Liberal presidential candidates and their campaign staff squared off Thursday over how to resume negotiations to pick a single candidate to compete against the ruling conservative hopeful in the December election.Independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, who suspended ongoing talks the day before and accused the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) of trying to manipulate the selection process by spreading unfounded rumors, expressed deep disappointment over recent developments.In a meeting

U.S. actress Kristen Stewart charmed the crowd with a revealing jumpsuit by Zuhair Murad at the “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2” premiere in London on Wednesday. Kristen Stewart walked the red carpet of the movie at Leicester Square, posing for a photo with Robert Pattinson at one point.The 22-year-old actress flashed plenty of flesh in the sequin and lace outfit, with sheer paneling prevalent on the garment from the hip up.“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2” marks the fifth

If you have second thoughts about a shirt you were thinking of buying after seeing the “Made in Korea” label, the chances are that you are unconvinced by Korea’s progress. What eliminates the hesitation is improvement in the nation brand, says Samuel Koo, chairman of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, who assumed office last month.“It’s not about the quality of the shirt. The country of origin could make people refuse the purchase or sometimes willing to pay more for it,” he told The K

Children physically abused -- including spanking -- may be at greater risk of cancer, heart disease or asthma, British researchers suggest. Study leader Michael Hyland of Plymouth University‘s School of Psychology said stress caused by spanking or shouting at a child might lead to biological changes that predispose them to disease, The Daily Telegraph reported. The research team asked 250 healthy adults in Saudi Arabia about their childhood and compared the answers to their health as adults. The

공정거래위원회가 떨고 있다. 무소속 안철수 후보의 재벌개혁위원회 때문이라고 관계자들이 전했다.안철수 후보의 주요공약 중 하나가 대통령 직속으로 재벌개혁위원회를 만드는 것이다. 여타 기관에 맡기기보다, 직접 재벌 개혁을 챙기겠다는 심산이다. 이에 따라 공정거래위원회는 상대적으로 역할과 권한이 대폭 줄어들 것으로 염려하고 있다는 것이 관계자들의 얘기다.출발은 재벌개혁이지만, 결국 하도급업체 관리부터 동반성장까지 모두 신설되는 재벌개혁위원회에서 가져가지 않겠냐는 것이다. 이에 앞서 이명박 정권 출범 당시에도 공정거래위원회를 청단위로 강등시키는 문제를 놓고 어려움을 겪었던 경험이 있다. 일각에서는 공정거래위원회가 본연의 업무를 잊은 채, 본인들 밥그릇만 챙긴다는 비난도 일고 있다.코리아헤럴드 김지현 기자<영문 기사>Antitrust watchdog in jitters over chaebol committee The Fair Trade Commission, the nation’s top an

The Fair Trade Commission, the nation’s top antitrust organization whose main job is to ensure fair competition in the markets, is fretting over independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo’s ideas to install a presidential office for keeping chaebol in check.  As Ahn announced earlier this week, the committee would be installed directly under the presidential office for efficiency’s sake -- meaning it would be designed so the president could keep tabs on all committee operations. For the FTC, this could

Have you got a cool million or two and a burning desire to live next door to President Barack Obama? You may be in luck.The empty lot next to Obama‘s Chicago home is for sale.“We reached out to the Obamas through his curator and the Secret Service to see if he wanted to purchase it first and they declined,” said @properties agent Anthony Rouches.While it’s not been formally listed, Rouches said his clients are hoping to get $899,000 for the corner lot at 5050 South Greenwood Avenue, which they b

 Arabica beans, responsible for 70 percent of the world‘s coffee market, could face extinction due to climate change, researchers at Britain’s Kew Gardens say.Rising tides and warming temperatures worldwide could render 99.7 percent of popular current bean-growing regions unsuitable for raising coffee, possibly causing the world‘s predominant coffee crop to be extinct by 2080, the researchers said.Wild Arabica grows naturally in the mountains of Ethiopia and South Sudan, and while most commercia

South Korea's planned launch of a space rocket will likely be further delayed, government officials said Wednesday, as the Russian replacement for a defective part in the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) is not expected to arrive here until the end of the week.The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and its Launch Preparation Committee earlier said the launch of the KSLV-1 would take place before Nov. 24.The replacement of the defective part, however, will likely arrive here on Sa

South Korea should make efforts to enhance its financial stability by tackling volatile cross-border capital flows in a bid to beef up its economic fundamentals, the country's top central banker said Wednesday.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo said at a forum in Seoul that Korea should continue its efforts to dispel potential risks lurking in the financial system and draw up measures to smooth out cross-border capital movements.Since 2010, Korea has taken a set of macro-prudential steps as

South Korea's jobless rate inched down in October from a month earlier but job creation slowed sharply, raising worries that the labor market conditions remain sluggish, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 2.8 percent last month, down from 2.9 percent tallied in the previous month. The number of jobs added to the economy, however, decelerated markedly. About 396,000 jobs were added last month compared with a year earlier, do

The Seoul government aims to make the capital a smoke-free city by 2020 in line with the World Health Organization’s policy encouraging its members to reduce smoking.The Seoul office plans to ban smoking in all public and multi-purpose facilities, in addition to bus stops, and restaurants and bars whose size exceeds 150 square meters, officials said.Seoul made the announcement with Dr. Susan Mercado, team leader of the tobacco free initiative for WHO Western Pacific Regional Office, and Domilyn

Britain's media are in a meltdown and its government is gaffe-prone, so Oxford Dictionaries has chosen an apt Word of the Year: ``omnishambles.''Oxford University Press on Tuesday crowned the word _ defined as ``a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations'' _ its top term of 2012.Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year. The publisher

Scientists say they‘ve seen clues to the reason for the rapid decline of the Maya civilization that once occupied much of modern-day Mexico and Central America.The Mayan civilization, known for its sophisticated calendar system and pyramid construction, sprang up in 300 A.D. but seemed to collapse between 800 and 1000 A.D.A study published in the Journal Science suggests the Maya civilization perished from the effects of extreme changes in climate.Unusual rainfall patterns doomed the Maya people

A New Zealand middle school has banned hugging because of students repeatedly arriving late to classes.Teachers at Takapuna Normal Intermediate School suggested last week to students that they keep the hugs outside of the school, deputy principal Sue Cattell said.“It’s just a little thing that they’re doing. It got out of hand toward the end of morning tea time especially. There would be groups that got back to class 10 to 15 minutes late because they were going around making sure they’d hugged

Global investment banks (IBs) have forecast South Korea's central bank will likely keep its key policy rate steady through the first six months of next year as the economy regains steam at a gradual pace in the second half, a report showed Tuesday. Major IBs including Goldman Sachs expect the Bank of Korea (BOK) to freeze its key rate at 2.75 percent till the first half of 2013, citing their overall outlook that protracted global jitters are less likely to further aggravate, according to the rep

 South Korea’s online bookstores were slapped with a collective 25 million won ($22,984) in fines and corrective orders for deceiving customers with fabricated data, the nation’s antitrust watchdog said Monday. The country’s major online bookshops -- Yes24, Interpark, Kyobo Books and Aladin -- allegedly displayed newly released publications on their websites’ section called “new this week” and “IT’S BEST” in return for receiving advertising fees ranging from 500,000 won to 2.5 million won per bo

A team led by special counsel Lee Kwang-bum raided Cheong Wa Dae's Presidential Security Service (PSS) at a third-party place in connection with the presidential retirement home deal that critics say misused taxpayer money, officials said Monday.At a training institute of the country's financial regulator located near the presidential office in central Seoul, five members of the special counsel team began at 2:00 p.m. to search and seize relevant data and proof randomly submitted by the PSS, the

Local romance movie "A Werewolf Boy" drew more than 3 million moviegoers last week, a rare feat for its genre, the Korean Film Council said Sunday.The film about a werewolf boy and his love interest who has a lung disease, starring Song Joong-ki and Park Bo-young, was watched by 537,948 audience members on Saturday alone, bringing the total to 3,067,651, according to the council.A daily number of over 500,000 is remarkably high for a movie of any genre shown in November, a slow season for movieg

People are happier when a self-benefiting option is imposed upon them because it frees them from having to take responsibility for the outcome, U.S. psychologists have found. Jonathan Bermand and Debrah Small of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania speculated that removing an individuals’ sense of agency would remove their feeling of responsibility for an outcome, leaving them free to enjoy their own interests without feeling selfish.The two scientists conducted a laboratory stud