Shakespeare’s hometown welcomes world for 400th anniversary

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, United Kingdom (AFP) -- William Shakespeare's hometown is bracing for a surge of visitors from around the world this month as it marks 400 years since the death of the foremost playwright in the English language.　A parade to Shakespeare’s grave and fireworks will round off a day of theater, dancing, music and parades in the picture-postcard streets of Stratford-upon-Avon.　And some of Britain's finest actors are returning to the town’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre to perform his

April 21, 2016

Morocco: one of the world’s oldest libraries is renovated

FEZ, Morocco (AP) -- The settling dust from renovations and the banging of tools are not ideal sights and sounds for a library -- but this is no ordinary library.　Founded 12 centuries ago by a pioneering woman and nestled in the old medina of Fez, Morocco’s University of al-Qarawiyyin library is one of the world’s oldest libraries, home to unique Islamic manuscripts treasured by historians. Yet it has been largely hidden from the public. The architect leading its restoration, Fez native Aziza Ch

April 20, 2016

Technology meets tourism at new K-Style Hub

Seoul’s newest culture tourism facility, the K-Style Hub, is technology at its finest, offering the very best in information and education on Korea’s traditional culture as well as one-stop shop for hallyu. 　The hub, which hosted President Park Geun-hye and hallyu star Song Joong-ki at its opening ceremony last Monday, is one of the city’s most sophisticated and technologically advanced tourism centers. 　Located on the second through fifth floors in the former headquarters of the Korea Tourism O

April 18, 2016

Grim new details of IS destruction in Syria's Palmyra museum

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- The first foreign experts who visited the museum in Palmyra after it was taken over from Islamic State militants said they spent a week collecting fragments of priceless broken sculptures from the museum grounds and preparing them for transportation to Damascus in a rescue mission they hope will help salvage most of its contents. 　Back in the Syrian capital Saturday, they offered grim new details about the extent of the destruction caused by the extremists during their 10

April 17, 2016

[Foodie’s Seoul] Gamjatang

Be ready to get your hands busy when eating Korean pork stew with potato, gamjatang.Gamjatang, is steaming, spicy red broth filled with generous amounts of savory bones of meat, meaning that you have to pick, extract the bits of meat on the bones and suck on the most tasty soup from tiny crevices: forks or chopsticks are too clumsy for the job. Interestingly, gamja means potato, and tang is soup, so gamjatang is supposed to mean a potato soup but it’s not. The soup has some chunks of potatoes in

April 17, 2016

[Foodie’s Seoul] Itaewon’s must-eat cuisine

Eating out in Korea goes far beyond local cuisine with kimchi.You will be surprised to see a wide diversity of dishes from Alabama-style barbecue to German schnitzel. First things first: favorite restaurants in Itaewon, the most exotic and global tourism site in Seoul. With its proximity to a huge U.S. army base Itaewon is known for its diverse food culture, which features cuisine from around world. May you enjoy your meal -- or as they say in Korea, “Masit-ge Deu-se-yo!”◇ VATOS URBAN TACOS181-8

April 17, 2016

Prehistoric Lascaux cave paintings come to S. Korean city of Gwangmyeong

The South Korean city of Gwangmyeong will host an exhibition of prehistoric cave drawings from France as one of many cultural exchanges to commemorate the 130th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the city announced Friday.In a joint press conference held in Seoul, Gwangmyeong city Mayor Yang Ki-dae and former French Culture and Communications Minister Fleur Pellerin said the upcoming event will showcase the Paleolithic drawings from the Lascaux Cave in southwestern France.

April 15, 2016

Biggest ‘flea market’ to open at Lotte Premium Outlet

Lotte Department Store will host a giant flea market at Icheon, Gyeonggi Province’s Lotte Premium Outlet on Saturday and Sunday, coinciding with its “Black Shopping Day” sales.According to LDS, this will be the biggest flea market to be organized by a corporation to date in terms of area and the number of participants -- 300 sellers in a 5,000-square-meter space.(Lotte Department Store)Apart from popular local foods and individual collections and handcrafted art, belongings of hallyu stars such

April 14, 2016

Possible lost Caravaggio painting found in attic in France

　　PARIS (AP) -- A 400-year-old picture that might have been painted by Italian master Caravaggio has been found in an attic in southern France.　 　Eric Turquin, the French expert who retrieved the painting two years ago, said it is in an exceptional state of conservation and estimated its value at 120 million euros (about $135 million), even though he acknowledged experts disagree about its authenticity.　 　Called “Judith Beheading Holofernes,” it depicts the biblical heroine Judith beheading an A

April 13, 2016

Manuscripts among rare Hemingway items shown at JFK library

　　BOSTON (AP) -- Ernest Hemingway penned 47 possible endings to “A Farewell to Arms,” eight of which are on display at a new exhibition on the famed American writer at the John F. Kennedy presidential library -- along with the one that actually concluded the classic World War I novel.　 　“If a person wants to make their mark as a writer they have to work very hard, and this exhibit really shows how hard he worked,” said Patrick Hemingway, the author’s only surviving child who on Tuesday toured th

April 13, 2016

Handwriting study finds clues on when biblical texts written

　　　JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli mathematicians and archaeologists say they have found evidence to suggest that key biblical texts may have been composed earlier than what some scholars think.　 　Using handwriting analysis technology similar to that employed by intelligence agencies and banks to analyze signatures, a Tel Aviv University team determined that a famous hoard of ancient Hebrew inscriptions, dated to around B.C. 600, were written by at least six different authors. Although the inscription

April 13, 2016

'Small Stores Festival’ flea market in Seoul

Seoul city will invite 200 teams of small business owners from all over Korea to a flea market at Cheonggye Plaza in Seoul on May 28. The event will run between noon and 6 p.m. with busking performances, interactive games and more.Designed to help invigorate the small business ecosystem, a wide range of items including handcrafted clothes, artisan accessories, homemade food, interior design props and stationary will go on sale at the market.   (Naver)By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)

April 13, 2016

The body, animals and deities: Mayan art on show in Berlin

BERLIN (AP) -- Sculptures celebrating the human body, precious jewelry, animals from frogs to jaguars and depictions of deities are going on show in Berlin in an exhibition that offers a glimpse of centuries of Mayan art.　The exhibition, “The Maya - Language of Beauty,” features some 300 artworks spanning around a millennium up to the arrival of Spanish colonial rulers after 1500. The presidents of Mexico and Germany are opening the show at the German capital's Martin-Gropius-Bau museum on Monda

April 12, 2016

Austria wants to seize Hitler’s birth house

VIENNA (AFP) -- Austria said Saturday it wants to seize Adolf Hitler’s birthplace from its private owner in a bid to end a bitter legal battle and stop the house from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.　“We are currently examining the creation of a law, which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria,” Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck told AFP.　“We have come to the conclusion over the past few years that expropriation is the only way to avoid the

April 11, 2016

LTI Korea Translation Academy recruits new students

The Literature Translation Institute Korea’s Translation Academy is recruiting new students for its 2016 semester, which begins this September.The academy offers two-year courses in the translation of Korean literary and cultural texts into English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. The programs feature comprehensive and in-depth training in literary translation, comprising some 9 to 15 hours of classes per week, as well as excursions that provide insight into Korean culture and history, talk

April 10, 2016