A U.S. man faces trial Wednesday on accusations that he forced his young grandsons to hike for kilometers in the Grand Canyon without food or water in brutal August heat. Christopher Alan Carlson’s grandsons, who were 12, 9 and 8 at the time, told investigators that Carlson hit, pushed, choked, and squeezed them and forced their fingers down their throats to make them vomit during trips into the...

Korea Tourism Organization and Kyobo Bookstore on Wednesday jointly kicked off a promotional event on English-language tourism books on Korea. The books are available at a discounted price at the bookstore’s online store (www.kyobobook.co.kr). Gifts are offered at the offline bookstore in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, with each purchase of the books. KTO also announced that it will introduce the ...

Asian cuisine restaurant Asian Live at the InterContinental Seoul COEX in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, is offering an Organic Wine Gala Dinner for Valentine’s Day. The dinner is based on healthy hansik (Korean traditional cuisine), prepared by chef Kim Byeong-eun who was in charge of the meals during the ASEM and G20 meetings. Guests can enjoy a delicious full-course gala dinner accompanied by...

Finair is offering tickets to major European cities at about 600,000 won as a February promotional event. Flights to Amsterdam, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Zurich and Prague cost 600,000 won until Feb. 29 and trips to other European cities are priced at 700,000 won, excluding tax. Departure should be before April 15 and the return date should be no later than May 15. The length of require...

JW Marriott Seoul’s Bar Rouge in Banpo-dong, southern Seoul, has invited molecular cocktail expert Antonio Lai as a guest bartender from Feb. 8 to 11 to present his famous molecular cocktails. Having worked in various areas of food and beverage for 14 years in Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, Germany, Italy and the United States, he first encountered molecular cocktails while training as a cocktai...

American Airlines recently completed a radical makeover of its lobby at Los Angeles International Airport, a project that eliminated the counters that separate ticket agents from long lines of passengers. In place of counters, American Airlines installed banks of self-serve kiosks, a total of 36 machines, where passengers can check in, get boarding passes and pay for on-board extras. Although A...

BUCHAREST, Romania -- On Sunday morning in Bucharest, I knew just what I wanted to do: I wanted to go to church. I also wanted to go down to the Old City, visit a few museums and buy a warm pretzel from a sidewalk stand. But mostly I wanted to go to church. Bucharest is studded with nearly 300 exquisite churches, some dating to the 1500s. During Communist times, Nicolae Ceausescu tore some of th...

The Circle, lobby lounge and bar in the Westin Chosun Seoul, introduces celebrity cocktails to celebrate the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Chosun Hotel in 2014. Celebrity cocktails are named after and inspired by celebrities and dignitaries who have visited and stayed in the Chosun Hotel over the past 100 years and will be offered until the hotel’s 100th anniversary in October 2014. The MacA...

San Francisco Airport opened a yoga room with low lights and soothing blue walls for stressed-out travelers, in the newly refurbished Terminal 2. It joins the Berman reflection room, a space intended for silence and meditation located before Terminal 2 security. Officials believe it is the first yoga space to be attached to an airport or public transportation venue. Large felt-constructed rocks ...

Lotte Hotel Jeju presents the Halla Mountain-Climbing Package with champion mountaineer Um Hong-gil, who has climbed 16 peaks taller than 8,000 meters in the Himalayas. The package is available through Feb. 11 for 50 teams of two people on a first come, first served basis. The package includes a two-night stay in a lake-view room at Lotte Hotel Jeju, breakfast, full-course dinner and Halla mount...

BC Global Card members can now enjoy a wide selection of accommodation on Hotels.com, the global hotel reservation website. Hotels.com and BCcard, the leading payment network in Korea, linked an agreement to provide BC Global Card members with the ability to use their cards for independent and major chain hotels as well as self-catering in more than 140,000 properties worldwide. BC Global Card m...

ROME (AP) _ How much is it worth to suffer through a terrifying cruise ship grounding? Italian ship operator Costa Crociere SpA on Friday put the figure at (euro) 11,000 ($14,460) plus reimbursement for the cost of cruise tickets and extra travel expenses, seeking to cut a deal with as many passengers as possible to take the wind out of class-action lawsuits stemming from the Jan. 13 grounding o...