CultureSept 1, 2011

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ancient humans fashioned hand axes, cleavers and picks much earlier than believed, but didn‘t take the stone tools along when they left Africa, new research suggests. (AP) A team from the United States and France made the findings after traveling to an archaeological site along the northwest shoreline of Kenya’s Lake Turkana. Two-faced blades and other large cutting tools had...
S. Korea's consumer prices grow fastest in 3 yrs in Aug

Sept 1, 2011

South Korea's consumer prices grew at the fastest pace in three years in August, raising concerns that inflationary pressure is building up despite the government's anti-inflation efforts, a report showed Thursday. According to the report by Statistics Korea, the country's consumer price index rose 5.3 percent last month from a year earlier, quickening from the previous month's 4.7 percent gain....
Libyan rebels say they’re closing in on Gadhafi

World NewsAug 31, 2011

HEISHA, Libya (AP) ― Libyan rebels say they’re closing in on Moammar Gadhafi and have issued an ultimatum to regime loyalists in the fugitive dictator’s hometown of Sirte, his main remaining bastion: surrender this weekend or face an attack. “We have a good idea where he is,” a top rebel leader said on Tuesday. The rebels, tightening their grip on Libya after a military blitz, also demanded tha...
Conglomerates raise recruitment, investment plans

IndustryAug 31, 2011

Local conglomerates will hire a record number of new employees and increase investments this year, the Federation of Korean Industries said Wednesday. At a meeting in Seoul with President Lee Myung-bak on shared-growth, the FKI said the country’s 30 largest conglomerates have plans to hire 124,000 new employees this year. Attendants included the heads of the 28 largest conglomerates including Ch...
Lee seeks chaebol support on shared growth

PoliticsAug 31, 2011

In meeting with business leaders, president stresses conglomerates’ social responsibility President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday drummed up support from chiefs of the nation’s largest businesses for his new socioeconomic vision to reduce disparities. In a meeting with the heads of 26 conglomerates, Lee explained the idea of “ecosystemic development,” which he put forward in his Liberation Day spe...
Household debt keeps rising

Aug 31, 2011

Household loans extended by South Korea’s financial institutions are set to jump by more than 5 trillion won ($4.66 billion) in August, an unusually high figure for a month of slow home debt, data showed Wednesday. Financial authorities said household debt between Aug. 1-26 already reached 4.9 trillion won. Given that demand picks up toward the end of the month, the final tally is expected to ea...
Disgraced lawmaker dodges expulsion

PoliticsAug 31, 2011

A lawmaker who made sexist remarks dodged expulsion on Wednesday as the parliamentary ethics committee’s motion failed to meet the required quorum in the National Assembly on Wednesday. Only 111 out of the 297 lawmakers agreed to the bill, while 198 or two-thirds were required. Rep. Kang Yong-seok thus escaped the disgrace of becoming the first lawmaker ever to be dismissed for ethical reasons ...
Former speaker Kim won’t seek sixth term

PoliticsAug 31, 2011

Former parliamentary speaker Kim Hyeong-o of the Grand National Party announced that he will not enter candidacy in next year’s 19th general election. “I hope to contribute to the restoration of public trust on the party by remaining humble and low in the next parliamentary term,” Kim told reporters in Busan on Wednesday. “As the biggest pending issues, such as the New Town and the Ocean Renova...
Parties clash in session on U.S. FTA ratification

PoliticsAug 31, 2011

Parties once again clashed over the ratification of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement bill during the parliamentary foreign affairs committee meeting on Wednesday, the last day of the August provisional session. The meeting was scheduled to end in the early afternoon but was extended due to the uncompromising debates between the rival parties, especially as the opposition camp hinted at physic...
Yu seen sending message of reconciliation to N.K.

North KoreaAug 31, 2011

Unification minister-nominee vows to work with flexibility on inter-Korean ties President Lee Myung-bak appears to have expressed willingness to soften his hard-line stance toward North Korea by appointing a moderate diplomat as his next point man on Pyongyang, officials and analysts said Wednesday. The South Korean presidential office unveiled a small scale Cabinet shakeup on Tuesday, which in...
Doubts over direct election of education chiefs

Social affairsAug 31, 2011

Some fear backpedaling on education autonomy, others see elections wasting taxpayers’ money The election corruption scandal involving Kwak No-hyun, Seoul’s education superintendent, has many Koreans questioning whether a direct popular vote is the best way to select education chiefs. The city’s first elected education boss, Gong Jeong-taek, was stripped of his seat because of bribes he received...
Ministers renew call for activists to drop protests over naval base

Social affairsAug 31, 2011

The two ministers of defense and land, transport and maritime affairs on Tuesday renewed calls for civic groups to halt opposition to a strategic naval base being constructed on Jeju Island. They made a joint statement two days after a Jeju court accepted the petition the government and the Navy filed to stop villagers and civic groups from impeding construction. “The government hopes that as t...