The Korea Herald

Mahindra says committed to long-term stake in Ssangyong

IndustryMar 31, 2011

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. has no intention of selling any of its stake in Ssangyong Motor Co. in the near future, and will fully support Ssangyong’s revival, Mahindra and Mahindra vice chairman Arnand Mahindra said Thursday. Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the Seoul Motor Show in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Mahindra said that his company has a track record of turning companies...
S&P cuts Nokia debt rating for first time

World BusinessMar 31, 2011

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, had its debt rating cut for the first time by Standard & Poor’s, which cited market share losses and “weaker” operating margins at the Finnish company. The long-term rating was lowered one step to “A-” with a stable outlook, S&P said in a statement Wednesday. S&P has since June 1998 ranked the debt “A,” the sixth-highest of 10 investment gra...
Toyota Motor may lose 500,000 units

World BusinessMar 31, 2011

Toyota Motor Corp. may delay the production of at least 500,000 vehicles in Japan because of a shortage of parts and electricity after the nation’s record earthquake, said an analyst at Advanced Research Japan. Toyota’s operating profit may be hurt by at least 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in the fiscal year ending Thursday and up to 200 billion yen next fiscal year, said Koji Endo, an auto ana...
Obama sets ambitious goal to cut oil imports

IndustryMar 31, 2011

Reviving elusive target, Obama calls for one-third reduction in U.S. oil imports by 2025 WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for a one-third reduction in U.S. oil imports by 2025, reviving a long-elusive goal of reducing America’s dependence on foreign supplies as political unrest rocks the Middle East and gasoline prices rise at home. Tackling an issue that has vexed n...
NASA probe on mission to unlock Mercury’s secrets

World NewsMar 31, 2011

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― NASA scientists pored Wednesday over stunning new images of Mercury as their MESSENGER probe began a year-long mission to map the surface of the solar system’s least-understood planet. After a 7.9-billion-kilometer journey that took six-and-a-half years, the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft finally entered the planet’s orbit on March 17....
China’s military to seek more foreign exchanges

World NewsMar 31, 2011

BEIJING (AP) ― China said Thursday that its military, under fire for a lack of transparency, will emphasize confidence-building measures and seek more exchanges with foreign militaries. The proposals in a policy white paper issued every two years follow complaints from the United States and other countries that China has not adequately explained the goals of its rapid military expansion in the l...
Tseng returns to defend Kraft Nabisco title

GolfMar 31, 2011

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (AP) ― Yani Tseng got a good laugh when she walked past the pond where she celebrated her Kraft Nabisco Championship victory last year by leaping into the water ― and then remembering she doesn’t know how to swim. Tseng survived that traditional plunge and swam all the way to the world No. 1 ranking after winning the LPGA Tour’s first major of the year at Mission Hills ...
G20 highlights conflicts over currency

IndustryMar 31, 2011

Group’s talks in China focus on monetary reforms, as players clash on currency, other issues NANJING, China (AP) ― Conflicts over exchange rate policy surfaced Thursday at talks by finance mandarins from the Group of 20 leading economies, with both the U.S. Treasury Secretary and French President Nicolas Sarkozy urging greater flexibility as a strategy for avoiding future crises. Despite Beijin...
Google co-founder’s mom gives cells

PeopleMar 31, 2011

Cells donated by Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s mother are helping the search for a cure of Parkinson’s disease. According to San Jose Mercury News, a Silicon Valley daily, there have been no witnesses to the death of brain cells in people with Parkinson’s disease. But Stanford University scientists say they have re-enacted the death process in a petri dish by growing neurons from the donated s...
Irvine Mayor Kang gets honorary Ph.D.

PeopleMar 31, 2011

Irvine City Mayor Kang Suk-hee, the first Korean-American mayor of a major U.S. city, will receive an honorary doctoral degree in business management from Dongseo University. The Busan-based school said that the degree recognizes Kang’s devotion to the economic growth and educational development of Irvine City in California as well as his achievements in raising the status of Korean-Americans. ...
Six high school students receive IELTS scholarship

PeopleMar 31, 2011

The Korea Herald, the British Council Korea and IDP Education awarded scholarships to six Korean high school students Wednesday under their joint program to help students prepare to study in the U.S. through IELTS. IELTS, or International English Language Testing System, is the world’s leading test of English for higher education, recognized by schools worldwide, including those in the U.S., Bri...
Address career colleges’ toxic choices in U.S.

ViewpointsMar 31, 2011

For-profit colleges have successfully marketed a compelling story in which they star front and center as benevolent purveyors of the American dream through education and gainful employment. The reality is the complete opposite. Former students testified before a U.S. Senate oversight committee this month about exorbitant tuition costs and unfulfilled promises of good jobs. One student spoke of c...
[Editorial] Again Dokdo

EditorialMar 31, 2011

Koreans are rightly angered each time Japan renews an unwarranted claim to Korea’s easternmost rocky islets of Dokdo. This time, however, many of them voiced as much disappointment as anger on hearing that the Japanese government approved of junior high school textbooks describing the islets as part of Japanese territory. They apparently felt disappointed that their goodwill was not reciprocated....
[Editorial] Act of courage

ViewpointsMar 31, 2011

It must undoubtedly have been humiliating to President Lee Myung-bak to abandon one of his campaign promises ― building a new international airport. On the other hand, it was an act of courage, given that his administration did so at the risk of a voter revolt. On Wednesday, the Lee administration scrapped a plan to construct an international airport in South Gyeongsang Province. A viable altern...
U.S. president makes his case on Libya

ViewpointsMar 31, 2011

Before President Obama’s address to the nation about Libya, three questions about U.S. involvement there loomed large: Why, among all the places with vulnerable civilian populations, did the U.S. and its allies choose to intervene in Libya? Was the mission designed to prevent civilian suffering or to topple Moammar Gadhafi? How (and how quickly) would the U.S. extricate itself from this engagemen...