SOUTH KOREA - National Pension Service, South Korea's biggest investor, said its days as a passive investor are coming to an end and that it will begin raising its voice to improve corporate governance and the value of its shareholdings.

NETHERLANDS - Five Dutch pension funds have teamed up to explain their funding plight to their members and pointed a finger at the impact of low interest rates.

GLOBAL - Have you missed the biggest stories in pensions this week? Find out below, as we list the top 10 most popular stories on www.globalpensions.com over the past seven days.

UK - The increasing complexity of investment portfolio has made it necessary for transition managers to get involved in manager changes earlier in the process, delegates at the Global Pensions Transition Management Forum heard.

UK - Russell Investments has hired Tim Wilkinson, former managing director for EMEA at Mellon Transition Management (MTM), Global Pensions has learned.

GLOBAL - GIPS standards for transition managers may include aspects of the existing T-Charter, delegates at the Global Pensions Transition Management Forum heard yesterday.

GLOBAL - Pension funds in North America and Europe have different definitions of volatility and generally different approaches to dealing with those swings, a new report by Pyramis Global Advisors reveals.

FRANCE - French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to modify his bill to overhaul the pension system in response to strikes and demonstrations by workers, though he won't retreat on raising the retirement age.

Rachel Alembakis looks at how Australian schemes are reducing the impact of taxation on investment returns.

NETHERLANDS - Stichting Pensioenfonds Medisch Specialisten (SPMS) has hired BlackRock as fiduciary manager for its €5bn ($6.3bn) portfolio.