In road show, Italy focuses on Korean auto parts makers Hyundai Motor Group held a fair in Italy to give Korean auto parts manufacturers the opportunity to make inroads into the southern European market. The automotive group said Thursday that it held a “Fiat Tech Fair,” a road show for auto components, at Fiat Group Automobiles in Turin, Italy. Hyundai Mobis, a unit of Hyundai Motor Group, ho...

SINGAPORE (AP) ― Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson unveiled two new Android models Wednesday in a bid to grab more of the burgeoning smartphone market. The company, a joint venture between L.M. Ericsson and Sony Corp., plans to launch the Xperia ray and Xperia active models during the third quarter, Chief Marketing Officer Steve Walker announced in Singapore. The new models should help the compa...

BERLIN (AP) ― A full-scale restructuring of Greek debt would have “completely uncontrollable” effects on financial markets and could threaten other countries’ stability, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Wednesday. Imposing a so-called haircut on Greek debt ― reducing the amount to be repaid ― would endanger not only banks and other creditors who hold Greek bonds, but also institutions t...

Mention Ghana and Koreans usually think of an underdeveloped country in Africa or a popular chocolate bar named after the country. However, to pioneers like Lim Do-jae, who now operates several companies in the western part of Africa, the land is full of opportunities. “Ghana produces 240 thousands barrels of oil per day. Now is the time to penetrate the market,” says Lim, who is the president ...

Korean-American professor tells story of man who transcended ethnic rivalry Chang Tae-han, professor at University of California, Riverside, recalled his last visit to Colonel Kim Young-oak, a highly decorated Korean-American war hero, when he was already in a coma at a hospital in Los Angeles six years ago. “I told him that his biography, written in Korean, had just been published in Korea. He...

NEW YORK ― Despite the series of low-probability, high-impact events that have hit the global economy in 2011, financial markets continued to rise happily until a month or so ago. The year began with rising food, oil, and commodity prices, giving rise to the specter of high inflation. Then massive turmoil erupted in the Middle East, further ratcheting up oil prices. Then came Japan’s terrible ear...

WASHINGTON ― “Peace is at hand,” Henry Kissinger famously announced in October 1972 after a seeming breakthrough in Vietnam negotiations. But it wasn’t at hand. It took three more months to complete the Paris Peace Accords, which collapsed in 1975 when North Vietnam overran Saigon. This Vietnam history is a caution against premature optimism about diplomatic solutions to deeply embedded conflict...

Activist’s detention was part of major government crackdown on ‘Jasmine’ protesters BEIJING (AFP) ― Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was released on bail in Beijing Wednesday nearly three months after he was detained during the government’s biggest crackdown on activists in years. Police released him after he confessed to tax evasion and because he suffers from a “chronic disease,” the offici...

President Obama says withdrawal marks beginning of ‘efforts to wind down the war’ WASHINGTON (AP) ― Beginning to wind down a long and devastating war, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday night he was pulling home 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next summer, withdrawing the “surge” of forces he had sent to rescue a flailing effort. “The tide of war is receding,” Said Obama to a country ...