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The biggest topic of conversation at the World Economic Forum taking place in Davos, Switzerland is the crisis of capitalism. Klaus Schwab, the founder of the Davos Forum, has advocated prosperity for..

By Lee Jae-myong On Friday, Hana Financial Group received final approval from Korea's financial regulator for a takeover of Korea Exchange Bank. At one of its regular meetings, the Financial Servic..

By Kwon Gwi-soon Korea Communications Commission (KCC) chairman Choi See-joong resigned Friday under pressure concerning suspicions of corruption among his aides. Critics had also called on him to ..

Trucks loaded with 180 tons of flour head to the inter-Korean transit office in the border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Jan. 27. A South Korean charity group on Friday delivered the first flour a..

By Choi Woo-ri As the price he paid for selling and sending a mother and her two daughters to the hell that is North Korea, Yun I-sang lived a life of luxury. How come he and even his family moved..

Our reality is too sad Intimate things continuously disappearing. Armed with efficiency and convenience A variety of new machines coming on stage Robbing people of beautiful spirit. Above all, th..

As Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz intensify, some energy experts are calling on Arab Gulf states to find alternative ways to export their petroleum. Experts differ, however, on whether proposed pipelines are economically feasible or whether Iran will follow through with its threats...

The United States and South Korea are to hold two military exercises on the Korean peninsula soon. They will be the first such war games since the recent change of leadership in North Korea.

There had been speculation one or both of the joint U.S.-South Korean military drills might be post...

A top U.S. military commander for Asia and Pacific says there is no desire to build new military bases in the region. Admiral Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters in Washington Friday that the military's goal is to have a network of places where American forces can vis...

The popular microblogging service Twitter has announced it has new technology enabling it to censor messages on a country-by-country basis in order to follow a range of laws around the world.

The U.S.-based company announced on its blog this week that it has not yet used the technology, bu...

After playing the role of a pole vaulter in "Pacemaker," which opened in theaters recently, Go A-ra appears as the teen breadwinner of a dysfunctional American family in the upcoming movie "Papa," set to open on Feb. 2.

In the film, the 22-year-old plays a girl who overcomes conflicts with...

Special university entrance schemes designed to widen access for disadvantaged minorities are being abused to a serious degree. The Board of Audit and Inspection on Wednesday said it found 865 cases of illegitimate university entrance through special schemes designed for students in rural areas a...

A Tibetan rights group says Chinese security forces fired into a crowd of protesters in China's southwestern Sichuan province, killing one man and wounding three others. The International Campaign for Tibet said the incident took place Thursday in the province's Aba prefecture, when crowds tried to stop security forces from arresting a youth who posted pro-Tibet leaflets. The incident could not be independently verified, but would be the third such incident this week. Witnesses say security forces killed at least six protesters Monday and Tuesday in separate incidents in Sichuan, which is home to many ethnic Tibetans.  They said at least 60 people were injured. On Thursday, the elected leader of Tibet's exile community called for a global vigil next month to condemn the killings. Lobsang Sangay described the earlier killings as "gruesome" and "unacceptable." Many of the protests have been spurred by activists who were posting leaflets declaring self-immolations by Buddhist monks and others would not stop until Tibet is free. The International Campaign for Tibet said Thursday's incident was sparked by a young man named Tarpa, who posted leaflets which also had his name and photo on them and challenged Chinese police to arrest him if they wanted to. The U.S. State Department has been urging China to start a dialogue with the Dalai Lama and address long-standing Tibetan grievances. China seized control of Tibet more than 50 years ago, forcing the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders to flee to northern India.  The exile government has operated since then in Dharamsala.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says France will pull its troops out of Afghanistan next year -- a year earlier than planned. Friday's announcement came following talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Paris. The announcement came a week after France suspended combat operations in Afghanistan, after an Afghan soldier shot dead four French troops and wounded more than a dozen others. At a press conference with Mr. Karzai, the French leader said he and Mr. Karzai had agreed to ask NATO to consider handing over the responsibility of combat missions in Afghanistan to Afghan forces in 2013. Mr. Sarkozy said this gradual transfer of operations will allow France to plan for the return of all its fighting forces by the end of next year -- rather than in 2014, as had been previously planned. He said 400 soldiers already returned home last year. Another 1,000 out of the 3,600 remaining combat forces could follow them this year. But he said France would continue to help train Afghan soldiers. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called on France to respect the original 2014 troop pullout calendar. Mr. Sarkozy said he will speak with U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday, but he said Mr. Obama is informed about the French announcements. President Sarkozy had warned after the troop deaths last week that France might pull out its troops from Afghanistan earlier than expected. France is the fourth largest force in the NATO coalition, and so far, 82 French soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan during the decade of French military presence there. Mr. Sarkozy's announcement may also be for domestic consumption, coming just weeks before French presidential elections. But there are concerns that an early French pullout from Afghanistan may prompt other troop contributors to consider doing likewise.

Key advocates for Burmese political prisoners are calling for the international community to keep economic and trade sanctions in place until Burma’s government releases all political prisoners, including those detained in ethnic areas. United Nations agencies in Burma say an easing of sanctions is crucial to allow funds to support poverty alleviation programs in the country. The rights monitoring group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, says the international community must maintain pressure on Burma’s government to ensure the release of all political prisoners before economic and trade sanctions are fully lifted. The secretary of the Thailand-based Association, Bo Gyi, himself a former political prisoner, spoke to foreign journalists in Bangkok. “First we need from the Burmese regime is to release all political prisoners. Second is to help [achieve] nationwide peace and third, to allow citizens to set up human rights organizations in order to promote and protect human rights. So that is such a mechanism we need now if we receive those things we should consider lifting sanctions,” Gyi said. Burma’s President Thein Sein has called for a speedy lifting of sanctions after his government freed hundreds of prisoners, allowed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to return to politics and held ceasefire talks with ethnic armed groups. The most recent release of political prisoners, including key leaders from the 1988 uprising against Burma’s military, came on January 13.   But rights group Amnesty International says many more prisoners are still detained. Amnesty says 647 political prisoners have been freed since last year but 700 to 1,000 others remain in custody. Burma refuses to acknowledge it is holding any “political prisoners."  Rights groups fear that without adequate recognition, some political prisoners may come to be seen as regular convicts and face long prison sentences. Amnesty International Burma researcher, Benjamin Zawacki, says despite moves toward political reform, the situation remains “very grave” and that the government is using political prisoners as “bargaining chips” as it seeks to get sanctions reduced. “When you consider that many of these people, most of these people, should never have been detained in the first place, it really is quite disturbing that individuals would be used as a bargaining chip,” he said. But international aid organizations are also looking for an easing of sanctions. The United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) resident representative in Burma, Ashok Nigam, says lifting of sanctions is vital to support much needed development programs. “They are very important that they be lifted soon because we are still operating, especially UNDP, under restricted mandate which prevents us from actually running a regular UNDP country program. A regular country program focuses a lot more on building capacity and really getting government to take on its responsibilities in these areas. So clearly lifting of these sanctions will be immensely beneficial for us as and when it happens,” Nigam said. A decision on the lifting of restrictions on the UNDP lies with the 36-member-state executive board that includes the United States, Canada and 12 Western European countries such as Germany and Britain. In recent weeks, senior U.S. Congressional leaders have given conditional support for the lifting of trade, financial and economic sanctions. This week foreign ministers from the European Union, which moved to ease some travel restrictions on senior Burmese leaders, are reported to be considering an aid package of nearly $200 million. The ministers are calling for the unconditional release of all political prisoners “within months” with free and fair by-elections in April when Aung San Suu Kyi is set to run for a parliamentary seat.

A documentary film about Burma’s political prisoners premiered this week in Asia, drawing attention to the plight of the country’s activists as the government releases hundreds of prisoners in an amnesty program.

Director Jeanne Hallacy said former political prisoner and activist Ko Bo Kyi inspired her to make “Into the Current,” which made its regional debut in Bangkok Thursday to a sold-out audience at the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

“His mandate was, as a former political prisoner, he was going to work every which way he could on the global stage, to ensure that all these prisoners could be released,” she said.

Ko Bo Kyi spent seven years in prison in Burma before escaping to Thailand, where he co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in 1999.

Burmese authorities announced this month that they would be releasing 651 of the estimated 2,000 political activists behind bars in an effort to promote national reconciliation.

Ko Bo Kyi said those who remain in prison should not be forgotten.

“Political prisoners do not receive timely medical treatment, so there is not enough medication, and there are not enough doctors for the prisoners, therefore the prisoners suffer a lot,” he said, adding that even after their release, life is not easy.

He pointed to the case of Thet New, who died shortly after being freed under the government amnesty this month. The activist is believed to have died from the effects of torture suffered in prison.

Free, but not

Ko Bo Kyi said those who survive are still punished professionally and personally.

“The Burmese government doesn’t recognize the existence of political prisoners. Therefore, even after they were released, they are blacklisted. They do not receive passports. They do not get back their license,” he said.

Another focus of the film is Ko Bo Kyi’s lifelong friend, the writer and poet Min Ko Naing.  He is considered Burma’s most prominent opposition leader after Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and was released earlier this month.

“It was because of his unyielding stance, and the enormous risks that he took, over and over again, that put him in that position of being a leader of what was called the ‘88 Generation Group,” said Hallacy.

Min Ko Naing spent 16 years in solitary confinement, and emerged from prison in 2007, only to lead another protest that returned him to jail later that year.

The human toll

The human toll exerted on the government’s opponents is explored in “Into the Current.” Min Ko Naing speaks ruefully of his former girlfriend, who he says, “now belongs to someone else,” following his many years in prison. Ko Bo Kyi bid farewell to his parents when he fled Burma more than a decade ago. And Aung San Suu Kyi had to give up her family life with her late husband Michael Aris and her sons.

“Despite all of that, what is their response? It’s informed by their Buddhist belief, Metta, loving kindness,” said Hallacy.

In the film, Aung San Suu Kyi is asked if the National League for Democracy will show mercy to members of the former military government. “We all need mercy,” she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest over the past two decades. She was released in 2010, just days after controversial elections that gave Burma its first nominally civilian government since 1962.

She will be among the candidates vying for a seat in parliamentary by-elections in April. It will be the first time that she has been allowed to seek political office.

Two years after India launched an ambitious plan to dramatically increase the use of solar power, this renewable energy is beginning to light up homes and fire factories. Falling costs of solar energy are making it a viable alternative to power generated by fossil fuels. In remote Nagaur district in northern Rajasthan state, gleaming solar panels installed by an entrepreneur generate five megawatts of solar energy. A state-run electric utility supplies the power to hundreds of village homes. Inderpreet Wadhwa heads Azure Power, the company handling the project, which will ultimately generate 35 megawatts of power. Similar solar farms are springing up in several states as businesses and investors begin to tap the potential of solar power. Wadhwa says they are changing the perception about solar energy. “All of a sudden people say, hey, this is not a pilot or a test or a science that is going on. This is actually here to stay and compete with other sources of energy,” said Wadhwa.   Two years ago, India generated virtually no solar power. Although most of the country is drenched in sunshine for 300 days in a year, the high cost of solar power equipment had deterred investment in the area. But faced with a huge energy shortfall and under pressure to reduce its carbon emissions, in 2010 the government launched the so-called National Solar Mission. Its target  -- to generate 20,000 megawatts of power by 2022, and reduce dependence on coal-based power plants which provide most of India’s energy. Tobias Engelmeier is the head of Bridge to India, a research and consulting firm in New Delhi. He says a sharp drop in the international price of solar panels in the past year is making this ambitious goal look achievable. “In the initial year or so of the National Solar Mission, it was seen very skeptically by both international investors and international companies and there was doubt about whether India would provide a viable, profitable market for anyone,” said Engelmeier. "That has changed as solar prices have come down significantly by up to 30 percent on a global level.” So far the cost of solar power is nearly double that of coal-based power. But it has already become cheaper than power generated by burning diesel, which is widely used by Indian homes and factories during power outages - a common occurrence. That is why entrepreneurs hope that both commercial enterprises and homes will slowly begin to replace their diesel generators with rooftop solar installations. Wadhwa of Azure Power is optimistic that the gap with thermal energy will also narrow down. “The only challenge to solar is cost and that is on the favorable side…While you are exploring greater capacities of thermal power projects, the fact remains that coal is getting to be a scarce commodity, and that is going to drive the prices of commercial power higher,” said Wadhwa. Solar power companies are mostly importing photovoltaic panels from China, the U.S. and Europe. But as demand rises, there are hopes that a domestic manufacturing industry will grow in the country.   Amit Kumar is with The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi. “Essentially, the objective is not only to import everything and put up, the objective is that gradually our domestic capacity also increases in the process, and that would add to the cost reduction ultimately,” said Kumar. The growing use of solar energy is good news for both the India and the world. It will not only help plug the country’s massive energy shortfall, it will also help to tackle one of the most pressing global problems - climate change.

The United States and South Korea are to hold two military exercises on the Korean peninsula soon. They will be the first such war games since the recent change of leadership in North Korea. There had been speculation one or both of the joint U.S.-South Korean military drills might be postponed or called off this year. But on Friday, the U.S. and South Korea militaries announced the annual exercises would go ahead. There has been some thought that war games might give North Korea's young, untested leader, Kim Jong Un, an excuse to flex his muscles to bolster national unity and his own credentials. He succeeded his late father last month and is a four-star general but is not known to have performed any actual military service. Professor Kim Yeon-su, a specialist on North Korea, at the National Defense University in Seoul, downplays such concerns. Kim says Pyongyang, in New Year's remarks carried in the state media, called 2012 a year for improving the lives of its citizens. So he says North Korea can be expected to focus on economic development rather than responding to routine annual training drills by the United States and South Korea with a military provocation. A command post exercise, named "Key Resolve" is to start on February 27. It will involve 2,100 U.S. personnel, including 800 coming from Japan and elsewhere, as well as the participation of 200,000 South Korean troops. Members of the U.N. Command, as well as officers from Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark and Norway, are to observe. U.S. military officials describe it as a training exercise, which will last until March 9, focusing on crisis management with a "whole of government" approach. It will overlap with the start of a two-month joint tactical field exercise, known as "Foal Eagle." The training is to involve 11,000 U.S. forces, along with a still undecided number of  South Korean military divisions and smaller-sized units. Foal Eagle, is to run from March 1 through April 30. The United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNMAC) says, at the border village of Panmunjom, it informed North Korea's army of the exercise dates and that it would be a non-provocative training. North Korea does not see it that way. It has repeatedly called for the annual joint exercises to be scrapped, contending they are a provocation and a prelude to an invasion. The Korean peninsula has been under a tense armistice since 1953. The three-year Korean civil war, which also involved U.S.-led United Nations forces on the side of the South and Chinese troops fighting for the North, ended with a truce. No peace treaty has been signed.

By Kim So-youn A recent survey by the Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS) has found that six out of ten college graduates leave their jobs within 4 years. The results were announced on ..