Starting July 3, JW’s Grill at the JW Marriott Seoul will offer a new brunch on Sunday. Fresh-squeezed juices and organic salad options are available at the Healthy Counter. The Seafood Counter has sea bream, tuna and other sashimi while the Carving Counter is mobile with one trolley serving slices of sea bass and roasted Tomahawk rib eye. The dessert counter offers cakes, tea, tiramisu, fine brea

The German National Tourist Office said Dinkelsbuehl, the medieval city in Germany, will hold a festival for kids “Kinderzeche” from July 15 to July 24. The festival originates from a legend that several groups of children in Dinkelsbuehl found the courage to ask a Swedish soldier to give up the village after the Swedish army invaded the village in 1632. Highlights of the festival include a colorf

Air Busan said the travel demand flying from Seoul to Fukuoka has almost recovered since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. According to the carrier, the number of travelers who left for Fukuoka and Osaka from Seoul in June was 900 per day on average, almost nearing the normal average of 1,000 in January and February. The number had declined to about 700 in April. Air Busan said the Busan-Tokyo

Ayana Resort & Spa Bali in Bali, Indonesia, said it will hold a “Role Models” dinner on Aug. 11 to create jobs for underprivileged youth. Seven illiterate teenagers, who have not received proper education, have been invited to the resort for 10-weeks training in serving, table setting and taking orders. On Aug. 11, they will serve the resort’s dinner, which will be a four-course meal. The dinner i

TOKYO (AP) ― A magnitude-5.4 earthquake has rattled central Japan and at least seven people are hurt.The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake hit Thursday in Nagano, some 170 kilometers northwest of Tokyo. The quake was just four kilometers deep. No tsunami warning was issued, the agency said.Nagano fire department official Sadahiko Furusawa said seven people were injured in the quake, but n

A cereal and vegetable-based diet reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome, a group of researchers announced Tuesday. According to a study of 9,850 adults between 2001 and 2005 by Prof. Kim Ji-hye of Daegu University and Prof. Cho In-ho of Ewha Womans University, Koreans generally have four diet patterns: rice with kimchi; meat and alcohol; coffee and sugar; and cereal, vegetables and fish.The team

Forty-eight health products previously requiring prescription will be available at supermarkets and 24-hour convenience stores nationwide from August, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday. The products include caffeine drink Bacchus; Madecassol and Antiphramine, both antiseptic ointments; digestion aid Whal Myung Soo and others, mostly cough drops, digestion solutions, pain killers, m

Korea’s leading automaker Hyundai Motor Co. said Wednesday that its executives will take part in a White House policy meeting aimed at improving the fuel economy of cars sold in the United States.The company said Ron Bloom, senior counselor for manufacturing policy to President Barack Obama, and Gary Guzy, deputy director of the Office of Environmental Quality, will be present at the meeting sched

Samsung Engineering Co. Ltd., Korea’s largest industrial plant builder, said Wednesday that it has won a $230 million order to build a petrochemical plant in western India.Under the deal with ONGC Petro-additions Ltd., a unit of India’s state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd., Samsung Engineering will complete the plant by July 2013 with an annual production capacity of 340,000 tons of high-d

NEW YORK (AP) ― Online search leader Google Inc. is taking yet another stab at social networking, as it tries to go up against Facebook in this wildly popular and lucrative segment of the Internet. This time the project is called Google+ and it aims to make online sharing more like real life.“We think people communicate in very rich ways,” said Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at

Nestled in the heart of Seoul, next to the picturesque Gyeongbok Palace, Somerset Palace Seoul is the ideal spot to start a leisurely stroll to the myriad of restaurants, shopping arcades and entertainment outlets in the Insadong and Jongno area. In fact, everywhere in Seoul is easily accessible from Somerset by hopping on the metro at Anguk, Jonggak or Gwanghwamun stations, which are all less tha

When the match-fixing scandal engulfed the K-League in May, Incheon United head coach, the man who took South Korea to the second round of the 2010 World Cup, Huh Jung-moo said: “As a football devotee, we’re facing a problem that should never have happened. Once everything is exposed, we should scrutinize it to make sure everything will be cleared up, so that we can turn this to our advantage.”Huh

There will be no more professional basketball games in Daegu from next season as top division team Daegu Orions will leave the city for Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, according to the league governing body.The Orions, based in Daegu since the start of the Korean Basketball League in 1997, recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Gyeonggi Province city to move their home and become the Goyang

North Korea is youngest team in tournament with 14 players 20 or youngerDRESDEN, Germany (AP) ― After meeting in the first round at the last three Women’s World Cups, the United States should know everything it needs to about North Korea.Not even close.Then again, nobody knows much about the North Koreans.There’s a definite air of mystery surrounding the Americans’ opponent in their World Cup open

Lee Man-soo, a former triple crown-winning catcher, topped the vote for South Korea’s all-time baseball greats, the nation’s top baseball league announced Monday.In a vote among baseball officials, fans and media, Lee earned 74.05 points of a possible 100, the Korea Baseball Organization said. The league is celebrating its 30th season and naming 10 all-time all-stars as part of the season-long com

Figure skating champ Kim Yu-na optimistic about Korea’s chancesAhead of PyeongChang’s Olympic bid presentation in Togo this week, figure skater Kim Yu-na said Monday that she was optimistic about the South Korean candidate city’s chances to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.“We’ve all worked hard so far, and I am confident we will have good results in the end,” Kim said before departing for the Africa

Mercedes-Benz Korea, the local unit of the luxury car division of Daimler AG, has introduced the second-generation of its passenger vehicle, the CLS 63 AMG, in Korea.The new CLS 63 AMG comes with a new V8 5.5-liter biturbo engine that is smaller than the 6.2-liter engine in the previous version, but generates more horsepower and torque while consuming less gasoline. Mercedes-BenzThe new engine pro

VATICAN CITY (AP) ― The Vatican is taking a leap into the world of new media next week with the launch of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a papal click.Vatican officials said Saturday that Benedict has been following the development of the portal ―www.news.va ― which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican’s various print, radio a

BERLIN (AP) ― The German hosts of the Women’s World Cup have asked fans not to whistle FIFA president Sepp Blatter on opening day on Sunday.FIFA has been embroiled in a corruption scandal concerning the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids and the election for president of the sport’s world governing body.“I hope we’re good hosts ... and that we show that tomorrow,” Steffi Jones, president of the organizi

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Choo Shin-soo was walking around the Cleveland Indians clubhouse Saturday with a soft cast on his left hand that covered three stitches on his bloodied, broken thumb.The only thing that might hurt worse is the hole in Cleveland’s shattered lineup.The Indians’ prize right fielder will see a hand specialist at the Cleveland Clinic on Monday and expects to have surgery on his inj