South Korea has the third-highest ratio of youth “not in education, employment or training,” or NEET youth, among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a report showed. The average monthly number of NEET people aged 15-29 in the country is estimated at 1.56 million in the January-October period, according to the report from the Korea Employment Information Servi...

Isolation. Anxiety. Uncertainty. The stresses of the coronavirus pandemic have taken a toll on Americans of all ages, but a new poll finds that teens and young adults have faced some of the heaviest struggles as they come of age during a time of extreme turmoil. Overall, more than a third of Americans ages 13 to 56 cite the pandemic as a major source of stress, and many say it has made certain...

The United States is by far the biggest contributor to global plastic waste in the world, according to a new report submitted to the federal government that called for a national strategy to tackle the growing crisis. Overall, the US contributed around 42 million metric tons in plastic waste in 2016 - more than twice as much as China and more than the countries of the European Union combined, ...

The governor of an island province in the central Philippines said Sunday at least 72 people died in the devastation wrought by Typhoon Rai in more than half of the towns that managed to contact him, bringing the death toll in the strongest typhoon to batter the country this year to at least 146. Gov. Arthur Yap of Bohol province said 10 others were missing and 13 injured, and suggested the fata...

Germany is tightening travel restrictions for people coming from Britain in response to the rapid spread of the omicron variant there. The country's national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, added Britain to its list of “virus variant areas” late Saturday. This means anyone traveling from the U.K. to Germany must enter a mandatory quarantine for 14 days, regardless of vaccinati...

Some 2.9 billion people - 37 percent of the world’s population - have still never used the internet, the United Nations said, despite the COVID-19 pandemic driving people online. The UN’s International Telecommunication Union estimated that 96 percent of those 2.9 billion live in developing countries. The agency said the estimated number of people who have gone online rose from 4.1 billion i...

Olaf Scholz became the ninth Chancellor of Germany on Wednesday, ending the era of Angela Merkel. Among the 707 lawmakers of the German parliament Bundestag who participated in the voting, Scholz earned 395 votes, indicating the first political transition of Germany in 16 years. Although Merkel was a center-right wing politician from the Christian Democratic Union while Scholz is a center-left...

Tel Aviv is the world’s most expensive city to live in, as soaring inflation has pushed up living costs globally, according to a survey. The Israeli city climbed five rungs to top the list for the first time in the authoritative ranking compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The Worldwide Cost of Living Index is compiled by comparing prices in US dollars for goods and services in 173 c...

South Korea ranks low among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of the employment rate for university graduates due mainly to a severe mismatch between their majors and job openings, a report showed. The employment rate for South Koreans aged 25-34 with university diplomas came to 75.2 percent in 2020, 31st lowest among 37 comparable OECD member countr...

BRUSSELS -- The European Union on Monday condemned the Myanmar ruling junta‘s jailing of ousted leader Aug San Suu Kyi as “politically motivated” and a “blatant violation of human rights”. In a statement from EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on behalf of the 27 member states, the EU said Suu Kyi’s sentence “represents another step towards the dismantling of the rule of law." Suu Kyi, 76...

A new COVID-19 variant called omicron has put the world on notice, prompting nations to close borders and reinstate restrictions. While fear seems to prevail, not all are pessimistic. Some scientists say this new mutation may be a blessing in disguise, our best chance to put an end to this devastating pandemic. The theory goes like this: The virus, with 32 mutations on the spike protein alone, ...

Sales of electric vehicles in South Korea almost doubled in the first three quarters of this year from a year earlier, ranking seventh in the world, data showed. A total of 71,006 EVs were sold in Asia’s fourth-largest economy in the January-September period, up 96 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Automotive Technology Institute. The figure was the seventh-la...

Paul Rudd, 52, the affable actor best known for playing “Ant-Man,” was named People magazine’s sexiest man alive, joining the likes of Idris Elba, George Clooney and Bradley Cooper. Rudd played the kind boyfriend of Lisa Kudrow’s wacky Phoebe on TV comedy “Friends” and later took larger roles in comedies like “Knocked Up” before playing Ant-Man in the Marvel superhero movie, followed by a sequ...

The US state of Kentucky is well reputed for its bourbon. However, during the holidays, something quite unexpected but still related to bourbon is what entertains the people of Kentucky. Instead of the liquor itself, a gigantic Christmas tree made of bourbon barrels is on display in Smiths Grove, a small town of not much over 700 people nearby Mammoth Cave National Park. This interesting tradi...