United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will pay a six-day visit to his home country here in order to attend a global rowing competition and meet with South Korea's president, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.The visit is scheduled from Aug. 22-27 during which Ban will take leave from the United Nations, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the six-day trip, Ban will attend the opening ceremony of the World Rowing Championships to be held in his home county of Chungju on Au

People Aug. 20, 2013

South Korean stocks opened slightly lower Tuesday as the main index keeps moving in a tight range ahead of the U.S. central bank's release of its July minutes, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) inched down 0.29 points, or 0.02 percent, to 1,917.35 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Steelmakers and telecom shares weighed down the KOSPI, with POSCO losing 0.6 percent and top mobile carrier SK Telecom sliding 0.7 percent.  Investors are all eyes and ears over w

Aug. 20, 2013

The earliest iron artefacts ever found -- funeral beads strung around bodies in a 5,000-year-old Egyptian cemetery -- were made from a meteorite, archaeologists said on Monday.Hi-tech scanning of the beads, discovered by British archaeologists in the Lower Egypt village of el-Gerzeh in 1911, shows the metal came from a rock in outer space, they said.The nine small beads come from two burial sites dated to around 3,200 BC, where they were found in necklaces along with exotic terrestrial minerals

Technology Aug. 20, 2013

Nine military academy cadets will face disciplinary actions for drinking or visiting a massage parlor while conducting volunteer work in Thailand earlier this month, Army officials said Tuesday. A total of 173 cadets of the Korea Military Academy visited Thailand from Aug. 5-12 to meet Thai veterans who fought in the Korean War as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the three-year conflict. During their stay in Bangkok, four cadets were caught drinking at a local bar and five were

Social Affairs Aug. 20, 2013

Abubakar Muhammad Shekau, who Nigeria's military said may have been killed, has led Boko Haram through three years of a brutal insurgency, reportedly masterminding gruesome attacks that left hundreds dead.The military said there was evidence Shekau might have been mortally wounded in a gunbattle between July 25 and August 3 in the northeast, but the security forces were still seeking confirmation.Little is known about the shadowy insurgent commander, even if he has appeared in a series of video

World News Aug. 20, 2013

American soldier Bradley Manning should spend 60 years in prison because he betrayed the U.S. by giving classified material to WikiLeaks, a prosecutor said Monday.The soldier's defense attorney didn't recommend a specific punishment, but suggested any prison term shouldn't exceed 25 years because the classification of some of the documents Manning leaked expires in 25 years.The 25-year-old Manning leaked more than 700,000 documents, including Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State De

World News Aug. 20, 2013

문화평론가이자 컬럼니스트인 허지웅 씨가 최근 시청 앞 광장에서 진행된 촛불 시위에 대해 “취미 활동일 뿐”이라고 한 발언이 논란이 되고 있다.허 씨는 자신의 트위터에 18일 “국정원 이슈는 문제지만 시국 선언은 오버"라며 "지금의 촛불도 취미활동 이상의 충분한 당위를 찾을 수 없다”고 적었다. 그는 또한 “정의는 세상이 몰라준다면서요? 그렇다면 제발 정의롭게 말고 똘똘하게 행동합시다”라면서 현 상황에서 촛불 집회가 별 효과를 볼 수 없음을 강조했다. 허 씨는 이어 “(촛불 시위 외에) 다른 대안을 찾을 수 없다면 야권에 당분간 희망이 없다는 방증일 것”이라고 적었다.이와 같은 발언이 알려지자 누리꾼들은 갑론을박하고 있다. 한 인터넷 유저는 유저는 “그 사람들이(촛불 집회 참가자) 허지웅 보고 우리 좀 응원해주세요, 같이 나와서 촛불 좀 드세요 강요 한 것도 아니다. 아무런 대안이 없는 비아냥이나 듣자고 그 사람들 자기 시간 쪼개가면서 촛불 들고 물대포 맞는 것도 아니다”고 허 씨의

한국어판 Aug. 19, 2013

The body of a Korean man suspected to have died from a new coronavirus in Saudi Arabia on Aug. 11 has tested negative for the deadly virus, health authorities here said Monday.The Korea Centers for Disease Control said it received notification from a center in the Middle Eastern country that collaborates with the World Health Organization that the man did not carry the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.The 53-year-old man, who worked at an aluminum factory construction site, die

Social Affairs Aug. 19, 2013

South Korea's financial ministry said Monday it plans to tighten rules on overseas financial accounts held by its nationals in a bid to crack down on tax evasions and root out illegal deeds.South Koreans with overseas financial accounts worth more than 1 billion won ($898,876) will be obligated to report their overseas assets and their sources starting next year, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.The plan is in line with the government's move to establish a fair tax justice syste

Aug. 19, 2013

The number of stock-rich South Korean minors jumped 10 percent this month from a year earlier, data showed Monday, as more rich people handed over wealth to their offspring in advance to pay less gift tax.According to the data by local research firm Chaebul.com, the number of minors with shares worth more than 100 million won ($89,887) came to 268 as of Friday, compared to 243 tallied a year earlier.The number of South Korean minors with shares worth more than 1 billion won also jumped 31.3 perc

Aug. 19, 2013

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Monday, as investors took to the sidelines on growing worries about a U.S. stimulus cut drawing near, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slid 8.8 points, or 0.46 percent, to 1,911.31 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Large-cap stocks moved downward, with market bellwether Samsung Electronics falling nearly 1 percent and leading automaker Hyundai Motor dipping 1.3 percent. Investors are awaiting the July minutes of

Aug. 19, 2013

South Korea and the United States on Monday began their annual two-week joint war exercise, the Combined Forces Command (CFC) said, amid North Korea's unusual low-key stance to the war game that they strongly condemned in the past.The computer-aided Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) kicked off for a 12-day run, mobilizing about 50,000 South Korean forces and approximately 30,000 U.S. servicemen, including some 3,000 from the U.S. and other bases in the Pacific region.The CFC said the drills are inten

Defense Aug. 19, 2013