NAIROBI (Yonhap News) ― Samsung Electronics Co. aims to post $10 billion in revenue by 2015 in Sub-Saharan Africa with its consumer electronics and mobile products built for the market, the chief of the company’s African unit said Wednesday.Samsung has been stepping up efforts to make inroads into the African market, which has a population of 1 billion with a growing number of middle-class people,

The average Korean office worker spends twice as much money on drinking as culture and entertainment, a survey showed.According to a survey of 640 people conducted by recruitment website Career, white collar workers typically spend about 109,000 won ($100) a month on alcohol.Just 54,000 won is spent on going to the theater or exhibitions. As the most popular cultural activity, 82 percent of respon

One of the 19 KTX-Sancheon high-speed trains has been pulled off line as the system is now under examination by the manufacturer due to a serious structural fault, sources said Wednesday. KTX-Sancheon, or KTX-II, is the first high-speed train produced with locally developed technology that went into service early last year. The train has been in the spotlight in recent months due to frequent break

Samsung Group on Wednesday denied news reports that its owner Lee Kun-hee instructed his company to reconsider the plans for developing solar batteries, saying Samsung has already earmarked the business as one of its future engines of growth.“We will continue to push forward in the (solar battery) business,” said Rhee In-yong, vice executive president of Samsung’s communications team, in a press b

Korean Air denied a terminal cancer patient in the United States a seat on a flight to Korea because she “looked too frail.”Crystal Kim, a Korean-American with stage 4 breast cancer, was to take the flight on Saturday for Mother’s Day. Even though she had two doctors’ notes explaining that her terminal breast cancer wouldn’t be a problem during the flight, Korean Air still refused to let her board

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs on Wednesday designated 2.43 square kilometers of the land currently occupied by the U.S. Army’s Yongsan Garrison to be converted into a park.Central government agencies and the Seoul city government have been reviewing plans to convert the land occupied by the Yongsan Garrison into a park since 2008 once control of the land is returned to the K

Korea will unveil its road map for the sale of a controlling stake in the second-biggest banking group Woori Finance Holdings Co. next week in a bid to restart its stalled privatization, the financial regulator said Wednesday.The Public Fund Oversight Committee, which handles the sale of state-owned firms, will announce on May 17 how to sell the 56.97 percent government stake in Woori Finance, the

Korea’s central bank is widely expected to resume its tightening move in May by raising the key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point in a bid to stem inflationary pressure, a poll showed Wednesday.A total of 14 out of 17 economists forecast that the Bank of Korea will raise the benchmark seven-day repo rate to 3.25 percent on Friday, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the finan

Real interest has stayed below inflation for the past year, devaluing returns on bond investments and deposits at banks, a government report said Wednesday.The interest rate on 1-year savings products at most commercial banks is just over 4 percent, leaving no room for profit given on-year inflation in the 4 percent range on top of a 15.4 percent tax on interest income. “Real returns on deposits w

The number of unemployed fresh college graduates increased by 0.2 percent in April from a year earlier despite a drop in the overall jobless rate, Statistics Korea said Wednesday. Some 63.6 percent of college graduates in their twenties were part of the workforce, posting a 0.3 percent drop from a month earlier, indicating a persistent structural mismatch between the reality of the job market and