Complaints no longer required for prosecution; first-time offenders to be tagged Sexual crimes on the disabled will be prosecuted with or without the victims’ complaints and first-time offenders will be bound to wear electronic tagging devices under toughened rules unveiled by the government Friday. Because prosecution of sexual crimes cannot proceed without complaints by the victims under the ...

The cost of insuring South Korea’s sovereign debt against default climbed the most in 32 months, growing two times faster than that of eurozone countries, data showed Friday. The credit default swap premium on South Korea’s foreign currency bonds with five-year maturities reached 220 basis points as of the end of September, up 92 basis points from a month earlier, according to the data by the Ko...

The South Korean economy is likely to grow at a slower pace than the central bank’s earlier forecast of 4.3 percent this year amid dimmer global economic outlooks, its chief said Friday. “The growth of the South Korean economy is expected to be lower than 4.3 percent this year, but it will be higher than 4 percent,” Bank of Korea Gov. Kim Choong-soo told lawmakers. Kim said the economic growth ...

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s workshop regarding public information on introducing new nuclear power plants will kick off in Seoul on Monday. The workshop organized by the Korea Nuclear Energy Promotion Agency will be held at Lotte Hotel World in Jamsil, southeastern Seoul until Friday. The event will gather together 26 public relations and information experts from 15 countries that ...

The human resource services provider Manpower has been included in the Best of Staffing Talent list, the company said Friday. Compiled by the U.S.-based research firm Inavero Inc., the Best of Staffing Talent list includes staffing firms whose services are rated highly by job seekers. According to the company less than 1 percent of North American staffing firms were included in the list. Manpow...

The Seoul High Court’s Thursday ruling that the ex-head of Lone Star Korea was guilty of manipulating stock prices cleared legal issues on the fund’s deal to sell its Korea Exchange Bank to Hana Financial Group. But uncertainty still lingers in the financial market as the U.S. buyout fund has yet to speak up about its future course of action and who it wants to sell its $4.1 billion stake to. H...

Obama acknowledges economic insecurities fueling three-week demonstrations NEW YORK (AP) ― Their chief target is Wall Street, but many of the demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. also are thoroughly disgusted with Washington, blaming politicians of both major parties for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the middle class. The Occupy Wall Street movement, whi...

LONDON (AP) -- Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the debt ratings of a dozen British banks because of doubts over the strength of the government’s support. Moody’s said Friday that the downgrades include a two-notch downgrade to “A2” for government-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland, and a one-notch cut to “A1” for Lloyds TSB Bank, a unit of part-nationalized Lloyds Banking Group. Spanish...

LONDON (AP) ― The Bank of England surprised markets Thursday by sanctioning another 75 billion pounds ($116 billion) injection into a British economy that’s suffering from the shockwaves of Europe’s debt crisis and the British government’s austerity program. The Bank’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee said it was reviving a program of asset purchases which injected 200 billion pounds in be...

The nation’s foreign exchange reserves fell by a margin of $8.8 billion to $303.3 billion between the end of August and the end of September, the largest drop since November 2008. The decline, government officials say, resulted mainly from the weakening value of assets held in euros and pounds. There is no denying, however, that a substantial amount of foreign exchange was used to defend the wea...

With Lone Star Funds found guilty of stock-price manipulation, the Financial Services Commission is set to take post-ruling measures, including ordering the Texas-based private equity firm to dispose of the stake it holds in Korea Exchange Bank in excess of a 10 percent stake. In a retrial ordered by the Supreme Court, the Seoul High Court ruled on Thursday that Lone Star and its Korea represent...

Paul Hogan’s reptile-wrestling tough guy from the 1986 movie “Crocodile Dundee” typified Australia’s reputation for “mateship,” a creed of male friendship that often excludes women. A quarter of a century on, it’s costing the country billions. Don’t take my word for it ― take the prime minister’s. “I’ve always thought the Australian culture is blokey,” Julia Gillard told Bloomberg News last mon...

Change does not always come easy. It often comes with the sacrifice of people whose livelihoods depend on the old way of things and against the influence of the powerful who are heavily invested in keeping the status-quo. However, sometimes change is not an option but rather a challenge a nation should rise up to. This is exactly when leaders are needed to champion necessary change, sometimes aga...