South Korean soccer player Park Jong-woo carries a sign given by a fan that reads “Dokdo Is Our Territory,” after winning the bronze medal match against Japan at the 2012 London Olympics on Friday. ( Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald)Footballer Park Jong-woo will still be eligible for military exemption despite not having collected his bronze medal from the London Olympics following his post-victory celeb

This photo is not directly related to the story. (123rf)Most mothers who rely on children for care have a preference for which child they turn to in a crisis, confide in or prefer as caregiver, U.S. researchers say.Research by Megan Gilligan, a Purdue University doctoral student, and Jill Suitor, a professor of sociology, found older mothers were more likely to be stressed when they received help

Ahn Cheol-sooSoftware entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn Cheol-soo is trying hard to make a responsible decision over whether to run in December's presidential race, his legal advisor said Friday, as the public waits to see what stance he will take."Ahn is thinking hard with a sense of responsibility," Keum Tae-sup said in an interview with a local radio station. "Whatever decision he makes will no

This image is not directly related to the storyLegionnaire's disease, which hit Quebec in mid-July, has infected 65 people and killed six, health authorities of the French-speaking Canadian province said. "We are very concerned by the current situation," Quebec public health chief Francois Desbiens said. "It's the largest legionellosis outbreak in Canada in recent years."Sixteen new cases were rep

More than 100 tanks were seized from a militia loyal to Libya's ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi as authorities hunted the perpetrators of a double car bombing, the interior ministry said on Thursday.A ministry official said an investigation into the attacks on Sunday helped to detect the militia which posed as "revolutionaries" and was housed in barracks in Souk al-Ahad near Tarhuna, 60 kilometres (

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Friday following fresh concerns over the global economic slowdown, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 20.91 points, or 1.08 percent, to 1,921.63 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Large-cap exporters led the decline, with market bellwether Samsung Electronics slumping 1.17 percent and leading automaker Hyundai Moto

A nuclear reactor in South Korea's southeastern region shut itself down after its reactor operation system gave a warning signal, the state-run plant operator said Thursday. The Reactor-1 in Uljin Nuclear Power Plant, automatically stopped operating its nuclear reactor and turbine generator as of 6:41 p.m., according to the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. It froze itself on the warning signal and

The United States on Thursday called on South Korea and Japan to resolve differences through dialogue as tensions took a farcical turn, with a new row between the two nations over correspondence."Both of these countries are strong, important, valued allies of the United States. It's obviously not comfortable for us when they have a dispute between them," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nulan

This image is not directly related to the story.A 20-year-old exchange student from Korea died after he lay down in a 6-foot (1.83-meter)-deep sandpit he and some fellow students had dug on a Southern California beach and it collapsed on him.The Oxnard Fire Department said in a statement that students from Masters College had dug the pit while spending the day at Oxnard Beach Park on Wednesday and

Google set out Wednesday to take users of its free online mapping service on an Arctic adventure with help from an Inuit community in the Canadian tundra.Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined the effort as the Internet titan's Street View team arrived in the hamlet of Cambridge Bay in the Northwest Passage for one of its most remote projects to date."The goal of this project is to share with a glob

A New Zealand man who assaulted his wife with an ostrich egg after her pet pig ran amok has been jailed for six months, it was reported Thursday.Phillip Russell lost his temper when he discovered the pig had damaged his power saw, verbally abusing his wife, spitting at her then grabbing an ostrich egg from the kitchen table and hurling it at her, Fairfax Media reported.It said Russell, 46, had rep

South Korea has recognized damages from the country's bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) for the first time since the trade deal went into effect last year, the government said Thursday.The decision came at a meeting on Wednesday, in which the National Trade Commission accepted a claim from a local pork processing company that it suffered damages from the growing mar

Adherents of a religious sect in western Mexico are physically blocking school teachers from entering their walled community, setting up one of the most high-profile confrontations between religious and civil authorities in Mexico since the 1930s.  Local officials in the western state of Michoacan said Wednesday it may be time to call in a large-scale police operation to enforce the right to schoo

Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda has told top opposition politicians he plans to call a general election in early November, Kyodo news agency reported Thursday.The agency cited senior lawmakers from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as its source, but did not immediately give further details.Noda was forced to promise the opposition an early general election to gain their support

A man attacked his former colleagues and passers-by with a knife on a busy street in Seoul Wednesday, leaving four wounded, police said.The 30-year-old man identified only as Kim wielded a knife on a street in Seoul's main financial district of Yeouido around 7:16 p.m., wounding four people, they said."Two of the four are Kim's former colleagues and two others are among the passers-by," a police o

South Korean stocks got off to a weak start Thursday led by losses in techs and shipbuilders, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 5.83 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,929.36 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics retreated 1.03 percent and leading shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries fell 0.82 percent.The local currency was trading

Direct financing by South Korean companies rose 9.5 percent on-month in July, led by an increase in initial public offerings (IPO) and corporate bond issuances, the financial regulator said Thursday. Local companies raised 11.9 trillion won ($10.5 billion) last month by issuing stocks and bonds, compared with 10.8 trillion won a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

South Korean footballer Ki Sung-yueng has agreed "in principle" to join Swansea City in the English Premier League, a team official said early Thursday, Korean time.In an interview with Scotland STV, Swansea City Chairman Huw Jenkins said Ki is expected to travel to Wales, where the club is based, to finalize the deal "in the next 48 hours.""We're very excited of the prospect of signing Ki who wil

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan dismissed a proposal by Japan on Tuesday to jointly refer the issue of Dokdo to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), saying the proposal is "not worth consideration." Kim made the remarks at a parliamentary session hours after the Japanese government decided to make a formal proposal to South Korea by Tuesday by sending a diplomatic document through

A chocolate glazed donut and a cup of coffee are arranged for a photograph at a Dunkin' Donuts Inc. store in West Orange, New Jersey, U.S. (Bloomberg)Dunkin' Donuts discriminates against minority owners through unfavorable business locations, a suit filed Monday in New Jersey state court says.The Massachusetts-based Dunkin' Brands operates nearly 7,000 pastry-and-coffee franchises throughout the c