Girls’ Generation’s latest performance will air on Jan. 1, marking the release of their fourth album.The girl group will perform the title tracks of the fourth album, “I Got a Boy” and “Dancing Queen,” on MBC’s “New Year’s Special Girls’ Generation Romantic Fantasy,” which will be aired at 11:15 p.m. on New Year’s Day. According to the broadcaster, hundreds of fans gathered to see the girl group’s performance which was pre-recorded on Dec. 23. The girl group hinted at their comeback last week on

“Gangnam Style” seems to finally be getting noticed in Japan. Last week the Japanese Internet news outlet RBB Today revealed that Psy’s music video had ranked No. 1 as the most-clicked video on YouTube Japan.Ever since it was first uploaded onto YouTube in July, Psy’s ubiquitous viral hit and the horse-dancing craze seemed to be spreading everywhere, except in Japan. Although K-pop music tends to attract a large number of Japanese fans, these fans had not been jumping on the bandwagon of Gangnam

Don’t judge a book by its cover, so goes an old saying, but looking at this book exhibition one is reminded of what Oscar Wilde once said: “It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances; the true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”Kyobo Book Center’s current exhibition, “Art, Design, Culture: The History of Penguin by Design,” shows how book covers have responded to ― and influenced ― changing trends and culture in the past 77 years. The exhibition, featuring des

Former Culture Minister Yoo In-chon will break the 7-year hiatus he took from acting with a performance of his own play on Friday. The professional actor-turned-public official will perform the main role in the new play he produced, “Faust ― Goethe and Gounod,” on Friday at Yoo Theater, which he founded in 1999, in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul. Yoo served as the culture minister for three years starting in 2008 under the Lee Myung-bak administration. “I am warming up to my return to being an actor,” Yo

The number of cancer patients in Korea reached 1 million last year while their survival rates rose from a decade ago, a report showed on Thursday.According to a joint survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Cancer Center, Korea had a total of 960,654 patients and survivors ― diagnosed with cancer between 1999 and 2010 ― last year.About 200,000 new cancer cases were found in 2010 alone, up 4 percent from a year earlier, the report add.The statistics showed that both five-yea

Can a white paper filled with an invisible substance instead of paint and drawings be called art? If the paper contains the most striking idea ever presented, will it change the viewer’s initial perception of the paper? Viewers at the 12th SongEun Art Award exhibition may confront the moment when they have to answer these questions. With artists claiming that “contemporary art is not about who draws well, but about whose idea is better,” more and more artists are challenging the boundaries of ho

From a tough girl image to sexy and sophisticated choreography, five-member girl group EXID is one of the latest projects from the hit-making songwriter and producer Shinsadong Tiger. Original members LE and Sol-ji, and new members Jung-hwa, Ha-ni and Hye-rin, make up the new hip-hop/dance girl group, whose name is a combination of “exit” and “dreaming.”"The concept behind our group’s name is our desires to go beyond just dreaming,” said Ha-ni. EXID first debuted as a six-member group in Februar

Starship Entertainment announced that Sistar19, a subunit of the sexy K-pop girl group Sistar, will be making a comeback in January. Sistar19, consisting of members Hyo-rin and Bo-ra, first debuted in 2011 with the release of the single “Ma Boy.” However, the subunit has not been active since then, rather participating as members of the four-member group Sistar, releasing their album “So Cool” in August of the same year and clinching the top spot on the Billboard K-pop Top 100 charts for the fir

Trade Minister Bark Tae-ho will sign up as a candidate for director-general of the World Trade Organization, the ministry said Friday."The government has decided that Trade Minister Bark Tae-ho will run for WTO director-general to be elected by late May next year. His candidacy will be registered through the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the U.N. Secretariat and International Organizations in Geneva,"  the ministry said in a statement.Incumbent WTO director-general Pascal Lamy’s

 An entrepreneur in the Republic of the Congo is launching what he says is the first African-designed smartphone and tablet.Verone Mankou said his company‘s VMK devices will run the Android operating system and will cost $170 for the smartphone and $300 for the tablet computer, the BBC reported Thursday.“Only Africans can know what Africa needs,” Mankou said at a technical conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.“Apple is huge in the United States, Samsung is huge in Asia and we want VMK to be

South Korea spends much less on public welfare than most other advanced countries compared to its gross domestic product (GDP), but the growth rate of its social expenditure far outpaces them, a report showed Wednesday.According to the report by the state-run Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the ratio of South Korea's welfare spending to its GDP stood at 9.4 percent in 2009, the second lowest among 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The

North Korea on Tuesday blasted a recent report by the U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC) that cited growing concerns surrounding Pyongyang's nuclear proliferation.In an article carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea claimed allegations and concerns raised by the NIC were nothing more than sophistry and lies.It said Washington is using a nonexistent threat to justify the deployment of its own nuclear arsenal and its so-called nuclear umbrella policy.The NIC,

South Korean rapper Psy, who has galloped to superstardom with his trade mark horse-riding dance, has been chosen as the eighth most intriguing figure on the planet this year, according to an internet survey by the U.S. cable news channel CNN.The music video of Psy's "Gangnam Style" became the most-viewed YouTube clip last week, topping 1 billion hits.CNN selected the 35-year-old Park and 19 other people who captured the world's attention in 2012 and conducted an online poll of the candidates. A

Thousands of Christians from the world over packed Manger Square in Bethlehem Monday to celebrate the birth of Jesus in the ancient West Bank town where he was born.For their Palestinian hosts, this holiday season was an especially joyous one, with the hardships of the Israeli occupation that so often clouded previous Christmas Eve celebrations eased by the United Nations' recent recognition of an independent state of Palestine.Festivities led up to the Midnight Mass at St. Catherine's Church, n

Iran's top defense official formally denied any missile cooperation with North Korea, a news report said Monday."Recent claims made by certain countries about missile cooperation between Iran and North Korea are merely speculations,"Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying.China's Xinhua news agency picked up his comments as reported by a local TV station.There have been media reports that Iranian defense officials recently visited North Korea for bilateral missile cooperation.

The mountains on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands are dissolving from within under the slow but inexorable onslaught of groundwater, researchers say.Sometime in the distant future the mountainous tropical island will be reduced to a flat, low-lying island similar to Midway, scientists at Brigham Young University reported Friday.While external erosion is the primary force that wears down mountains, that's not the case on Oahu, they said."We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and wh

 Sweden's royal family says Princess Madeleine's wedding will take place on Saturday, June 8, at the Royal Palace chapel in downtown Stockholm.King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia's youngest daughter was engaged to U.S.-British boyfriend Christopher O'Neill, a 38-year-old New York banker, in late October. The 30-year-old Madeleine is fourth in line to the Swedish throne. The royal family's chief spokesman Bertil Tenert said Sunday that wedding organizers will now start planning details of the n

The largest U.S. gun-rights lobbying organization declared its unwavering opposition to any new gun regulations in the aftermath of the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school, accusing the White House of trying to undermine the constitutional right to bear arms.Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the influential National Rifle Association, said Sunday that not a single gun regulation would make children safer. He criticized ``a media machine'' for blaming the gun industry for each new attack like the on

Those ready to wrap up Christmas shopping by getting gift cards, a U.S. philosophy professor suggests reconsidering and buying a gift instead.Steven Gimbel of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania discourages last-minute shoppers from purchasing gift cards because they primarily serve as an easy way out for the shopper."To avoid giving bad gifts, people have turned more and more to gift cards," Gimbel said in a statement.Gimbel said people need to remember why they are giving a gift. People are oft

Those ready to wrap up Christmas shopping by getting gift cards, a U.S. philosophy professor suggests reconsidering and buying a gift instead. Steven Gimbel of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania discourages last-minute shoppers from purchasing gift cards because they primarily serve as an easy way out for the shopper."To avoid giving bad gifts, people have turned more and more to gift cards," Gimbel said in a statement. Gimbel said people need to remember why they are giving a gift. People are o