By Bae Hyun-jung Parties are again at odds over the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade bill, despite their hard-reached agreement last week to hold a public hearing on the issue. The parliamentary foreign affairs committee held a public hearing on Wednesday on measures to prevent harm to the local agriculture, fishing and livestock industries. The event, however, took place in the absen...

By Lee Sun-young Korean workers saw their salaries rise by an average of 5.2 percent this year, slightly higher than a year earlier, government data showed Wednesday. According to the Labor Ministry, this year’s average is 0.6 percentage point higher than in 2010, when the figure stood at 4.6 percent. Inflation seems to have factored into workers’ paychecks, ministry officials explained. Cons...

By Lee Woo-young The Education Ministry will ask public universities to phase out presidential elections and require presidents to specify school development goals. Under the university reform measures suggested by an experts’ panel formed amid rising calls for tuition fee cuts, national and public universities across the country should abolish in stages the current system of directly electing ...

A Feed Somalia Fundraiser is to see Seoul Emcees battle it out to raise funds to help starving people in Somalia this weekend. The 5,000 won cover fee and any other donations during the night to be held at Itaewon’s Rocks Mountain Tavern on Friday from 11 p.m. will go toward a Canadian aid agency helping people in the African country currently ravaged by famine. The event has been organized by ...

A club looking at literature on North Korea is to discuss two landmark books on the country until October. The JFNK Book Club will discuss each book on alternate Saturdays. The group started “North Korea Through the Looking Glass” by Oh Kong Dan and Ralph C. Hassig on Saturday, Aug. 20 and will continue studying it on Sept. 3 and 17. It will start its study of “Under the Loving Care of the Fathe...

A fund-raising party is being held in Ulsan on Saturday Sept. 3. in aid of Busan Abandoned Pet Sanctuary. The event is to start at 7 p.m. at Cima Bar in Ulsan. There will be a BBQ from 8 p.m. with games and activities to raise cash for the organization’s new animal home. BAPS needs money for its relocation to an old pig farm in Busan, where it is caring for abused and abandoned animals. For mor...

By Kirsty Taylor Overseas adoptees can often find returning to Korea an overwhelming journey full of mixed emotions. But American adoptee Liz Dewart could only beam as she told of a twist to her return to her motherland, as the woman she was unexpectedly reunited with struggled to hold back the tears. Daegu-born Liz was reintroduced to more than just the culture when she met Stephanie Simard, ...

A 17-year-old in Daejeon committed suicide at her apartment on Tuesday afternoon. She was discovered by her neighbor. Although the student was taken to a hospital, she was pronounced dead soon after. The anonymous teenager left a message in her room which reads “I don’t want to go to school.” Investigators so far revealed that the girl, who had refused to go to school since March, was stressed...

ANKARA (AP) -- Turkey's Foreign Minister said Tuesday NATO's air operations over Libya will continue until security in the country is fully restored. Speaking in the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Ahmet Davutoglu also called for the rapid release of all frozen assets to help Libya during the country's transition to democracy. "What is important is that Libya's territorial integrity be sec...

BRUSSELS (AP) -- NATO said Tuesday the situation in the Libyan capital of Tripoli remains very dangerous and the alliance will continue its operations over the country, bombing forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi if they keep fighting. But spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie told reporters Tuesday that pro-Gadhafi forces are severely degraded and losing strength through desertions and defections. He spoke...

GENEVA (AP) _ A rescue mission to pluck 300 foreigners from the Libyan capital Tripoli has been delayed by fighting, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday. The Geneva-based group said its charter ship will remain off the coast of Tripoli ``until security conditions have improved and the safety of staff and migrants can be guaranteed.'' An IOM spokesman said the group had bee...

TRIPOLI (AFP) -- Libyan leader Moamer Gadhafi and his family are still in Tripoli, where his troops were engaged in fierce fighting with rebels outside his compound on Tuesday, his son Seif al-Islam said. "Gadhafi and the entire family are in Tripoli," Seif told reporters at the Rixos hotel in the capital where many foreign journalists are housed. He declined to give the precise location of the...