BEIJING (AP) -- Authorities have indicted five people in central China for involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPhone and an iPad.The case has prompted an outpouring of concern that not enough is being done to guard against the negative impact of increasing consumerism in Chinese society, particularly among young people who have grown up with mor

TechnologyApril 8, 2012

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska polar bears are losing their fur and U.S. Geological Survey scientists don't know why.In the past two weeks, nine of 33 bears checked by scientists in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were found to have alopecia _ loss of fur _ and skin lesions, said Tony DeGange, chief of the biology office at the USGS Science Center in Anchorage.Three of four bears in

TechnologyApril 8, 2012

The organizing committee of Yeosu Expo 2012 announced on Friday that it will hold a pre-opening event on the national holiday of Children’s Day on May 5.According to the committee, more than 60,000 people signed up for the event in the first three days of the online registration period starting April 1. It added that it plans to attract many more. The organization revealed its plan to grant the first 110,000 arrivals free passes for exhibition halls and cultural art performance. To mark Children

April 6, 2012

STX Group, Korea’s shipping and shipbuilding conglomerate, is seeking to win Libya’s huge energy infrastructure projects, which company officials said could be worth up to $10 billion.STX Group officials said STX Heavy Industries signed a memorandum of understanding on building energy, steel desalination and other facilities in Libya’s northern region of Tobruk early last month. The group became the first Korean company to tap projects in the post-civil war region.A spokesperson for STX said tha

IndustryApril 6, 2012

KDB Financial Group said Friday that it will conduct due diligence on HSBC Korea for about a month, starting next week, to take over their 11 retail branches.Under an agreement between the two sides, any either have the right to nullify the provisional deal according to the inspection results, state-run KDB officials said.“The two sides will make public the provisional agreement possibly early next week. But either side is entitled to scrap the deal as the agreement will be nonbinding,” a KDB sp

April 6, 2012

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of memory chips and smartphones, estimated Friday it had posted a record operating profit of 5.8 trillion won (US$5.15 billion) in the first quarter of the year.The preliminary estimate for the January-March period marked a96.6 percent rise from 2.95 trillion won a year earlier, and a 9.4 percent gain from the previous quarter, the company said in

IndustryApril 6, 2012

The computer security industry buzzed Thursday with warnings that more than a half-million Macintosh computers may have been infected with a virus targeting Apple machines.Flashback Trojan malware tailored to slip past "Mac" defenses is a variation on viruses typically aimed at personal computers (PCs) powered by Microsoft's Windows operating systems.The infections, spotted "in the wild" by Finlan

TechnologyApril 6, 2012

Nearly six in 10 South Korean companies expect this year’s parliamentary and presidential elections to have a greater negative impact on the economy than previous ones, a poll showed Thursday.The nationwide survey carried out on 300 companies by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed 56.2 percent of the respondents expressing concerns that the elections will be more harmful to the economy. Another 12.3 percent said the effects will not be different from the past with 31.5 percent pred

April 5, 2012

But search giant denies any revision in data sharing across servicesGoogle has agreed to supplement its controversial privacy policy to better communicate with Korean users, the nation’s Internet regulator said Thursday. According to the Korea Communications Commission, the California-based search giant will provide Koreans more detailed explanations about its recent combination of user data across some 60 services.“It’s meaningful that Google has agreed to offer more explanations for Korean use

IndustryApril 5, 2012

South Korean stocks closed 0.5 percent higher Thursday in the face of dashed hopes for additional credit easing in the U.S. and fresh woes over the eurozone debt problem, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.Reversing earlier losses, the benchmark KOSPI gained 10.16 points to close at 2,028.77.Trading volume was moderate at 541 million shares worth 5.64 trillion won ($5 billion), with losers outpacing gainers 442 to 358.The KOSPI opened weak as investor sentiment was sp

April 5, 2012

Foreign direct investment in South Korea jumped 17 percent on-year to $2.34 billion in the first quarter of this year thanks to an inflow of funds from advanced industrialized economies, the government said Thursday.The total is the largest since the first quarter of 2008, which reflects expectations that Asia’s fourth-largest economy will grow steadily despite lingering global economic uncertainties, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. Seoul expects its economic growth to reach 3.7 percent

April 5, 2012