South Korea’s leading tech giants are set for fierce competition in the global smartphone sector, as LG Electronics is set to unveil its new flagship smartphone the G4 in six global markets on Wednesday, just weeks after Samsung released the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Both Samsung and LG have been pinning high hopes on their latest smartphone models, each equipped with unique cutting-edge features a...

The smart watch hype is at its peak as two of the world’s largest tech giants and archrivals ― Samsung Electronics and Apple ― step up their efforts to gain the upper-hand in a new round in a battle for the wrist. The first wearable device by Cupertino-based Apple landed in stores in nine global markets including the U.S. Australia, and Hong Kong on Friday. Even though South Korea was not inclu...

Dongkuk Steel Mill chairman Chang Sae-joo’s alleged wrongdoings are poised to deal a fatal blow to the company, raising questions about the transparency of the country’s steel industry. Dongkuk is the second steelmaker to be mired in allegations of irregular practices after POSCO this year. It is the nation’s third-largest steelmaker after POSCO and Hyundai Steel. Chang is suspected of embezzli...

“It is not good manners to not strike one’s neck when one has asked for it. I will strike in the most bloody and painful way possible.” The graphic comments are not threats by IS terrorists on YouTube videos. Instead, they are from Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction chairman Park Yong-sung, a business tycoon, in an email he sent to professors at Chung-Ang University in Seoul where he was s...

Yet another of President Park Geun-hye’s picks for her top deputy bit the dust Monday, as Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo submitted his resignation, succumbing to mounting pressure from his alleged involvement in a recent graft scandal. Lee’s demise came a little more than a month after he vowed all-out government effort against corruption on March 12. Deceased businessman Sung Woan-jong ― who died i...

HELSINKI ― Finland’s opposition Center Party won Sunday’s general election, ousting Prime Minister Alexander Stubb’s left-right coalition after a campaign dominated by the country’s economic woes. Center Party leader Juha Sipila, a 53-year-old IT millionaire and newcomer to politics, is set to become Finland’s next prime minister. “It seems as though the Center has won. Congratulations,” Stubb ...

WASHINGTON ― Greece was told Saturday to urgently deliver a detailed fiscal and debt plan to official lenders as the IMF-World Bank spring meetings wound up amid escalating worries of a looming default. As Athens’ talks with creditors continued in Paris, both IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi warned in Washington that Greece has not provided eno...

Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo fell deeper into his quagmire on Thursday as his choice of words and inconsistent explanations of graft allegations against him led the opposition to escalate calls for his resignation. Lee altered his stance on joining President Park Geun-hye’s campaign trail in 2012 and how well he knew the deceased former Keangnam Enterprises chief Sung Woan-jong. Lee has found him...

WASHINGTON ― President Barack Obama is set to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, in a landmark step paving the way towards restoring ties frozen for five decades. Obama on Tuesday notified Congress of his “intent to rescind” Cuba’s inclusion on the blacklist, after a lengthy review launched late last year as Washington openly began a rapprochement with its Cold War foe. U.S...

South Korea’s prime minister reiterated Tuesday his denial he received illegal campaign funds from a recently-deceased businessman during a parliamentary by-election two years ago, vowing to resign if the accusation was true. But the tide appears to be turning against Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo as critics increase their attack against him, citing his record of lying about past wrongdoing. Testim...

After Sung Woan-jong ― a South Korean businessman who was under investigation for corruption ― was found dead last week in an apparent suicide, a list of politicians who supposedly received money from him has stirred up a dispute within the political circles here. The eight politicians on the list include former and incumbent chiefs of staff for President Park Geun-hye, sitting Prime Minister Le...

CHICAGO — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign will center on boosting economic security for the middle class and expanding opportunities for working families, while casting the former senator and secretary of state as a “tenacious fighter” able to get results, two senior advisers said Saturday. They provided the first preview of the message that Clinton planned to convey when she laun...

The debate on legalizing prostitution has heated up in South Korea as the Constitutional Court began reviewing the law that criminalizes the sex trade. The court held its first public hearing Thursday. The antiprostitution law was enacted in 2004 to protect human rights, partly prompted by fire that killed 14 sex workers who were locked in a brothel in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, in 2002. Th...

LOUISVILLE ― Instead of an American flag, Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul wears a red penny in his lapel, symbolizing the core of his philosophy: no more runaway debt and total submission to the U.S. Constitution. “We say they’ve taken all our money. We don’t have one red cent more to send them in Washington,” the conservative Kentucky senator said in 2010 shortly after a crushing poll...

President Park Geun-hye on Monday said her administration will “actively review” salvaging the Sewol ferry that sank last year, leaving over 300 people dead or missing. It is the first time the South Korean leader has commented about recovering the ill-fated ship, but a myriad of issues, including technical difficulties, significant costs and doubt remain about the daunting task of recovering th...