Woori Finance Holdings Co., Korea’s No. 2 financial services company, on Tuesday nominated its incumbent chairman to remain at the helm, which analysts say will help accelerate the stalled privatization of the state-run banking group.The group’s ad hoc chairman selection committee chose incumbent Woori Finance Chairman Lee Pal-seung, 67, as the new chairman nominee, allowing him to serve another t

LONDON (AP) ― For two decades, Eric Selby had been completely blind and dependent on a guide dog to get around. But after having an artificial retina put into his right eye, he can detect ordinary things like the curb and pavement when he’s walking outside.“It’s basically flashes of light that you have to translate in your brain, but it’s amazing I can see anything at all,” said Selby, a retired e

BARCELONA, Spain (Yonhap News) ― LG Electronics Inc., the world’s besieged No. 3 cell phone maker, aims to more than quadruple its smartphone sales from last year to 30 million units in 2011 in a bid to revive its money-losing mobile business, a company executive said Tuesday.LG will also lift its overall mobile phone sales by 30 percent to 150 million units, aiming to outnumber the industry’s sta

Multitasking, speedy IE9 coming to windows phoneBARCELONA (AFP) ― Microsoft announced Monday an Internet-friendly revamp of its Windows Phone operating system to help capture new territory in the smartphone wars.Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer unveiled a series of improvements this year to Windows Phone, which got a major boost last week when it was adopted by leading handphone maker Nokia.The softw

Eurozone to put up $674b for post-2013 bailout fund, disagreement over debt crisisBRUSSELS (AP) ― European finance ministers decided Monday to provide 500 billion euros ($674 billion) for a new crisis fund that will come into force in 2013, but continued to fight over the best way to combat the current debt crisis that has crippled the eurozone over the past year.The ministers “agreed on the provi

The world’s largest shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries announced on Tuesday that it would set up a 30 billion won ($27 million) fund for supporting small and medium sized enterprises’ research and development efforts in collaboration with the Small and Medium Business Administration.The shipbuilder and the Small and Medium Business Administration will each be responsible for raising 15 billion w

New chairman to put group in gear for competition with KB, WooriHan Dong-woo, nominated to head Shinhan Financial Group, faces the daunting challenge of restoring the group’s reputation and mending in-house frictions. The former vice chairman of the group’s insurance unit was tapped as the next chairman of the nation’s third-largest financial group Monday.Shinhan has suffered a management crisis d

Competition among mobile messenger operators to get more fierceKim Ji-young was dumbfounded to find out that she had not used up all of her mobile text messages when she checked her monthly plan last month.It was unusual for the 30-year-old to be in this situation, for she would normally be charged 10,000 to 20,000 won ($8.88-$17.78) more per month, just on text message fees.When asked what kept h

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - A NASA spacecraft is just hours from its long-anticipated encounter with a comet, and skywatchers hope the flyby will shed light on how the comet's surface has changed since it skimmed by the Sun in 2005.The US space agency's Stardust-NExT mission spacecraft "is within a quarter-million miles (402,336 kilometers) of its quarry, comet Tempel 1, which it will fly by tonight," NAS

Device will be priced below $150; company aims to sell 300m cell phones, 7.5m tablet PCs and 6m samrtphones this yearBARCELONA, Spain (Yonhap News) ― Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s No. 2 cell phone supplier, plans to release a cheaper smartphone in an effort to sharply boost its smartphone sales by meeting rising demand for lower-end phones, its mobile chief said Monday. “This year, we will