Another family member of President Lee Myung-bak underwent questioning Thursday as part of a probe into his retirement residence plan.Lee Sang-eun, the president’s eldest brother, arrived at 9:50 a.m. at the lobby of the independent counsel team’s office in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul, where his nephew and the president’s son, Si-hyung, had been grilled as a criminal suspect for 14 hours last week. “I will tell everything inside,” the 79-year-old chairman of auto parts maker DAS said upon his ar

Peers are influential when it comes to alcohol and drug use, and they are just as influential online as they are in person, U.S. researchers suggest. Sarah Stoddard and colleagues at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor conducted an online survey of 3,447 of U.S. adults ages 18-24. The survey found those who thought their parents and peers would be upset if they viewed images of their drinking and drug use online were less likely to drink. In addition, young adults who

 Actress Kim Yoo-jung walked the runway wearing a delicately decorated dress made of chocolate during a fashion show at the inauguration of the annual Salon du Chocolat in Paris on Tuesday.For the show, fashion designers and chocolatiers combined their creativity to design unique pieces of art including life-sized chocolate dresses such as a magnificently detailed milk chocolate robe that Kim wore for the closing stage.Stephane Bonnat, a chocolatier who created the dress in collaboration with de

A "self-healing" concrete that can patch up cracks by itself is ready for outdoor testing, researchers at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands say.The experimental concrete contains limestone-producing bacteria that are activated by corrosive rainwater working its way into the structure, they said.Developed by microbiologist Henk Jonkers and concrete technologist Eric Schlangen, the material could potentially increase the service life of the concrete with considerable cost savings as a

South Korean stocks started higher on Wednesday, fueled by gains in blue-chip exporters, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) increased 0.53 percent, or 10.02 points, to 1909.60 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Shares gathered ground across the board, with market bellwether Samsung Electronics rising 0.46 percent and its smaller rival LG Electronics gaining 0.4 percent. Leading automaker Hyundai Motor climbed 0.67 percent.The U.S. stock market was closed on Tue

South Korea's industrial output crept up in September from a year earlier, but its growth pace remained sluggish apparently affected by cooling demand amid concerns over the eurozone debt crisis and global slowdowns, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries grew 0.7 percent last month from a year earlier, quickening from the previous month's 0.3 percent on-year gain. The output also g

When a 14-year-old girl received a Facebook friend request from an older man she didn't know, she accepted it out of curiosity. It's a click she will forever regret, leading to a brutal story that has repeated itself as sexual predators find new ways to exploit Indonesia's growing obsession with social media.The junior high student was quickly smitten by the man's smooth online flattery. They exchanged phone numbers, and his attention increased with rapid-fire texts. He convinced her to meet in

Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline and hurled a record-breaking 13-foot (4-meter) surge of seawater at New York City on Monday, roaring ashore and putting the presidential campaign on hold a week before Election Day. At least 14 deaths were blamed on the storm. Sandy knocked out power to at least 5.7 million people across the U.S. East, and New York's main utility said large sections of Manhattan had been plunged into darkness by the storm, with 250,000 customers without powe

Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline and hurled a record-breaking 43-feet surge of seawater at New York City on Monday, roaring ashore after washing away part of the Atlantic City boardwalk and putting the presidential campaign on hold.Just before its center reached land, the storm was stripped of hurricane status, but the distinction was purely technical, based on its shape and internal temperature. It still packed hurricane-force wind, and forecasters were careful to say it r

South Korea's Ryu So-yeon has clinched the LPGA Tour's top annual rookie award with three tournaments left this season, the tour announced Tuesday.On its Web site, the LPGA Tour said Ryu became the eighth Korean to claim the Rookie of the Year honors. In the race for the award, the 22-year-old has garnered 1,306 points in 22 events, well ahead of American teenager Lexi Thompson, who has picked up 779 points in 21 tournaments.Rookies are awarded 150 points for first in a tournament, 80 points for

South Korea's current account surplus widened in September from the previous month as exports expanded at a faster rate than imports weathering the local currency's gain, the central bank said Tuesday.The current account surplus reached US$6.07 billion in September, up from a revised $2.5 billion in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade.The September figure was the largest monthly surplus since a record high of

President Lee Myung-bak's eldest brother will be summoned this week for questioning in connection with a suspicious land deal for his brother's now-scrapped retirement home project, a special counsel investigating the case said Monday.Lee Sang-eun is suspected of having played a role in the alleged irregularities by loaning some 600 million won ($542,000) in cash to his nephew and President Lee's only son, Lee Si-hyung, for the purchase of the land in which critics argue taxpayer money was used.

Chicago rapper Lil Reese issued an apology via Twitter for a video posted online that showed him beating up a young woman.“Everybdy makes mistakes,” the tweet read. “I was out of charcter & ive grown sense then Dont judge me for my past i can admit my wrongs and I apologize.#3hunna.”The apology came days after the video was posted online, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday.The video shows a young woman inquiring who let a group of young men into a home. She begins to argue with a young man, p

The unmanned SpaceX capsule made a safe splashdown in the Pacific Sunday after successfully delivering its first commercial payload to the International Space Station.The capsule parachuted into the water at 1922 GMT after an 18-day mission to resupply the station and was now being recovered by a team of divers, US-based SpaceX said in a brief statement on its website. The mission -- the first of 12 planned trips in SpaceX's $1.6 billion contract with US space agency NASA -- is a milestone for A

An earthquake off the west coast of Canada has triggered a tsunami that is headed toward the U.S. state of Hawaii, The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center announced early Sunday."A tsunami has been generated that could cause damage along the coastline of all islands in the state of Hawaii," the center warned.The center said "urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property."The expected arrival time of the tsunami is 10:28 p.m. local time Saturday (0828 GMT Sunday).The announcement came af

In a show of rapid demographic changes, Seoul has seen a steady rise in one-person households and a fall in multi-member households, municipal government data showed Sunday.According to the data released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the number of one-person households in the capital city increased more than 9 percent between 2007 and 2011, whereas the number of households with more than four members decreased by nearly 4.5 percent in the same period.The number of one-person households i

A 20-year-old Brazilian woman received a high bid of $780,000, auctioning off her virginity for an Australian filmmaker's project.Justin Sisley, whose VirginsWanted.com.au auction site is part of his documentary project, said Catarina Migliorini, 20, received a high bid of $780,000 from a Japanese man identified by the name Natsu, ABC News/Univision reported Friday.Sisley said Alexander Stepanov, 21, a male virgin offered on the auction site, received a high bid of $3,000 from a Brazilian woman

Another act of vandalism hit South Korea's consulate general in New York after two similar cases claiming Japan's ownership of the South Korean islets of Dokdo affected the diplomatic mission and a South Korean monument in New Jersey, consulate officials said Saturday.The South Korean consulate in Manhattan said its officials found a white wooden stake reading Dokdo "belongs to Japanese territory" at the entrance of its consular section office on Saturday. The consulate reported it to the police

South Korea might need 10 more years to see its per-capita income exceed US$30,000 as an elongated low growth trend and other economic structural problems are dimming the overall outlooks, a private think tank said Sunday.South Korea's per-capita income seems to be "trapped" in the $20,000 range five years after it surpassed the mark for the first time in 2007, as the growth rate has remained stagnant over the past years, according to a report by the Hyundai Research Institute.From 2007 to 2011,

Authorities in Florida said a 49-year-old homeless man allegedly cheated Disney out of more than $18,000 by using the same credit card scam at least 26 times.The Orange County Sheriff's Office said Jeffery Hawkins, 49 -- who was arrested Tuesday on charges of credit card fraud, trafficking in stolen credit cards and defrauding an innkeeper -- allegedly told deputies he has spent the past 10 years moving from hotel to hotel and booking rooms with stolen credit card numbers, the Orlando Sentinel r