Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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[Around the Hotels] This week’s promotions and packages
Dutch Charcuterie at Grand Hyatt SeoulThe Deli at Grand Hyatt Seoul is offering handmade charcuterie by world-renowned Dutch charcutier Benito Plasschaert until Dec. 4.Plasschaert has mastered his art over the past 45 years, with new recipes using healthy ingredients. The menu includes lavender ham; Swiss meatloaf with Emmental cheese; Greek-style meatloaf with olives and feta cheese; green grape or baked apple and fruit flavored pate; foie gras terrine with truffle oil; terrine of veal marinate
Nov. 18, 2016
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‘Choi Soon-sil is sullying tradition, shamanism’
An apparently innocent traditional item has found its way to the center of the influence-peddling scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil. Obangnang, a multicolored pouch that is a traditional symbol of good fortune, featured in Park’s inauguration ceremony in February 2013 -- a giant obangnang setup at Gwanghwanun Plaza opened up to reveal a tree with dozens of mini obangnang hanging from its branches.Almost four years later and the pouch has come
Nov. 17, 2016
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Yu Dong-hun appointed new vice culture minister
Yu Dong-hun has been named as the new vice culture minister by President Park Geun-hye.Yu will replace Kim Chong, who resigned late last month amid allegations linking him to the political scandal involving Park and her confidante Choi Soon-sil. The 57-year-old is a long-time senior communications official at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and has been working as a public servant since 1987. “We believe that (Yu) is very capable of handling our pending issues such as preparations
Nov. 17, 2016
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Oxford Dictionaries name 'post-truth' word of the year
LONDON (AFP) - The Oxford Dictionaries chose “post-truth” as their word of the year Wednesday, saying its use had spiked because of the Brexit vote in Britain and the rise of Donald Trump in the United States.“Post-truth has gone from being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary,” the Oxford Dictionaries said in a statement, noting that usage had increased by 2,000 percent since last year.The publisher defined the word as “relating or denoting circumstances in which object
Nov. 17, 2016
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Pink diamond steals show at Geneva auction, fetches $18m
GENEVA (AP) -- A 17.07-carat pink diamond sold for a hammer price of 18.3 million Swiss francs ($18.3 million) at a Geneva jewelry auction Wednesday, cruising past both its presale estimate and the winning bid for the “Sky Blue” diamond billed as the event’s standout piece. The step-cut pink diamond, set in a ring between triangular white diamonds, had been expected to draw a maximum of 14.76 million francs. Instead, it sold at Sotheby’s for more than the 8.01-carat “Sky Blue” diamond, which car
Nov. 17, 2016
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Mexican pyramid built like a ‘Russian nesting doll’
MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Experts have discovered a third structure within the Kukulkan pyramid in eastern Mexico, revealing that it was built like a “Russian nesting doll,” experts said Wednesday.A 10-meter tall pyramid was found within another 20-meter structure, which itself is enveloped by the 30-meter pyramid visible at the Mayan archeological complex known as Chichen Itza in Yucatan state.The smallest pyramid was built between the years 550 and 800, engineers and anthropologists said.The middle
Nov. 17, 2016
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New show 'Circus 1903' brings back live elephants, sort of
NEW YORK (AP) -- Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus may have retired their iconic elephants but there is still a way to see the huge beasts onstage. The new touring show “Circus 1903,” which makes its American debut next year, features two life-size elephants -- one baby, one massive mamma -- created by the puppeteers and model-makers of Significant Object, who made the lifelike horse featured in the hit play “War Horse.”“These puppets feel real. They’ve been built in a way, even when the
Nov. 15, 2016
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Nimrud, jewel of ancient Iraq
BAGHDAD (AFP) -- The Assyrian city of Nimrud, located in an area Iraqi forces said was recaptured during the operation to retake jihadist-held Mosul, is one of the region’s most important archaeological sites.Built in the 13th century BC, the city on the Tigris River about 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul once served as capital of the Assyrian empire. But in April last year, the Islamic State group released a video of its fighters destroying monuments there before planting explosives around the
Nov. 14, 2016
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[Weekender] Traditional liquors diversify, enrich tastes in Korea
Before the colonial Japanese government imposed its liquor tax law here in 1909, the country’s alcohol scene was varied and vibrant, with local breweries concocting their own beverages.Korea’s rapid, centralized modernization in the postwar years produced a handful of drinks -- soju, beer and makgeolli in particular -- that quenched the thirst of industrialists and salarymen alike. Korea’s traditional liquors, including takju (opaque, coarsely fermented drinks), yakju (filtered rice wine), soju
Nov. 11, 2016
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$1m in gold coins from 1715 shipwreck on the market
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A New Orleans investment firm has begun marketing gold coins from a 300-year-old shipwreck discovered off Florida’s coast.Blanchard and Co. is one of two dealers offering the coins from an area where 11 treasure-laden ships of a Spanish fleet were smashed onto reefs by a hurricane on July 31, 1715. The other dealer is California-based Monaco Rare Coins.John Albanese, a New Jersey-based coin expert who brokered the sales, said in an interview Friday that most of the 295 coins
Nov. 8, 2016
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[Herald Review] Lee Woo-jae mesmerizing as evil fairy godmother in ‘Sleeping Beauty’
For the first time in over a decade, the Korean National Ballet will perform Rudolf Nureyev’s “Sleeping Beauty.”The KNB first introduced Nureyev’s rendition of the classic fairy tale to local audiences in 2004.For this performance, they invited former Stuttgart Ballet prima ballerina Marcia Haydee to take charge of the choreography. The roughly three-hour-long ballet got off to a slow start during the full-concert press rehearsal at the Seoul Arts Center on Wednesday. However, that all changed t
Nov. 3, 2016
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Florence recalls its 'Angels of the Mud' 50 years later
FLORENCE, Italy (AFP) -- Fifty years after the river Arno burst its banks with devastating consequences, Florence will this week remember the “Angels of the Mud” who came to save the Italian city's artistic treasures.The army of cultural rescue volunteers came from all over and, half a century later, the events of Nov. 4, 1966 and its aftermath still burn bright in the memory of Antonina Bargellini.“There is not one Florentine who is not moved when the subject of the disaster comes up,” recalls
Nov. 3, 2016
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Lebanon's national museum reveals long-hidden treasures
BEIRUT (AFP) -- Beirut’s National Museum has opened its basement of ancient treasures for the first time in four decades to show the public its stunning array of funerary art, including the world’s largest collection of anthropoid sarcophagi.The new exhibition‘s 520 pieces range from the Paleolithic period to the Ottoman Empire. They include Phoenician stelae and rare medieval Christian mummies along with the anthropoid coffins, which display a human face on the sarcophagus and were long a stand
Nov. 2, 2016
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Louvre could house treasures from Iraq, Syria: Hollande
LENS (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday said the Louvre could house threatened treasures from Iraq, Syria and other war-torn countries at a secure site in northern France.The precious items could be placed in safekeeping at a conservation facility due to open in 2019 in Lievin, 200 kilometers north of Paris, he said.“The prime mission of the Lievin site will be to house the Louvre Museum’s stored collection,” Hollande said at a ceremony to unveil a plaque marking the site.But,
Nov. 2, 2016
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[Foreigners Who Loved Korea] Mary F.B. Scranton: Fostering education for women
Mary F.B. Scranton was born to a Methodist Episcopal minister’s family in Massachusetts in 1832. She married William Talcott Scranton in 1853, only to lose him at the age of 40. In 1885, she was dispatched as the first female missionary to Korea by the US Methodist Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, and dedicated her life toward raising the status of Korean women.Establishing values through missionary workProtestant missionary work emphasized education, medical care and welfare. Early Methodist
Nov. 1, 2016
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Jeju’s women divers close to UNESCO listing
The culturally iconic “haenyeo,” or female divers, of Jeju Island will most likely be listed as Korea’s next Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration on Monday. “Currently Korea has 18 Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO listings, so if Jeju’s haenyeo becomes inscribed, then it will give the country its 19th cultural heritage listing,” said the government agency, adding that it is very confident of this happening. The Cu
Nov. 1, 2016
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Iraq's Hatra: Ancient city in crossfire of anti-IS war
BAGHDAD (AFP) -- The ancient city of Hatra withstood Roman invasions nearly 2,000 years ago and decades of more recent war and instability in Iraq, but then jihadists marked it for destruction.The Islamic State group vandalized Hatra and is reported to still have a presence in the area, which may again put the famed archaeological site in the line of fire as Iraqi forces fight to drive the jihadists back.Hatra, known as Al-Hadhr in Arabic, was established in the third or second century BC and be
Nov. 1, 2016
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Jeju's women divers 'haenyeo' likely to be listed as UNESCO Cultural Heritage
Women divers on South Korea's resort island of Jeju, or "haenyeo," are likely to be listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO, the Cultural Heritage Administration said.The South Korean government agency said on Monday the Evaluation Body of UNESCO, which evaluates the nominations to the lists, suggested the South Korean culture be "inscribed," raising the possibility that it can become the country's 19th cultural heritage registered by the global organization. The Evaluati
Nov. 1, 2016
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Culture Ministry to probe disputed projects
The Culture Ministry will review projects that were allegedly carried out under the influence of TV commercial film director Cha Eun-taek.The ministry, mired in controversy following allegations that President Park Geun-hye’s close confidante Choi Soon-sil and Cha were behind several ministry projects, announced Monday it would “thoroughly investigate” any illegalities or private gains that may have arisen over the course of the disputed projects.The statement followed the ministry’s previous st
Oct. 31, 2016
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75 and loving it: Wonder Woman has complicated place in pop culture
This is an unparalleled time for women in American history.The polls are predicting the first female president. Narrowing the wage gap has become part of legislative agendas. Activists are battling against sexual assault and for abortion rights with a fervor not seen in decades and the glass ceiling is looking more fragile every day.It is also the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman.Coincidence? Perhaps not.The creation of Dr. William Moulton Marston, a psychologist with broad-minded views on sexua
Oct. 31, 2016