The non-governmental organization Beautiful Community Forum announced Thursday that it will host photo and sculpture exhibitions as part of the 2011 Philip Morris Korea Clean Beach Campaign.The exhibitions will be at Sokcho Beach in Gangwon Province and Hamdeok Beach in Jeju from July 30 through Aug. 1 to raise awareness for preservation of sea resources.For the photo exhibition, the forum is hold

The National Tax Service said Thursday that it would launch a large-scale investigation into offshore bank accounts with lump-sum deposits this year. “The agency’s crackdown on tax evasion using tax havens abroad has seen some achievements in the first half of the year,” said an NTS official. “In the second half, we will step up efforts to probe further into people who have deposited more than 1 b

The nation’s antitrust watchdog and eBay Inc. signed Thursday an agreement for fair trade in the growing online ecommerce market ― the first of its kind here. The U.S.-based company, which owns Gmarket and Auction, the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 online marketplaces, will adopt a “Consumer Complaints Management System” to better protect consumer rights, the Fair Trade Commission said.The agreement ca

Economists say debt may cool business sentiment in second halfEconomists expect inflation to cool with the arrival of harvest season but cautiously forecast that business sentiment will lose steam in the second half of the year on debt both at home and abroad.The central bank froze its policy rate at 3.25 percent Thursday even after having an inflation rate above its 3 percent target range for hal

Korean banks’ short-term foreign borrowing rose in June as lenders rushed to secure foreign currency funds amid worries the eurozone debt crisis may worsen, the financial watchdog said Thursday.A total of 16 local banks refinanced 107.4 percent of their maturing short-term foreign debt through fresh borrowing in June, up from 94.9 percent in the previous month, according to the Financial Superviso

PARIS (AFP) ― The oil market still needs more supplies for the third quarter of the year, the International Energy Agency warned on Wednesday, despite an official stock release and increased OPEC production.“Major producers have recognized that demand for their oil is rising ... as economic growth and short-term fuel substitution keep global and emerging market demand growth robust,” the IEA said

A lawyer is pushing for a class action suit against Apple after he won a court battle last month over the iPhone’s location tracking.Apple Korea recently paid about 1 million won in compensation to attorney Kim Hyung-suk following a lower court’s ruling that the smartphone’s software violated his privacy.Kim, 31, and his company MiRaeLaw on Thursday began to collect applications for a collective l

Online retail giant Amazon plans to unveil a tablet computer before October in a bid to carve out a slice of a growing market dominated by Apple's iPad, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.The newspaper, citing "people familiar with the matter," also said Amazon plans to release two updated versions of its Kindle electronic reader in the third quarter of the year.The Journal said the tablet

Korea's central bank froze the key interest rate on Thursday, following a rate hike in June, in the face of mounting household debt and the eurozone debt crisis.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his fellow policymakers held steady the benchmark seven-day repo rate, dubbed the base rate, at 3.25 percent for July.The decision is in line with a forecast by 18 out of 19 economists surveyed b

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. and its sister company Kia Motors Corp. ranked as the best-selling passenger carmakers in Canada in the first half of this year, industry sources said Thursday.The two leading automobile makers in South Korea sold a combined 64,671 passenger cars in the North American country in the January-June period for a market share of 18.2 percent, according to the sources.The

The Barack Obama administration is still looking for the best timing to send a bill on a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea to Congress, a senior official said Wednesday, with no clear signs of a breakthrough in federal debt limit talks."Senior-level discussions continue on the timing for formal submission of the bill," Carol Guthrie, assistant U.S. trade representative for public and med