A series of irregularities among public office holders is drawing attention to whether the Lee Myung-bak administration would launch an all-out campaign to tighten the discipline of civil servants as it enters its fourth year.President Lee emphasized in his New Year’s address Monday that the government “has so much to achieve this year,” reiterating his call on public officials to focus on work to

Educational institutes will face a fine of up to 10 million won ($8,800) if found to have hired sex offenders, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Wednesday.Under a related revision, which will take effect from February, institute owners will be obliged to check new teachers’ and other employees’ records for sex crimes. If the owner violates the rule or makes a false report of a sex crime

Nearly half of foreign companies with branches in South Korea have no plans to recruit university graduates this year, a survey showed on Wednesday.A survey of 58 foreign firms conducted by the online recruiting agent JobKorea found that 26, or 44.8 percent, do not have plans to hire any new graduates this year.Of the remainder, 24 companies responded that they will be looking for new employees th

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Semiconductor companies are whipping up a new generation of chips to bring richer video and better battery life to personal computers and help them hold off threats from tablets and increasingly powerful smart phones.Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., whose processors are the “brains” of PCs, are unveiling significant changes to their chips’ designs at this week’s In

MOSCOW (AFP) -- A ponytailed worker taps on a laptop and rosy-cheeked children sport baseball caps in a rare exhibition of contemporary North Korean art that is now on display at a trendy Moscow gallery.The exhibition, titled “Water Still Flows Under Ice,” addresses themes such as World Cup football, new technology and Western fashion. It is running at Winzavod, a brick-walled former factory that

Korean stocks finished 0.12 percent lower on Wednesday as investors sat on the sidelines following recent rallies that had set fresh record highs, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 2.59 points to 2,082.55 after reaching a new intra-day high of 2,087.14 at one point. Trading volume was moderate at 379.1 million shares

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) ― Mark Twain wrote that “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter.” A new edition of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” will try to find out if that holds true by replacing a word considered a racial slur with the word “slave” in an effort not to offend readers.Twain scholar Alan Gribben, who is working with Ne

INCHEON (Yonhap) ― The Incheon Metropolitan Government will send a team of experts to Russia to catalog Korean historic relics scattered across the Eurasian country and work toward having them exhibited in their home country, city officials said Wednesday.The move follows an agreement Incheon Mayor Song Young-gil signed with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during his visit to South Korea in Nove

Ryu Joong-il, the new manager of the Samsung Lions in the Korea Baseball Organization, set his goal high for his first season as a bench boss.“The goal is to win the Korean Series,” Ryu said at a press conference Wednesday here, about 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul. It was Ryu’s his first public appearance since being named the manager last week.“I want to play an entertaining, aggressive brand