Arab Parliament reiterates UAE sovereignty over the three Islands occupied by Iran

Cairo - The Arab Parliament has reaffirmed the UAE's full sovereignty over the three Islands: The Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa, calling on Iran to settle the issue amicably through direct negotiations or the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It called for speeding up holding of first round of Arab-Iranian talks, which will address the issue of islands on the top of agenda. Ahmed Mohammed Al Jarwan, Head of the UAE Parliament Bureau delegation to the Arab Parliament meetings said in a statement that the issue of occupation of three UAE Islands by Iran has been included in the agenda of the Arab Parliament to settle it, adding that the UAE is keen to participate in all regional, international and special parliamentary sessions, among others, Arab Parliament. He called for parties to comply with the Palestinian Reconciliation Charter, speed up its implementation and set up a national reconciliatory government and complement work of committee to develop the Palestinian Liberation Movement. Al Jarwan also called on the Arab Parliament to seriously support the Palestinian struggle, especially over Jerusalem, through assertion of the right of Palestinian people to resist the occupation in all forms. On the Syrian issue, Al Jarwan said the Parliament supports the mission of Kofi Annan, Joint Special Envoy of the UN and the Arab League to settle the Syrian standoff peacefully. The Arab Parliament denounced the blasts and violence, which claimed the lives of innocent civilians, calling for making the mission of international observers a success. � Emirates News Agency, WAM

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S. Korean satellite successfully reaches earth orbit

KEPCO net loss dips 2.1 pct in Q1

South Korea's multipurpose satellite equipped with a high-resolution camera successfully reached the earth's orbit after blasting off from a Japanese space center, the government said Friday. The Arirang 3 satellite, which lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center south of Kyushu Island at 1:39 a.m. on Japan's H-IIA rocket has made contact with ground stations, indicating that it has entered a correct trajectory, the Ministry of Science and Technology said. The Troll and Svalbard satellite stations located in Antarctica and Norway, established initial contacts followed by signals being received by the Daejeon-based Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) at around 3:18 a.m., it said. The ministry said all of the satellite's solar panels have been deployed properly, allowing it to generate power.

Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), the country's biggest electricity producer, said Thursday that its first-quarter net losses shrank 2.1 percent from a year earlier due to better sales and lower interest payment outlays. Net losses reached 538.1 billion won (US$462.1 million) in the January-March period, compared with minus 549.6 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales jumped 23.2 percent to 13.3 trillion won over the cited period, while operating income losses stood at 105.3 billion won, a sharp 77.9 percent improvement from 475.7 billion won in the red in the first three months of 2011, it said. The state-run utility firm said marking up electricity prices last year helped reduce losses. It said that while fuel costs were high, they hurt the company's bottom line less than in the past.

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S. Korean gas company finds deposit in Mozambique

S. Koreans' Internet banking use up 9.5 pct in Q1

South Korea's state-run energy company discovered a large natural gas well off the coast of Mozambique that could allow it to produce the fossil fuel resource until 2045, the government said Monday. The latest discovery by Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) is the third of its kind in the Area 4 block region located in waters north of the southeast African country, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. It said preliminary estimates indicated 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas in the Mamba North East-1 area. "If two earlier discoveries in the same gas block are tallied, the size of gas reserves could reach 40 Tcf of gas equivalent to 900 million tons," the ministry said It said that because KOGAS owns 10 percent of the development project it is entitled to 90 million tons of gas. The largest partner in the Area 4 block is Italy's Eni SpA with Mozambique and Portuguese companies owning 10 percent stakes each. Under a deal with Mozambique, energy companies can produce gas at the block for 30 years after they complete exploration. The ministry, in charge of South Korea's industrial and energy policies, said further exploration is planned for the region, which could lead to the discovery of additional gas deposits.

The use of Internet banking in South Korea accelerated in the first quarter from three months earlier as more people conducted financial transactions online, the central bank said Thursday. Online banking transactions reached an average of 45.23 million per day in the January-March period, up 9.5 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The first-quarter data also showed a daily average of 33.18 trillion won (US$28.43 billion) being sent online, a gain of 0.5 percent compared to the fourth quarter. The growth rate for transaction numbers in the cited three months quickened from 6.7 percent gains tallied for October-December, but the value of daily transactions decelerated from 3 percent.

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Seoul is in the heart of the UAE

South Korea has carved out strategic partnerships in the UAE in areas such as military training and constructing the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. By far its biggest deal has been the US$20 billion (Dh73.46bn) contract to build and operate Abu Dhabi's planned nuclear power plant, set to be the first in the Arab world. A consortium led by Korea Electric Power Corporation in 2009 beat competitors from long-time atomic-power nations including France and Japan to clinch the deal for four reactors. Today, 4,000 staff are at work in the coastal outpost of Braka preparing the site. Last month, Seoul scored another win with a concession to explore for oil in areas covering one tenth of the emirate's land mass. The pact between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and the Korean partners, Korea National Oil Company and GS Energy, places South Korea alongside the western petroleum partners that have historically dominated the industry in the Gulf. South Korean companies also played a major role in the building of the Burj Khalifa, scooped up engineering contracts for key infrastructure projects such as power plants and sewer systems, and sold grenade-launching rifles with integrated lasers and night-vision to the UAE Armed Forces. The Global Green Growth Institute, headed by Han Seung-soo, a former prime minister, has opened an office at Abu Dhabi's carbon-neutral Masdar City, and South Korean troops have been sent to the UAE to train local forces in counterterrorism. And in the evenings on the campus of Zayed University, Emirati students can be found studying the Korean alphabet. � The National

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