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 tradition began in 2020 when Cody Vincent and his family made a tree out of bourbon barrels they sold t

　South Korea’s top steelmaker Posco said it was named the world’s most competitive steelmaker in a global industry report for the 12th consecutive year. 　In an annual assessment of 35 steelmakers worldwide, global steel information service provider World Steel Dynamics gave Posco the top mark of 8.54 points out of 10, according to the South Korean company. 　The WSD report, which ranks the steelmakers based on 23 categories, gave top scores for Posco in eight segments, including te

Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo has reclaimed the top spot in the list of the world’s highest-paid soccer players from Lionel Messi, according to Forbes. Forbes said Ronaldo, among the world’s most popular athletes with over 500 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, is set to make $125 million before taxes in the 2021-22 season, with $70 million coming from salary and bonuses at United. The rest will come from endorsements and partnerships with brand

　South Korea ranks fourth in relative poverty among major economies in the world, data showed, in a sign of its high income inequality. 　The country‘s relative poverty rate, referring to the percentage of people with an income below 50 percent of the median income, came to 16.7 percent in 2018-19, according to the data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 　It is the fourth-highest rate among 37 member countries of the Paris-based club of rich nations. South K

　More than 22 million Afghans will suffer “acute food insecurity” this winter, UN agencies said, warning the already unstable country faces one of the world‘s worst humanitarian crises. 　The crisis is already bigger in scale than that facing Yemen or Syria, and worse than any food insecurity emergency apart from the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said. 　According to the statement issued by the World Food Program and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, one in t

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission is set to lift off this weekend, carrying an international crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station. According to NASA, it will send SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance to space from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday. The mission will be the third operational NASA commercial crew flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The team members consists of three astronauts from the US and one astronaut from Germany. The commander

ROME -- Climate change and the relaunch of the global economy will top the G20 agenda as leaders of the world's most advanced nations meet Saturday, the first in-person gathering since the pandemic. Looming over the two-day talks in Rome is pressure to make headway on tackling global warming, ahead of the key COP26 summit kicking off in Glasgow Monday. The stakes are high, with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warning G20 leaders Friday to show "more ambition and more ac

　Samsung Electronics topped the World’s Best Employers list for the second straight year, according to US business magazine Forbes. 　American tech giant IBM ranked second, followed by Microsoft, Amazon and Apple. 　South Korean cosmetics giant Amorepacific and LG came in 31st and 43rd, respectively. 　Forbes announced the rankings after surveying 150,000 full-time and part-time workers from 58 countries working for multinational companies and institutions.

CAPE TOWN (AP) -- In a pair of Cape Town warehouses converted into a maze of airlocked sterile rooms, young scientists are assembling and calibrating the equipment needed to reverse engineer a coronavirus vaccine that has yet to reach South Africa and most of the world's poorest people. The energy in the gleaming labs matches the urgency of their mission to narrow vaccine disparities. By working to replicate Moderna's COVID-19 shot, the scientists are effectively making an end run around an ind

VATICAN (AFP) -- Pope Francis on Sunday called on the global community to resolve the Libyan migrant crisis, even as EU leaders disagree on how to best manage flows of migrants crossing to Europe. "I express my closeness to the thousands of migrants, refugees and also others in need of protection in Libya. I don't forget you ever. I hear your cry and pray for you," Francis said following his traditional Sunday Angelus prayer on Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican. "So many of t

BERLIN (AFP) -- Germany's interior minister said Sunday it was "legitimate" to protect borders, after several EU states asked Brussels to pay for barriers to prevent illegal migrants from entering the bloc. The call came earlier this month, as Poland proposed building a 350 million-euro ($410 million) wall on its border with Belarus to keep migrants out. The EU accuses the Belarusian authorities of flying migrants from the Middle East and Africa to Minsk and then sending them into

　Death’s come knocking a last time for the splendid ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species: The US government declared them extinct. 　It’s a rare move for wildlife officials to give up hope on a plant or animal, but government scientists say they’ve exhausted to find these 23. And they warn climate change, on top of other pressures, could make such disappearances more common as a warming planet adds to the dangers facing imperiled plants and wildlif