Negotiators from about 50 nations scheduled to participate in March‘s nuclear security summit in South Korea have reached an agreement “in principle” to minimize the civilian use of highly-enrichment uranium (HEU), Seoul officials said Wednesday. The agreement was reached at a two-day meeting of “sherpas” in New Delhi this week and it will be included in a so-called “Seoul Communique” that will be announced at the end of the second Nuclear Security Summit slated for March 26-27, officials said.“

Starting next year, all families with children aged 3-4 who are going to kindergarten or a daycare center will receive 220,000 won ($190) every month as a childcare subsidy.A kindergarten and child care support program, unveiled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Wednesday, will also allow state support for all children aged 5 or under to increase to 200,000 won next year from this year.According to the ministry, the subsidy will be given in the form of kindergarten or daycare center fees

It is discriminatory to deny service based on a customer’s ethnicity, the state’s human rights watchdog said Tuesday.The ruling by the National Human Rights Commission came after a bathhouse in Busan denied service to a naturalized Korean last year.The NHRC recommended the bathhouse cease denying service to non-ethnic Koreans and foreigners in the November 25, 2011 ruling.It also recommended the Busan Metropolitan Government and the Dong District Office where the bathhouse is located implement m

Growth of household loans offered by South Korean depository institutions slowed in November, the central bank said Tuesday, amid the government’s efforts to rein in private sector debt. Household lending handled by local banks and non-bank institutions totaled 638 trillion won ($554.4 billion) as of the end of November, up by more than 3.6 trillion won from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. The monthly increase in November was moderate compared with the growth in the previous

PARIS (AFP) ― Europe’s stock markets mostly rode out Standard and Poor’s downgrade of several eurozone players when they reopened stable on Monday, but the single currency itself remained under pressure.Meanwhile, in a sign of trouble to come, European banks stowed record sums in the ECB for safe keeping and a top IMF official warned the eurozone faces a “downward spiral” if it fails to get its governance in order.France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy received a boost when Moody’s declined to match

STRASBOURG (AFP) ― European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi on Monday downplayed the importance of ratings agencies after Standard & Poor’s mass downgrade of eurozone countries, saying markets had priced in the action.“I think what we should do is to learn either to do without them or with them but to a much more limited way than we do today,” said Draghi, in his capacity as head of the European Systemic Risk Board.“To a great extent, markets anticipated these ratings changes and priced their as

BRUSSELS (AP) ― One of the defining images of Europe’s two-year-old debt crisis is that of the French and German leaders, side by side on a podium presenting their latest strategy for the continent.But the underlying message of this image ― former foes presenting a united front as the 17 countries that use the euro face their biggest crisis since World War II ― may now be under threat.Standard & Poor’s downgrade last Friday of France’s creditworthiness to “AA+” leaves Germany as the only large e

Few countries in the world must have as perfect a law for supporting interracial or multicultural homes as Korea. The Law on Supporting Multicultural Families was enacted in 2010 with the purpose of contributing to “improving the quality of life of multicultural families and their integration into Korean society by ensuring that they lead stable family lives.” The statute orders the state and local governments to take measures necessary to ensure stable lives for those multicultural families. Th