Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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Paintings by 3-year-old British girl with autism stun the world
Iris Grace Halmshaw, an autistic 3-year-old girl living in Britain, has attracted keen public attention with her fascinating paintings. Iris, diagnosed with autism in 2011, cannot talk; she even gets distressed when her friends get close to her. She started painting as a part of therapy. In the process, her parents noticed she is a talented painter. Since then, her paintings have been on display on Facebook and two pieces were sold for up to 1,500 pounds ($2,200) each. Her parents are now plann
July 4, 2013
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Recent discovery on Silla tomb relic may overturn existing theories
The National Museum on Wednesday unveiled the discovery of a king’s name inscribed on the sheath of a large sword found at the ancient Geumgwan (Golden Crown) tomb in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. The inscription, “Yisajiwang” or King Yisaji, is the oldest name of a king found at a Silla (B.C. 57-A.D. 935) tomb and makes Geumgwan the only sepulcher with an identified owner, researchers at the museum said. The Geumgwan tomb, believed to have been built in the sixth century, has been thorou
July 3, 2013
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Government to change casino authorization process
Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong on Wednesday said that the government will change the current casino authorization process in order to sort out unfeasible and unhealthy casino plans from the initial stage.Yoon said that the authorities will design the casino establishment first and seek the appropriate candidates rather than authorizing projects as they come. Currently, one only needs to present a plan ― without making any actual investment ― for investing more than $300 million in hotel and othe
July 3, 2013
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Veteran curator of Russia’s Pushkin Museum quits at 91
MOSCOW (AFP) ― The tireless 91-year-old matriarch of the renowned Pushkin Art Museum in Moscow is leaving her post after steering the institution for 52 years, Russia’s cultural minister said Monday.The announcement came as a surprise but follows a protracted battle Pushkin director Irina Antonova has waged to return to Moscow a collection of Impressionist art from Saint Petersburg, where it was sent on orders of Joseph Stalin in the 1940s.“Irina Alexandrovna is a living legend, and she is a per
July 2, 2013
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Restoring the glory of long-abused ancient Babylon
BABYLON, Iraq (AFP) ― At ancient Babylon’s Ishtar Gate, Iraqi workers labor with a heavy saw, hammers, a chisel and crowbar to break up and remove a concrete slab that is hastening the structure’s decay.The concrete lies between the two long, towering walls of tan bricks decorated with processions of bulls and dragons that make up the more than 2,500-year-old Ishtar Gate, in what is now Iraq’s Babil province.The masonry slab was laid during the late dictator Saddam Hussein’s rule.Removing the co
July 2, 2013
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Italy promises UNESCO it will not abandon Pompeii
ROME (AFP) ― Italy’s culture minister assured UNESCO on Sunday that efforts were being made to restore the long-neglected Roman city of Pompeii, after the United Nations organization urged the country to speed up repairs.“Pompeii is a symbol for our country. UNESCO’s reprimand is an alarm which I take very seriously and we are already working to overcome the site’s urgent problems,” Culture Minister Massimo Bray said in a note.Giovanni Puglisi, head of the UNESCO National Commission in Italy, on
July 1, 2013
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Kang Se-hwang: A Renaissance man
The 18th century was a crucial moment for the people of the Joseon era (1392-1910). Cities started to form, trade was active and Western knowledge was introduced to the country by those who traveled to China, opening the eyes of the intellectuals who believed the traditional Confucianist way of life was the only one of merit. Kang Se-hwang (1713-1791) was a painter, calligrapher, poet and critic who captured the dynamic sceneries of the time. Drawing since the age of 10 and painting until his de
July 1, 2013
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Beneath NYC’s ground zero, a museum takes shape
NEW YORK (AP) ― Gray dust blankets everything in the subterranean halls of the unfinished National September 11 Memorial & Museum. But while the powder may look ominously like the ash that covered lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks, this time it is a product of rebirth, not destruction.After a yearlong construction shutdown because of a funding dispute, and additional months of cleanup following a shocking flood caused by Superstorm Sandy, work has been racing ahead again at the museum,
June 30, 2013
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Pop music“2013 Ansan Valley Rock Festival”: As Korea’s biggest rock festival, the Valley Rock Festival presents one of the best line-ups of big musicians from Korea and abroad such as this year’s headliners The Cure, NiN, Skrillex, the Foals, the XX, My Bloody Valentine, Idiotape, Peppertones and many others. This year’s festival has moved from Jisan Resort to the Daebu Sea Breeze Theme Park. The three-day festival will be held July 26-28. Ticket prices are 120,000 won for a one-day pass, 230,00
June 28, 2013
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Gugak musical ‘Arirang’ sings of Korea’s bright future
The Korean traditional folk song “Arirang” reflects Koreans’ unique sentiment of “han,” representing the suppressed yet hopeful desire for justice. The UNESCO Cultural Heritage piece is also believed to have played a key role in creating solidarity among Korean people throughout historical hardships and in shaping the Korean identity. In commemoration of gugak, or Korean traditional music, song’s listing as a UNESCO Cultural Heritage item last December, the National Gugak Center is staging the o
June 26, 2013
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Korean War sites considered for national cultural heritage status
The Cultural Heritage Administration on Monday said it would push to register five historical sites of the Korean War (1950-1953) as cultural heritage subject to state management. Those being considered are the Resistance Shrine at Mount Gamaksan in Paju; the Norwegian field hospital in Dongducheon; a military bunker in Pocheon; the joint cemetery of the Taegeukdan resistance in Goyang, all in Gyeonggi Province; and the joint cemetery of policemen who died during battle against North Korean mili
June 24, 2013
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Ministry seeks to revive Joseon portraiture
Portraits in Korea are much more than simple artworks. Rather, they are signs of respect for ancestors that have been passed down through generations. Portraits of the Joseon era (1392-1910) are known for their realistic description and details. They are also called jeonsinhwa, a painting that passes down the spirits of ancestors. Unlike in neighboring countries, painters were devoted to portraying subjects as realistically as possible based on the belief that “if things as small as a strand of
June 24, 2013
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Reality TV hypes plastic surgery craze
An overweight 20-year-old man with breasts and “unattractive facial features,” as well as a 30-year-old woman suffering from excessive hair growth due to a hormonal malfunction boasted that they have found a second life. They each went under the knife and were strongly driven to shed the weight. And when they walked out into the “world” with vulnerable hearts, hundreds of thousands of people gave them the “victory” sign and applauded them for looking “unbelievably great.” These were the lucky tw
June 23, 2013
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Historic places in N. Korea listed as UNESCO world heritage sites
Historic sites in North Korea's ancient city of Gaeseong were added to the world heritage list of UNESCO on Sunday, official sources said.The decision was made during the 37th session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, earlier in the day, sources following the event said. The session is set to continue until Thursday.The decision has been widely expected as the sites were recommended last month by the Paris-based International Council on Monuments and Sites, an advisor
June 23, 2013
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Theater“A Tale of Two Cities”: “A Tale of Two Cities,” a musical based on the novel of the same title by Charles Dickens, is being restaged in Seoul after its first run in the city last year. The piece is set against the conflicts between the rebels and aristocracy during the French revolution and its parallel world in 18th-century London. It tells the story of Sydney Carton, a shrewd young English lawyer who develops a strong, unrequited love for Lucie Manette, a young, loving French woman who
June 21, 2013
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A community pulled apart by racism
Until She Comes HomeBy Lori Roy (Dutton)Lori Roy mixes lyrical prose, a noir approach and gothic undertones for an urban story set in 1958 about a community pulled apart by racism, fear and image in her second novel. As she did in her 2011 Edgar-winning debut “Bent Road,” Roy delivers a timeless story that gives shape to those secrets and tragedies from which some people never recover.Detroit’s Adler Avenue is the kind of neighborhood where a woman makes a roast beef dinner twice a month for the
June 20, 2013
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A novel of family, conflict in Sri Lanka
On Sal Mal LaneBy Ru Freeman (Graywolf Press)In her rewarding new book, novelist Ru Freeman plunks readers “On Sal Mal Lane,” a tropical effusion of foliage and children growing up in Sri Lanka, the island off India’s southern tip. Colonialists once called the place Ceylon and prized its tea; Freeman, who grew up in the capital, Colombo, has something more pointed in mind.Her story moves chronologically toward July 1983, or “Black July,” when riots in Colombo ignited a civil war lasting nearly 2
June 20, 2013
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New book examines Korean monochromatic painting
The first in-depth examination of Korean monochromatic painting is being published by an American art history professor in July, shedding new light on the Korean modern artistic movement that shaped what people view as today’s Korean abstract art. “Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method,” written by Joan Kee, an art history professor at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, offers a fresh interpretation of the movement’s emergence and meaning that sheds new light on the hi
June 20, 2013
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Site of Pocahontas rescue to be preserved
GLOUCESTER, Virginia (AP) ― A farm field overlooking the York River in Tidewater Virginia is believed to be where Pocahontas interceded with her powerful father Powhatan to rescue English Capt. John Smith from death.On loan to archaeologists for more than a decade, these 23 privately owned hectares will be preserved forever under an agreement years in the making and to be officially announced Friday. The deal is important for Native Americans because they believe their story has been overshadowe
June 20, 2013
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Korea eyes cartoon renaissance
Comic books and cartoons have long been good friends to Koreans. From the early days of Lee Do-young, who satirized Japanese colonialists, to green dinosaur Dooly seeking his mother among mankind, and the latest webtoon by Yoon Tae-ho on the lives of office workers, cartoons have been a great source of fun, consolation and encouragement to many Koreans. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 1 in 3 people here enjoy cartoons or comics every week. Through Naver, the country’s l
June 20, 2013