“Do you have any of the credit cards listed here? You can get up to 20 percent discount,” a restaurant cashier asks a diner settling her bill, indicating a wall chart.Kim Lee-soo, 22, shuffles quickly through a stack of cards in her bulging wallet. After passing on five or six of them, she finally finds one that matches the list and claims the full discount.It’s a typical scene in Korea, where peo

 

 

 

Abandoned town, reactor building lure hundreds of visitors a week to site of 1986 disasterCHERNOBYL, Ukraine (AP) ― For the visitor, Chernobyl makes heavy demands on the imagination ― much of what’s important can be seen only in the mind’s eye.From the outside, the building where a reactor blew up April 26, 1986, in the world’s worst nuclear disaster mostly looks like an ordinary, dull industrial

According to the National Tax Service, a shipping magnate is under investigation by the prosecution on charges of offshore tax evasion. The case draws our attention because the fine imposed on him is 410.1 billion won, the largest ever levied on an individual for stashing away personal wealth abroad.The NTS said the shipping tycoon, who is little known to the public, operates a fleet of 160 vessel

Under the incumbent Lee Myung-bak government, domestic business groups have expanded their assets and operations at an alarmingly fast clip, and concerns have been rekindled about excessive concentration of economic power.According to data recently released by the Fair Trade Commission, the top 20 business groups increased their asset holdings by 54.2 percent and the number of subsidiaries by 36 p

Japanese professional baseball’s regular season starts Tuesday as the 12 teams of the Central and Pacific leagues play their openers. The pennant race begins, though belatedly, while wounds from the March 11 catastrophe remain fresh.As the nation faces a difficult time, players are urged all the more to do their best to give hope and vigor to disaster victims and the nation as a whole.Both leagues

The time to disagree agreeably is over for health care policy in America.U.S. President Barack Obama and Congress last week approved a measly budget cut of $39 billion and no tax increases. That leaves us with a massive deficit equal to 9 percent of gross domestic product and a debt-to-GDP ratio that will exceed 90 percent within six years.Our politicians touted this deal as the biggest compromise