The Korea Herald

Challenging Einstein is usually a losing venture

ScienceSept 25, 2011

GENEVA (AP) -- Betting against Einstein and his theory of relativity is a way to go broke. For more than a century, everyone from physicists to the Nazi Party _ which encouraged the publication of the tract ``One Hundred Authors Against Einstein'' -- has tried to find cracks in his work. And all have failed. (AP) On Thursday, the world's biggest physics lab unveiled a shocking finding: that on...
Appeals court recognizes first ever spousal rape

Social affairsSept 25, 2011

An appellate court here legally recognized spousal rape for the first time, ruling against a husband who was found to have forced himself upon his wife using a weapon, court officials said Sunday. (Yonhap News) The Seoul High Court sentenced a 40-year-old man to two years and six months in prison, suspended for three years, for raping his wife after stabbing her with a weapon. In April, this y...
Satellite likely in ocean, but may have hit US

ScienceSept 25, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) _ It's as big as a bus and weighs 6 tons, but officials probably will never be able to pinpoint exactly where a massive NASA satellite plummeted to Earth. NASA space junk scientists believe that all _ or nearly all _ of the parts of their 20-year-old dead satellite safely plunged into the Pacific Ocean, likely missing land. But if their estimates are off, by only five minutes or ...
S. Korea holds working-level talks with U.S. N. Korea policy coordination

North KoreaSept 24, 2011

South Korea held working-level talks with the U.S. as the two countries took steps to coordinate the direction of a looming U.S.-North meeting, sources said Saturday. The talks, held on Friday between Cho Hyun-dong, deputy head of Seoul's six-way talks team, and Edgard Kagan, director of the Office of Korean Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, were designed to fine tune the two allies' stan...
Wealth under borrowed names reach 5 tril. won: lawmaker

PoliticsSept 24, 2011

Wealth hidden under borrowed names in South Korea has reached nearly 5 trillion won ($4.28 billion), a lawmaker said Saturday. Based on data provided by the National Tax Service (NTS), Rep. Lee Jong-koo of the ruling Grand National Party said that wealth held under borrowed names, including securities, bank deposits and real estate, came to 4.7 trillion won as of the end of June. The data ...
Lee, Gates discuss ways to help developing nations

PoliticsSept 24, 2011

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met with Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Friday and discussed ways to help people in developing countries in Africa and other parts of the world, a focus of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The meeting took place as Lee stopped in Seattle on his way home from New York. It was their third meeting so far since Gates visited South Korea in May 2008, whe...
N. Korean leader meets Laos president: KCNA

North KoreaSept 23, 2011

SEOUL -- Laotian President Choummaly Sayasone wrapped up a three-day official visit to North Korea Friday after a meeting with leader Kim Jong-il, the North's media reported. The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the two leaders met in the North's capital Pyongyang but gave no other details. The Laotian president arrived in Pyongyang Wednesday on what the North earlier called an "o...
Chief of suspended savings bank found dead

Social affairsSept 23, 2011

Joint investigation team raids headquarters of seven savings banks The chief of one of the seven local savings banks that were suspended last week due to capital shortages was found dead Friday in an apparent suicide, according to Seoul police. Jeong Gu-haeng, the 50-year-old head of Jeil 2 Savings Bank headquartered in central Seoul, was found lying dead on the street in front of the bank at a...
Na throws hat in ring for Seoul mayor

PoliticsSept 23, 2011

Rep. Na Kyung-won of the ruling Grand National Party on Friday made her Seoul mayoral bid official, a month ahead of the by-election. Na, elected to one of the seven members of the GNP’s supreme council in July, is expected to vie against former minister of government legislation Lee Seog-yeon, who announced his bid days earlier, to contest the opposition. Polls so far showed that civic activis...
###Public-college-reform

Social affairsSept 23, 2011

Five public colleges face restructuring By Lee Woo-young The Education Ministry on Friday selected five public universities that will undergo a restructuring process in a bid to reform public universities and raise their competitiveness in the long term. The schools -- Kangwon and Gangneung-Wonju National University in Gangwon Province, Chungbuk National University in Chungcheong Province, Kun...
Kenyan fleeing forced marriage gets refugee status

Social affairsSept 23, 2011

An appellate court on Thursday granted refugee status to a Kenyan woman who fled her country to avoid marrying a man against her wishes as part of her tribe’s custom. The Seoul High Court’s administrative division ordered the Ministry of Justice to acknowledge the 43-year-old woman, known only by her initial “M,” as a refugee since it is highly likely that she would be forced to marry a man agai...
Seoul seeks own missile defense system

DefenseSept 23, 2011

Preliminary study on missile shield system to be completed by year-end The South Korean military is seeking to develop its own version of the Patriot missile system, which is capable of intercepting North Korean ballistic missiles and fighter jets, multiple sources said Friday. It is pushing to build the envisioned long-range surface-to-air missile with an operational range about twice that of ...
5 state-funded universities face forced restructuring

Social affairsSept 23, 2011

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- The education ministry has singled out five uncompetitive state-funded universities in preparation to force them to carry out reforms aimed at improving the quality of their education, officials said Friday. The move is the latest in a nationwide series of education reforms to weed out low-performing schools accused of wasting taxpayers' money. The five -- Kangwon Na...
Arrest warrant sought for former presidential aide on corruption charges

Social affairsSept 23, 2011

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors applied for an arrest warrant Friday for a former presidential aide accused of receiving bribes from a troubled savings bank that sought his influence to avoid suspension of operations. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office filed for the court-issued warrant in order to detain Kim Du-woo, the former senior secretary of public relations for President Lee Myung-ba...
S. Korea to urge Japan to hold talks on wartime sex slaves

Foreign affairsSept 23, 2011

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign minister plans to call on his Japanese counterpart this week to accept a proposal by Seoul to hold talks on the issue of compensation for Korean women forced into sexual slavery for Japan's World War II soldiers, a Seoul official said Friday. Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Japanese counterpart Koichir...