An international effort to understand the genetic building blocks of the human brain and its functions found patterns of DNA that may be linked to memory and intelligence. The research for the first time tracked genes that affect the size of infants’ heads, and the volume of the cranium and the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped organ crucial for memory. More than 200 researchers at 100 medical cent...

A conference intended to spur patient referrals from abroad and international exchanges of medical technology will be held at the COEX Grand Ballroom in Seoul from Tuesday through Thursday. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday that it would host the Medical Korea 2012 Third Global Healthcare & Medical Tourism Conference to better meet the increasing demand for global exchange and refer...

U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell visited Seoul on Monday to discuss how the two allies should deal with North Korea, which launched a rocket Friday. Campbell met with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Lim Sung-nam. Lim plans to visit Washington to meet with his U.S. counterpart Glyn Davies and other officials from Tuesda...

Seoul Metropolitan Government is sending more officials overseas under the mayor’s pledge to expand overseas training of civil servants Officials said Monday that the city government plans to send about 780 officials abroad for the maximum two weeks of training from May to December, this year. Last year, 350 officials were dispatched to overseas training courses. The budget for overseas trainin...

U.S., China agree on draft presidential statement condemning rocket launch: report President Lee Myung-bak urged North Korea to drop its pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons, and open up to the outside world, saying Monday that ending its bad behavior would guarantee a better future for the impoverished communist nation. The appeal came days after North Korea launched a long-range rocket Fri...

Putting its factional dispute on hold, the main opposition Democratic United Party has agreed to continue under acting chairman Moon Sung-keun and elect a new emergency leadership next month. The DUP’s supreme council members agreed early Monday morning to elect a new floor leader by May 4, who will run the party temporarily until a new formal leadership is elected at the national convention on ...

Korean comedian Kim Gu-Ra has found himself facing criticism after an audio file containing his comments degrading comfort women on an Internet broadcast program was disclosed Monday. In the audio file which lasts around thirty seconds, Kim compares comfort women to the eighty or so prostitutes who resisted an indiscriminate police crackdown in January 2002. It is understood that two buses were...

Baboons can recognize scores of written words, a feat that raises intriguing questions about how we learn to read, scientists reported on Thursday. In a specially-made facility in France where they could come and go at will, monkeys learned to differentiate between a real word, such as KITE, and a nonsense word such as ZEVS. The baboons had access to a large enclosure with several touch-sensiti...

DAMASCUS(AFP) - Syria warned on Sunday that its forces will respond to "intensified" rebel attacks, even as UN military observers were headed for the unrest-hit country to monitor a shaky ceasefire. "Armed terrorist groups have intensified their attacks in a hysterical way against the army, law enforcement forces, and civilians, in conjunction with the approval of the UN Security Council resolut...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)--The Taliban launched a series of coordinated attacks on at least seven sites across the Afghan capital on Sunday, targeting NATO headquarters, the parliament and diplomatic residences. Militants also launched near-simultaneous assaults in three other eastern cities. At least two attackers were killed and five people wounded in the Kabul attacks, which were still under wa...