Group’s talks in China focus on monetary reforms, as players clash on currency, other issues NANJING, China (AP) ― Conflicts over exchange rate policy surfaced Thursday at talks by finance mandarins from the Group of 20 leading economies, with both the U.S. Treasury Secretary and French President Nicolas Sarkozy urging greater flexibility as a strategy for avoiding future crises. Despite Beijin...

Telecom carriers are wrestling with the surging popularity of free mobile messengers increasingly jamming networks and snatching away data fees. One option being considered may be blocking or limiting the use of the likes of widely-popular Kakao Talk, which is replacing the voice and text messaging functions at a faster speed. “We have been basically reviewing the impact of social services like...

Renault Samsung Motors Co., the Korean arm of the French carmaker Renault S.A., is rapidly becoming a key player in Renault Nissan Alliance’s global sales operations with exports rising at an unprecedented pace. On March 25, the company celebrated more than 400,000 units exported since 2000. Established in September 2000, Renault Samsung’s exports have grown at a rate unseen among Korean carmak...

Chairman Koo urges affiliates to help achieve ‘shared growth’ with smaller partners LG Group is leading the corporate sector’s campaign to buttress the competitiveness of smaller vendors and firms to help achieve a level playing field for all parties. The group’s chairman Koo Bon-moo this year proclaimed that LG would stand at the forefront of supporting mutually beneficial growth with its part...

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The worldwide smartphone market will grow nearly 50 percent this year and Google’s Android will take over as the leading operating system, a technology market research firm said Tuesday. International Data Corp. said smartphone vendors are expected to ship more than 450 million smartphones in 2011 compared to 303.4 million last year. IDC said the smartphone market will grow m...

Toyota restricts orders from U.S. dealers to preserve supply of some parts; Honda to cut output DETROIT (AP) ― Shortages of auto parts from Japan are hitting North American operations at Honda and Toyota. Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday said it wants its U.S. car dealers to stop ordering more than 200 replacement parts made in Japan because it’s worried about running out of them. And Honda Motor ...

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― Chinese computer giant Lenovo has launched its own tablet computer at home as it tries to compete for a share of an increasingly crowded market dominated by Apple’s iPad. The LePad ― powered by Google’s Android software ― was launched in China on Monday at a Chinese-media only event. Lenovo will begin selling LePad directly to Chinese consumers this week through its own retail ...

South Korea is pushing a 1.5 trillion won national project to develop six promising technology sectors that would lead the nation’s growth in future decades. The government has recently set out long-term research and development plans with an aim to join the league of top five international technology powerhouses by 2020. Convergence-based technologies are expected to generate sales of 380 tril...