South Korea's corporate watchdog is expected to soon announce the results of its deliberation into an antitrust case against Google Inc. for its alleged involvement in activities that hurt fair market competition, industry sources said Friday.Some sources also speculate that the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) might be considering dropping the charges against the U.S. Internet search engine giant as it is in the final stage of its deliberation into the case.In 2011, NHN Corp. and Daum Communications

지난 2003년에 칠레의 아타카마 사막에서 발견되어 외계인 논란을 유발했던 일명 ‘아타카마 인간형(humanoid)’ 미라가 인간일 가능성이 높은 것으로 알려졌다.미국 스탠포드 대학의 미생물학, 면역학 교수인 게리 놀란은 최근 이 미라에 대한 DNA분석 결과를 공개하면서, 이 생물체가 외계에서 왔다고 볼 근거가 없다고 밝혔다. 놀란은 “제가 확인해본 모든 뉴클레오티드는 인간의 것이었다”고 밝히면서 이 미라가 어째서 이렇듯 기이하게 변형되었는지는 알 수 없다고 말했다. 연구결과에 따르면 이 미라의 사망 당시 나이는 6~8세 정도라고 한다.아타카마 인간형의 유전자 중 약 9퍼센트는 전형적인 인간의 것과 일치하지 않으나, 전체적인 DNA 분석 결과 이 것은 심하게 변형된 인간의 사체일 가능성이 크다고 한다.이번 연구는 크라우드펀딩을 통해 제작된 UFO 다큐멘터리 “시리우스(Sirius)”에 소개되었다.아타카마 인간형은 길이가 15cm 정도이며 몸에 비해 머리가 기형적으로 긴데다가 갈비뼈가

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top maker of smartphones, said Friday it has received security approval for its new Galaxy S4 smartphone from the U.S. Department of Defense, making it the first Korean smart device to earn such approval.The winning of security approval indicates that Samsung is allowed to make a foray into the market for security-concerned U.S. defense agencies, which has been largely dominated by BlackBerry."The Galaxy S4 has won security approval from the U.S. Department o

South Korean stocks traded 0.04 percent lower late Friday morning after opening higher, dented by losses in blue-chip tech firms, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 0.8 points to 1,956.41 as of 11:20 a.m. Top-cap tech giant Samsung Electronics lost 0.13 percent, with chipmaker SK hynix falling 1.36 percent. In contrast, autos gained ground, with Hyundai Motor rising 1.8 percent and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors soaring 2.5 percent. The local currency w

Financial companies in South Korea will provide troubled local companies at the inter-Korean industrial park with an emergency fund of up to 700 billion won ($636.5 million) to help them avoid cash shortages amid high political tension, the financial regulators said Friday. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and its executive body the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), have called on financial companies here -- banks, savings banks, insurers and credit card firms -- to offer a special sho

An American man suspected of sexually abusing minors in the United States has been arrested in South Korea after an eight-year-long international manhunt, police here said Friday.The 44-year-old suspect, whose identity has been withheld, is suspected of raping minors in the U.S. state of Kentucky four times between August and October 2003, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA).The suspect entered South Korea in 2004 via Thailand, the SMPA said, adding that he has since been wo

Apple Inc. avoided as much as $9.2 billion in taxes by financing part of a $55 billion stock buyback with debt rather than offshore cash that would have been billed by the U.S. government, Moody’s Investment Services estimates. Based on current rates, Apple will pay interest of about $308 million a year on the $17 billion bond offering, said Gerald Granovsky, a senior vice president at Moody’s. “From a pure corporate-finance theory perspective, this was a no-brainer,” Granovsky said. If the fund

South Korean stocks got off to a strong start Friday, buoyed by upbeat economic data in the United States and the policy rate cut by the European Central Bank (ECB), analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 4.77 points, or 0.24 percent, to 1,961.98 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Telecom companies and metal manufacturers drove up shares, with No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom jumping 2.5 percent and zinc smelter Korea Zinc hiking nearly 5 percent. The U.S.

Japan and the United Arab Emirates signed on Thursday a nuclear cooperation agreement during a visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who stressed Tokyo's cooperation with its Middle East partners.Abe is on a regional tour he began in Saudi Arabia, in a push to sell Japanese nuclear technologies.The cooperation agreement over a peaceful use of nuclear energy was signed in Dubai, in the presence of Abe and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashif al-Maktoum, WAM state news agency said. The UAE a

North Korea “will move closer” to its announced goal of being able to strike the U.S. with a nuclear-armed missile if it keeps investing in tests of nuclear and missile technology, the Pentagon said Thursday in a report to Congress.The unclassified version of the report, which was required by a 2012 law, offered no estimate of when North Korea might achieve that capability. It said the pace of progress will depend in part on how many resources are invested.The report fits an established U.S. int

Trade volume between North Korea and the European Union (EU) more than halved last year from a year earlier after the North sharply cut exports of mineral resources, a news report said Friday.The trade volume between the two sides came to 69 million euros ($90.2 million) in 2012, only 43.4 percent of the 159 million euros recorded the previous year, the Washington-based Voice of America (VOA) reported, citing EU data.The dive came as the North's total exports to the EU shrank to 24 million euros

The United States said Thursday it was taking a fresh look at whether to arm Syria's rebels as the Damascus regime pressed an assault on opposition forces in the embattled city of Homs.After having rejected the idea previously, President Barack Obama's deputies were weighing the option of providing weapons to Syria's outgunned opposition, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters.Asked whether the U.S. government was rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels, Hagel replied with a firm "Y

The U.S. government called Thursday for the immediate release of a Korean-American man sentenced by North Korea to 15 years of forced labor for unspecified "crimes" against Pyongyang."What we're urging the DPRK (North Korean) authorities to do is to grant him amnesty and to allow for his immediate release,"Patrick Ventrell, deputy spokesman for the State Department, said at a press briefing. He took issue with the lack of transparency in the communist nation's legal system."We've had deep concer

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has no plans to visit North Korea anytime soon, his spokeswoman said Thursday after media reports that he may be seeking an active role in reducing tensions on the peninsula and securing the release of a Korean-American man."President Carter has not had an invitation to visit North Korea and has no plans to visit," Carter's press secretary, Deanna Congilio, told Yonhap News Agency in an email.Earlier, multiple South Korean news outlets reported that Pyongyang h