The number of female workers in South Korea grew in 2010 as the economic recovery boosted employment among women job seekers, data showed Tuesday. The average number of female workers came to 9.91 million last year, up 142,000 from a year earlier, according to the data offered by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Statistics Korea. Female workers have been on a steady increase in recent y...

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - Most Americans believe China is the world's leading economy, even though in reality the rising Asian power's GDP trails that of the United States, a poll said Monday. Some 52 percent of Americans said China was the "leading economic power in the world today," against 32 percent who said their own country, the Gallup poll said. The percentage who said China has soared over rec...

Proposal trims defense spending, limits tax benefits for the rich and freezes many domestic programs WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama will send Congress on Monday a $3 trillion-plus budget for 2012 that promises $1.1 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade by freezing many domestic programs for five years, trimming military spending and limiting tax deductions for the wealthy....

Athens slams debt inspectors after IMF and EU visit, accusing them of overstepping roles ATHENS (AP) ― An indignant Greece slammed EU and International Monetary Fund inspectors overseeing its efforts to reform its debt-crippled economy, accusing them Saturday of overstepping their role and interfering in Greece’s internal affairs. In an unusually harshly worded, pre-dawn statement, government s...

Policymakers plan to expand financial benefits for tenants and further ease regulations to control surging housing rent prices in the country, the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs said Friday. The latest set of measures is particularly targeted at reducing the deposits for “jeonse,” a Korean rent system under which tenants pay a lump-sum deposit to rent a house for a certain...

IMF chief urges bigger global role for yuan, emerging economies' currencies WASHINGTON (AFP) ― IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Thursday said the currencies of China and other emerging economies should play a greater role in global finance, as part of a bid to promote monetary stability. Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the 187-nation International Monetary Fund, backed the inclusion o...

President Barack Obama plans to send the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement to Congress in the next few weeks, but ``serious issues'' are holding up deals with Colombia and Panama, his top trade official said Wednesday. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told the House Ways and Means Committee that Obama hopes Congress will approve the South Korean pact this spring. The administration says th...