The condition of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church founder, has improved five days after he was admitted to a Seoul hospital with complications from pneumonia, the church's current leader said in his latest sermon.The 92-year-old is in the intensive care unit of Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in southern Seoul where he was admitted last Tuesday.Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, the head of the church and

A small South Korean bar has been ordered to pay damages to Chanel for infringing upon the value held by the French luxury house, court records showed Tuesday.The Seoul Central District Court ordered the local bar, known as the Chanel Business Club, to pay 10 million won (US$8,800) in compensation to Chanel, saying that the bar inflicted damage to the distinctiveness and reputation attached to Cha

Ruling Saenuri Party's presidential candidate Park Geun-hye said Tuesday she will visit the grave of late President Roh Moo-hyun as part of her efforts to promote national unity.After paying a visit to the National Cemetery in southern Seoul, the 60-year-old lawmaker said she planned to pay her respects to Roh in the afternoon because he represented a significant part of South Korea society.The la

The ruling Saenuri Party wrapped up its primary election Sunday with a lower than expected voter turnout.The poll closed at 6 p.m. with an estimated voter turnout of 41.2 percent, according to the National Election Commission, which oversaw the primary election.The party has a little over 200,000 members eligible to vote but only about 82,000 cast ballots in the poll that began earlier in the day

All 31 people aboard an airplane carrying an "official delegation" to Sudan's war-torn South Kordofan state for a function marking the Muslim Eid holiday were killed on Sunday, an aviation official said."All people on board were killed," Abdelhafiz Abdelrahim, spokesman for the Sudan Aviation Authority, told AFP.He said the plane was landing in Talodi town at about 8:00 am (0500 GMT) when "an expl

South Korea is expected to reiterate its stance on the issue of Dokdo and refute Japan's sovereignty claim in its reply to a letter by Japan's prime minister to President Lee Myung-bak, two government officials said Sunday.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sent the letter to Lee via Seoul's Embassy in Tokyo on Friday, describing as regrettable Lee's Aug. 10 visit to Dokdo and his remarks that

A California nursing instructor was sentenced to four months in jail for inappropriately touching three teenage students, officials said.Alfredo Fernandez Gonzalez, 46, of Orange, pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of lewd conduct for the incidents, which took place over a two-month period in 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.The students -- ages 16 and 17 -- said the certified n

An anti-Japan protester shouts slogans while holding a poster, which reads "Diaoyu Islands belong to China," outside Japanese Embassy in Beijing, China, Sunday (AP-Yonhap News)Anti-Japanese rallies took place in southern cities in mainland China on Sunday amid a recent territorial row between China and Japan over islets in the East China Sea, witnesses said. Some 1,000 people gathered in Shenzhen,

Japan is expected to deliver a diplomatic letter this week asking South Korea to jointly take the issue of Dokdo, Seoul's easternmost islets claimed by Tokyo as its territory, to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a diplomatic source said Sunday. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will hold a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to make a decision on whether to send a "note verbale," a diplom

A team of amateur cave explorers and arachnologists has found a new family of spiders in caves and old-growth redwood forests in Oregon and California, US researchers said Friday.Entomologists at the California Academy of Sciences said the spider, named Trogloaptor -- or "cave robber" -- for its lethal front claws, had such unique evolutionary features that it represented not just a new genus or s

Japanese nationalists landed on an island at the heart of a corrosive territorial row with China on Sunday in a move likely to further inflame tensions with Beijing.Around a dozen members of the right wing Gambare Nippon (Hang In There Japan) went ashore, an AFP journalist witnessed, saying they intended to plant a Japanese flag at the island's highest point.The landing comes just days after Tokyo

 Health officials say six people have died and at least 100 others have been sickened by pickles contaminated with E. coli bacteria in northern Japan.The officials in Hokkaido said Saturday that the pickled Chinese cabbage was made by two local producers and sold across the prefecture. The first reports of illness occurred about 10 days ago.Most victims were elderly people in nursing homes, but a

Miss China won the coveted title of Miss World on Saturday, triumphing on home soil during a glitzy final held in a mining city on the edge of the Gobi desert. The mostly Chinese audience erupted in cheers, and fireworks lit up the sky, when it was announced that the home candidate, Yu Wenxia, had been awarded the coveted title.

Police arrested a man who attacked passengers in a running subway with a box-cutter and inflicted injuries on seven of them, officials said.The man in his early 40s, identified only by his family name Yoo, went on a rampage as the subway was headed to Seoul from Euijeongbu, a city 23 kilometers north of the capital, said Oh Yoon-hui, a police officer.The suspect later got off the subway and ran aw

South Korea and Australia have agreed to swiftly conclude negotiations on forging a bilateral free trade agreement, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday. The agreement was reached at a meeting earlier in the day between South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, who is on a two-day visit to Australia, and Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson, ministry officials said. Kim and Emerson "reache

Iran's central bank has threatened to close its Korean currency-based transaction settlement accounts opened at two South Korean banks following economic sanctions on the Islamic country, calling for higher deposit rates on the accounts, sources said Thursday.Iran has notified two local state-owned banks -- Woori Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) -- of not using the Korean-currency accou

Hanwha Group chairman Kim Seung-youn was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 5.1 billion won ($4.5 million) by Seoul Western District Court on Thursday for embezzlement and other illegal financial activities. In January 2011, Kim was indicted without detention on charges of illegally making Hanwha Group subsidiaries guarantee payment for the 320 billion won debt held by companies he was op

This image is not directly related to the story. (123rf) Police in Florida said a woman rammed her boyfriend‘s van with her truck because she was angry at him for looking at another woman’s behind. The Alachua County Sheriff‘s Office said Deborah Slaton, 45, of Hawthorne, was at a game room around 9 p.m.

Japan arrested 14 people after pro-China activists landed Wednesday on an island at the centre of a bitter territorial row in an episode that threatens to further destabilise fractious ties.The group -- some of whom made it to shore -- had sailed from Hong Kong on Sunday to the archipelago, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, with the intention of planting a Chinese flag.Prime Minister

Police found three more bodies in a national park in Kazakhstan Tuesday, bringing to 11 the number of people found slain in the area.Eight bodies were discovered Monday, RIA Novosti reported.Those bodies bore stab wounds.All of the remains were found near the Aksai gorge in southeastern Kazakhstan in an area used by local forest rangers.Five of the bodies have been identified. Police gave no detai