About 97,000 public-sector non-regulars to be offered ‘indefinite contract’About 97,000 non-regular workers in the public sector will be given greater job security next year, under a plan unveiled Monday by the ruling Grand National Party and the Labor Ministry. The 110-billion-won plan, part of a bigger program to support the ballooning number of non-regulars, envisages government agencies and state-run institutions promoting some of their non-regular employees to “indefinite contract” staff. I

President Lee Myung-bak’s private residence in Nonhyeong-dong, southern Seoul, is still the most likely site for his retirement home, but he could move to a different place should the plan fail, Cheong Wa Dae said Monday.As an alternative option, the presidential office is considering a site in northern Seoul or Gyeonggi Province as the plan to move back to the Nonhyeon-dong residence in the affluent Seoul district of Gangnam faces problems including the high cost of establishing security facili

Ministerial-level government officials from both donor and recipient countries, civic groups and private-sector officials from 160 countries will gather in Busan on Tuesday to discuss how to make development aid work better, organizers said.About 2,500 delegates for the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, or HLF-4, will assess how much progress has been made in improving the effectiveness of aid, share global experiences in delivering the best results and set a new agenda for developme

The following article was contributed by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kim Sung-hwan to commemorate the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan Nov. 29-Dec. 1. -- Ed.Microsoft founder Bill Gates commended Korea’s transformation from a recipient of aid to a donor as a model case of development cooperation at the G20 Cannes Summit. He further complimented Korea’s pledge to double the volume of its ODA by 2015 amid financial difficulties sweeping the globe. His comment symboli

In 2005, aid donors and recipient countries gathered in Paris for the Second High Level Forum on aid effectiveness. They endorsed the Paris Declaration, grounded in five implementation principles: ownership, alignment, harmonization, management for results, and mutual accountability. These principles were designed to make aid delivery more effective. Aid stakeholders then sought to achieve the Paris goals by 2010, and in 2011, they will discuss the results of the implementation of the Paris Decl

The Korea International Cooperation Agency said it would hold an exhibition of photographs and videos from Tuesday to Thursday to showcase the way South Korea has transformed itself from an aid recipient to a donor country.On the lobby in front of the Convention Hall on the third floor of BEXCO in Busan, the exhibition will be open to all participants of the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness including government officials from development partners, lawmakers, civic activists and priva

Conservatives slam illegal protests; liberals say incident no justification for crackdown Controversy has flared over an assault of a ranking police officer by angry protesters during a weekend street rally against the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement attended by opposition party leaders.While the conservative ruling camp on Monday vowed stern enforcement of the law on illegal protests, denouncing the incident as a threat to the law enforcement authority, some raised questions that the police off

A frontline officer has suggested holding a televised debate with public prosecutors as police step up protests against the presidential decree on the enforcement of the Criminal Procedure Act. The officers argue that the decree gives them little right to investigate independently from prosecutors.According to the police agency, Yang Young-jin, chief of Jinhae Police Station’s investigation section, voiced the suggestion through the social network news service Wikitree and on the police intranet

S&P’s downgrades rating as crisis lashes European heartBRUSSELS (AFP) ― Belgium fell in behind model eurozone pupils Italy and Greece on Saturday, its feuding politicians ending 19 months of deadlock with an 11th-hour budget deal that met EU strictures hours after a brutal downgrade.“There is an agreement,” French-speaking Socialist premier-to-be Elio Di Rupo’s spokeswoman Ermeline Gosselin said on the stroke of noon, as exhausted but elated politicians closed more than 500 days of struggling to