NEW YORK (AP) ― The United States and other nations that depend on oil imports will release and sell 60 million barrels of crude from emergency stocks in an effort to ease the strain of high oil prices on the global economy.The release by the International Energy Agency, a group of more than two dozen countries, covers only what the world uses roughly every 16 hours. But it was enough to send oil

Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronic Co. Friday, accusing the South Koran company of infringing its patented technologies used in making its iconic smartphone, the iPhone.   In a complaint filed with the Seoul Central District Court, Apple requested that Samsung Electronics be stopped from selling a line of its touch screen smartphones and a tablet PC that hit the local and global

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The United States hit two pillars of the Iranian economy with sanctions Thursday, targeting the Islamic republic’s national airline carrier and a major port company on charges that they facilitate illegal weapons trade and help the mighty Revolutionary Guard corps in destabilizing activity in Iran and nearby countries.The Treasury Department’s action blocks any assets in the Unit

The Samhwa Mutual Savings Bank, one of the local banks troubled with capital shortages, was declared bankrupt Friday.The savings bank filed for bankruptcy on May 19. In January, the Financial Services Commission suspended the bank for six months during moves to weed out unviable banks that failed to meet regulatory capital requirements.The ill-fated bank has been criticized for its allegedly illic

Medication passes safety, quality testsKorea will approve the world’s first stem-cell medication as early as this month, the Korea Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The state-run drug regulator said Friday that Hearticellgram-AMI, a stem-cell medication for treating heart attack victims, passed all the required safety and quality tests early this week. It will be the world’s first therapeu

The feud between parliamentarians and some of the nation’s corporate leaders escalated Thursday, as politicians threatened legal action if the businessmen defied their request to testify before parliament next week. Members of the National Assembly’s Knowledge Economy Committee decided to call to a public hearing it is organizing three of the nation’s major business organizations’ chiefs ― Huh Cha

North Korea may have developed a “super-EMP” weapon capable of emitting more gamma radiation than a 25-megaton nuclear weapon, a former CIA nuclear weapons analyst was quoted as saying by a U.S.-funded radio station Friday. Peter Vincent Pry told the Voice of America that a group of Russian nuclear weapons scientists approached him in 2004 to warn the U.S. that the technology to make the electroma

Through the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s reconciliatory ideals, Seoul and Washington should work together on achieving a reunified, peaceful Korean Peninsula, U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens said during a recent Memorial Day ceremony. Stephens published on her weblog the speech she gave at a national park in Jindo on June 6 Memorial Day. “On this Memorial Day … we honor the memory

Refuse to reinvestigate illegal deposit withdrawal, say found nothing to look intoThe prosecution seemed to refuse Friday to reinvestigate suspected illegal deposit withdrawals from a corruption-ridden savings bank despite demands from the ruling Grand National Party. “If we have dug up a mine and found nothing, we have to move to another mine. That’s the position of the prosecutor-general and the

POSCO, the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker, has been named the company with the best corporate governance structure in Korea.According to the steelmaker, it was so named by the Corporate Governance Service and the Korea Exchange on Friday.The company added that its filling of the audit committee with outside directors and other activities giving enhanced independence to auditors also contributed

The government will release almost 3.5 million barrels from its oil reserves in an effort to control international and domestic oil prices, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced Friday.According to the ministry, the government will release 3.467 million barrels in compliance with the International Energy Agency’s Initial Contingency Response Plan.Korea’s oil reserves, held by the government

The Korea Communications Commission turned down Friday KT Corp.’s proposal to end services for feature phone users by the end of this month.The state telecom regulator said it would defer giving the green light to KT’s scheme which would force what KCC cited as its remaining 810,000 2G mobile phone users to adopt 3G smartphones by the first half of this year.“Let’s put it off the discussion agenda

Subsidiary firms of Korea’s mobile carriers are expected to meet resistance in joining the market for mobile virtual network operators as the state watchdog appears wary of letting them do so.In its general meeting on Friday, the Korea Communications Commission agreed to recommend that SK telink, a subsidiary of market leader SK Telecom, hold back from entering the MVNO market.SK telink, a firm in