Standard Chartered First Bank Korea, the local unit of Britain-based Standard Chartered Group, said Friday it plans to close 27 branches in the nation by June to improve efficiency. Employees at the closed branches will be relocated to other operations, said the lender which operates 418 branches in the nation. “SC First Bank plans to cut 27 small branches in a bid to boost efficiency and diver...

Hanwha Group said Friday that it has established a research center in Silicon Valley in the United States to develop next-generation solar energy technologies including solar cells. The establishment of Hanwha Solar America marks the group’s latest efforts to enhance its solar energy business. Its affiliate Hanwha Chemical Co. acquired 49.9 percent of Shanghai-based solar-products maker Solarfu...

Some automakers in Korea are considering reducing their output due to a shortage of parts from their Japanese suppliers hit by last week’s powerful earthquake, company officials said Friday. Renault Samsung Motors Co., Renault SA’s Korean unit, will cut production at its Korean factory to prepare for a potential parts supply disruption the company said. The carmaker will cut overtime work at it...

Two men violate rules in fundraising for quake victims via Twitter Police booked two men without detention for breaking fundraising rules while running a campaign claiming to be for the Japanese Red Cross, officials said Friday. According to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the duo set up an online charity site last Wednesday, called “Let’s send the Power of Korean Twitter through the Japanese...

Korea is seeking to tighten its construction code for smaller buildings in order to better protect them from massive earthquakes, the land and transportation ministry said Friday. The move comes as concerns are growing that Korea might not be immune from massive earthquakes like the one that hit Japan last week. Experts are also calling for the government to step up its efforts to better brace f...

SYDNEY (AFP) ― Protests by angry asylum seekers escalated at an Australian detention centre with rioters setting fire to buildings and police responding with tear gas and bean-bag bullets, officials said Friday. A group of around 250-300 detainees on Christmas Island ran amok, hurling bricks and lighting fires late Thursday, forcing the Australian Federal Police to intervene, the Department of I...

Alarmed by the nuclear disaster in Japan, China has ordered a comprehensive safety assessment of all nuclear plants under construction and suspended approval of new plants pending formulation of new safety regulations. In a statement released on Wednesday, the State Council urged using “the most advanced standards” for the safety checks and told officials to immediately cease construction of the...

The devastation in Japan unleashed by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake last Friday has heightened awareness of quake risks in Korea, creating an environment conducive to boosting disaster preparedness. On Wednesday, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said he would make it mandatory for all new public buildings in Seoul to adopt earthquake-resistant design regardless of their size. For this, he said he would ask t...

In every natural disaster, there is an arc to the story, the narrative. Earthquakes open with surprise. Scientists can’t predict them with the precision of hurricanes, can’t track them on radar, can’t provide much if any warning. Buildings ― rooms ― start to sway sickeningly, dishes crash. That’s how you know. Tsunamis are more predictable. There’s warning, as there was in Japan last week. Resid...

Of all the things I expected to experience in Tokyo, hugging three Japanese female strangers in their 70s was never part of the plan. This city is no-public-display-of-affection central. The anti-Paris when it comes to spontaneous gestures of intimacy. When the ground begins to shake, protocol is the first casualty. So, when a big aftershock hit Shinjuku train station, we four panicked strangers...

The catastrophe that has happened in Japan over the past few days will not prevent the Japanese people from recovering. It will take a bit longer in comparison to the Kobe earthquake of 1995, but recover they will. Japan is unfortunate to be situated in an area that is prone to natural disasters whether they be earthquakes or tsunamis. The fact that tsunami is a Japanese word is testimony to the ...

The principal lesson from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan is that even the richest and most disaster-ready country in the world cannot have enough of disaster preparedness. Historically earthquake-prone and -battered, Japan is also temblor-hardened and -geared-up. But despite its legendary obsessive-compulsive ways that would leave no stone unturned as far as priming up for disasters...