South Korea’s construction industry went through hard times last year despite a general boom in growth in other sectors, a report by the central bank showed Thursday.The woes were mainly due to the sluggish local real estate market that caused a general drop in houses being built across the country and led to a decrease in work. Such developments exerted negative influence on key numbers such as r

The total amount of loans offered to local credit card holders decreased in the first quarter compared to the last three months of 2010 as financial institutions and state regulators tightened oversight to prevent risks down the road, an industry report showed Thursday.The latest findings showed card loans provided by six dedicated cards, excluding BC Card, reached 5.45 trillion won ($5.07 billion

Last Saturday, we called for drastic reform of the Financial Supervisory Services as the powerful regulatory agency exuded the stench of corruption. We were not alone in smelling the odor. President Lee Myung-bak did as well. On Wednesday, Lee made a surprise visit to the FSS to express his fury and disappointment over the regulator’s failure to prevent irregularities at financial companies and FS

Greece? Been there. Ireland? Done that. Portugal? Got the T-shirt. For the past year, countries sharing the euro have been going bust one by one.So where’s next? Plenty of people will point the finger at Spain. Some at Italy. A few single out Belgium, a country with high debts, and no government.But they should be looking somewhere else: France.It is increasingly politically unstable, its debt pos

The dramatic killing of Osama bin Laden after a 40-minute gun battle in a Pakistani hill station mansion is, as President Obama rightly said, a triumph of justice. It is a symbolic and historic milestone in the war on terror, marking the end of a frustrating, decade-long manhunt.By continuing to pursue bin Laden years after 9/11, the United States sought to demonstrate that it has staying power an

When President Obama told the media why he had released his long-form Hawaiian birth certificate, all I could think of was Pakistan.Yes, Pakistan, where no conspiracy theory is too bizarre and you’ll hear that 9/11 was a Zionist plot ― and Osama bin Laden a U.S. agent. Ordinary Pakistanis turn to conspiracy theories to explain the overwhelming problems that face them. But those unhinged theories d

VIENNA ― In a study released in early April, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovi, reported that 57 journalists are currently in prison in Turkey, mostly on the basis of the country’s antiterrorism laws. With 11 more Turkish journalists also facing charges, the total number could soon double the records of Iran and China,

WASHINGTON (AP) ― So much could have gone wrong as SEAL Team Six swept over Pakistan’s dark landscape, dropped down ropes into a compound lined by wall after wall, exchanged gunfire and confronted face to face the most dangerous terrorist in the world. The vital things went right.Just about every contingency the 25 commandos trained for came at them, rapidly, chaotically and dangerously, in their