A magnitude-7.1 earthquake on the Pacific Coast has jolted a wide area of southern Mexico and Central America. At least two people are reported dead in Guatemala.The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake hit at 6:23 a.m. (7:23 a.m. EDT; 11:23 GMT) on the Pacific Coast 5 miles (8 kilometers) northeast of Puerto Madero, near the Guatemala border. Firefighters spokesman Raul Hernandez says at least two people were killed in the Guatemalan town of San Marcos. In Mexico local news media reported the

Beijing, Oslo and Almaty will contest the race to win the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Monday.The three cities, which in IOC-speak were granted formal candidate status, were the only remaining bidders in the race after the Swedish capital Stockholm, Krakow in Poland and Lviv in Ukraine pulled out.The IOC's president, Thomas Bach, told reporters that a meeting of the Olympic body's executive committee had "extensively discussed" th

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday commemorated the 77th anniversary of the official start of war with Japan, condemning those who "ignore the iron facts of history" in an oblique jab at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.Xi and a cast of hundreds of soldiers and schoolchildren gathered for a ceremony on the edge of the capital to mark the Marco Polo Bridge incident, a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops on July 7, 1937 that served as a pretext for Tokyo's forces to seize Beijing and trigger

The military began an extensive investigation Monday into last month's problem-ridden search for a fugitive Army sergeant who went on a deadly shooting spree, military sources here said.Criticism has mounted over the military's massive manhunt to capture the sergeant, surnamed Lim, who fled on June 21 after killing five of his comrades and wounding seven others at his eastern border post in Goseong, some 250 kilometers east of Seoul.Two days later, Lim, 22, was captured some 9 kilometers away fr

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Sunday that it had ordered Google and Apple to revise unfair provisions, including the no-refund policy, in operating their mobile application stores. It is the first time that international app store operators have removed specific clauses pertaining to refunds in the terms and services.‘‘We expect the measure, aimed at protecting consumers, will have a ripple effect on similar cases throughout the world,” the Korea Fair Trade Commission said in a press rel

British electronics manufacturer Dyson’s senior design engineer Matt Steel poses with the company’s new vacuum cleaner, the DC52, in Seoul on Thursday. (Dyson)British electronics manufacturer Dyson unveiled a filter-free vacuum cleaner at a press event in Seoul on Thursday. The company said its new machine, the DC52, has adopted a unique technology that does not require filter maintenance. “There is no filter maintenance throughout the machine’s lifetime and no loss of suction even after 10 year

K-Glass, an electronic eyewear device developed by a team of South Korean researchers, is expected to be launched early next year, according to industry experts familiar with the matter. “We plan to commercialize K-Glass in a small quantity late this year or early next year,” said Yoo Hoi-jun, a professor at South Korea’s Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology University, in an interview with The Korea Herald.  KAIST introduces the K-Glass, embedded with augmented reality technology.

Samsung Electronics’ 850 PRO solid state drive for personal computers. (Samsung Electronics)Samsung Electronics launched its consumer solid state drive powered by 3-D V-NAND 850 PROat the Samsung SSD Global Summit in Seoul on Tuesday. The company said it planned to launch the new SSD early this month in 53 countries including South Korea, the United States, China and Germany. This marks the first time Samsung has unveiled a consumer SSD powered by 3-D V-NAND following the launch of its enterpris

LG Group’s auto business is expected to reach 3 trillion won ($2.9 billion) in sales this year and will continue to be on the upturn on the back of close partnerships being forged with global carmakers, industry watchers said. “LG Electronics’ vehicle components unit may see 30 percent growth in sales in 2017 on the grounds that the company’s talks with global carmakers appears positive this year,” said Kim Ji-san, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities. The business achieved 1 trillion won in sales in

Samsung Electronics and Google announced that Samsung’s KNOX technology, a set of mobile enterprise security solutions, will be integrated into the next version of the Android at Google’s developer conference, held in San Francisco on Friday. ‘‘With the move, KNOX, which has been used only with the Samsung Galaxy series, will be applied to other Android-based smartphones developed by LG Electronics, HTC and Lenovo down the road,’’ a company official said. Industry watchers said the tech giant wa

The chief executive of LG Display has said the company would focus on panels for OLED TVs in the second half of this year, and it is expecting to expand its presence in the Chinese TV market. “OLED can be the next generation panel for TVs due to its high definition, curvedness and light weight,” LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom told reporters at the company’s plant in Paju on Wednesday. LG Display plans to produce 34,000 sheets per month for ultrahigh-definition OLED TVs in the second half of this y

LG Electronics’ new marquee smartphone, the G3, is expected to be well received in the global market as it got off to a solid start on its home turf, according to industry watchers. The phone sold over 250,000 units in 25 days since it launched in May in the domestic market ― the pace is two times faster than its predecessor the G2, mobile carriers said. The LG G3 also topped the list in an online survey of 3,000 consumers done by local phone review website Cetizen last week. The G3 took the fir

Samsung Electronics’ vice chairman Lee Jay-yong will reportedly meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to South Korea from July 3-5, according to industry sources. On his developing itinerary, Xi plans to visit Samsung Electronics’ headquarters, located in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, accompanied by Lee, sources said. Samsung heir-apparent, Lee will take China’s State President on a tour of the Samsung Innovation Museum, which opened at the Suwon site last April. Regarding Xi’s vis

KT Corp., the nation’s largest telecom firm, is readying to usher in “GiGAtopia,” a mobile environment connected through superfast gigabit technology, as it marks the 20th anniversary of providing the first Internet service in South Korea. Since KT provided KORNET for the first time in the nation in June 1994, South Korea has grown into a country with the highest percentage of Internet users. The Internet speed has also increased 10,000-fold to 100Mbps from 9.6Kbps in 1999. KT was also the natio

The Korea-Mongolia Greenbelt Forestation Project aims to plant some 3,000 hectares of trees to combat drought and desertification in Mongolia.The state-run Korea Forest Service signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Environment and Green Development of Mongolia in July 2006 as part of efforts to support the Mongolian government’s 30-year Greenbelt program, which aims to make the landlocked country greener. The move followed former President Roh Moo-hyun’s visit to Mongolia to

LG Electronics’ first smartwatch, the LG G Watch, is expected to feature its mobile messenger service to help manage LG home appliances and electronics, according to industry sources on Tuesday. “We plan on using the HomeChat service for the LG G Watch to control smart home appliances from LG Electronics,” said a source from LG Electronics, who declined to be identified. The HomeChat service was first unveiled in April, allowing users to communicate with home appliances and electronics. When use

SK hynix and Micron Technology are expected to vie for second place in the Samsung-dominated global mobile DRAM market this year. However, regardless of market shares, both will still make decent profits as they have no incentive to trigger a price war, industry watchers said. Micron Technology reclaimed the second spot from SK hynix in the first quarter of this year, according to market research firm IHS Technology. Samsung Electronics retained the top spot with a 44 percent market share, follo

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is expected to spur domestic sales and help companies withstand dampened demand in the wake of the Sewol ferry sinking.The global sports event is a good opportunity for consumer electronics companies to increase TV sales. Sales in World Cup years are usually 30 percent higher than the previous year. Though Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are not official sponsors of the 2014 tournament, they expect to reap similar benefits, and step up related marketing to make the

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics said on Friday it has formed a partnership with U.S. entertainment giant Marvel in an effort to promote its new tablet PC Galaxy Tab S.The partnership was announced at a launch event in New York City for the Galaxy Tab S. The two firms will cooperate in the development and marketing of digital content for Galaxy Tab S users. ‘‘Under the strategic partnership, Galaxy Tab S users will be able to access over 15,000 Marvel Comics for three months with free

Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 4, expected to be unveiled in September, may adopt touch ID fingerprint sensors, a source said. “Samsung Electronics is considering fingerprint sensors on its Galaxy Note 4 that may be area-type sensors instead of Galaxy S5’s swipe-type sensors,” said the industry watcher, who declined to be identified. The comments were in line with earlier plans from Galaxy S5’s fingerprint sensor provider Synaptics, which said it would be unveiling a small area-type scanner in