The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States on Saturday vowed to maintain their strong alliance and cooperate to deter North Korean threats during their first phone talks, Seoul officials said.South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shared their opinions about North Korea and regional issues over the phone prior to Kerry visiting Seoul next month as part of his first Asia trip, officials at the foreign affairs ministry said. Kerry will travel

The United Nations says that more than a fourth of all North Korean children are stunted from chronic malnutrition and fully two-thirds of the country's 24 million people don't know where their next meal is coming from.The U.N. said Friday that its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found that 2.8 million North Koreans ``are in need of regular food assistance amidst worrying levels of chronic malnutrition and food insecurity.''The OCHA report read out by U.N. spokesman Eduardo d

South Korea's labor force participation rate is expected to decline after peaking in 2021 due to fast population aging, a state-run think tank said Saturday.Korea's labor force participation rate, or the share of working-aged people in the labor force, is likely to hit 61.6 percent in 2021 and will likely steadily drop afterwards, according to a report by the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI).The report said that the participation rate is expected to stay in the low 61 percent range be

Conservative Muslim and Roman Catholic countries and liberal Western nations approved a U.N. blueprint Friday night to combat violence against women and girls, ignoring strong objections from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that it clashed with Islamic principles and sought to destroy the family.After two weeks of tough and often contentious negotiations, 131 countries joined consensus on a compromise 17-page document that Michelle Bachelet, the head of the U.N. women's agency, called historic becaus

A Connecticut Fox affiliate apologized for a montage of close-up shots of women's breasts shown during a segment on the state's Women's Day.The station, WTIC-TV, Hartford/New Haven, apologized Wednesday on its Twitter account after a news report earlier in the day featured anchor Erika Arias talking about the state's event while the broadcaster showed a montage of close-up shots of women's breasts as they walked down the street, the New York Daily News reported Friday.Online newspaper The Huffin

이지영(28•볼빅)이 미국여자프로골프(LPGA) 투어 RR 도넬리 파운더스컵(총상금 150만 달러)에서 이틀째 맹타를 휘두르며 단독 선두로 뛰어올랐다.이지영은 16일(한국시간) 미국 애리조나주 피닉스의 와일드파이어 골프장(파72 •6천583야드)에서 열린 대회 2라운드에서 보기 없이 버디만 8개를 몰아쳐 8언더파 64타를 써냈다.중간합계 15언더파 129타를 적어낸 이지영은 전날 2위에서 단독 선두로 도약했다. 2위 미야자토 아이(일본•14언더파 130타)와는 1타 차이다.세계랭킹 3위인 스테이시 루이스(미국)는 2라운드에서 7타를 줄이며 단독 3위(1 1언더파 133타)에 올랐다.이지영은 2005년 한국에서 열린 LPGA 대회 CJ 나인브릿지 클래식(현 하나외환 챔피언십)에서 우승하고서 미국 무대에 진출했는데, 이후 우승과는 인연이 없었다.2011∼2012년에는 부진을 겪으며 한 번도 톱10에 든 적이 없다.올해도 첫 대회인 ISPS 한다 호주여자오픈에서는 컷 탈락했다.그러나 이번

Lee Jee-young birdied three of her last four holes to take a one-stroke lead over Ai Miyazato on another hot day at the LPGA Founders Cup.Lee, the 27-year-old South Korean player who won the LPGA Tour's 2005 South Korean event before becoming a tour member, had a bogey-free 8-under 64 on Friday to reach 15-under 129. She broke the tournament 36-hole record of 12 under set by Angela Stanford in 2011.``I've waited so long, like seven, eight years,'' Lee said. ``I really want to win this week. But

European finance ministers sought to hammer out a long-delayed bailout deal for Cyprus in a marathon negotiation early Saturday, in a bid to keep the island nation from a bankruptcy that could rekindle the region's debt crisis.If a rescue loan package is agreed on at the extraordinary meeting of the Eurogroup in Brussels, it's likely to come with tough conditions for Cyprus, including measures to shrink its troubled banking sector, raise taxes and privatize state assets. The bailout was initiall

Florida police said a woman barricaded herself in a motel room, fired off 18 shots and threatened suicide because she was upset about her unfaithful boyfriend.Daytona Beach police said officers were called to the Sun & Surf Motel at 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday when Heather Beaver, 21, barricaded herself in a motel room with a firearm after an argument with her boyfriend of three years, Craig Garris, about his cheating, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported Friday.Beaver fired off 18 rounds during the

Apple Inc. (AAPL) was accused by THX Ltd., a company founded by “Star Wars” producer George Lucas, of stealing speaker technology used in iPhones, iPads and iMac products. THX holds a 2008 patent for a speaker unit that can boost sound output and attach to computers or flat-screen televisions, according to a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in San Jose, California. Apple products that incorporate the speaker units infringe the THX patent, causing the company “monetary damage and irrepa

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced Friday that his country will deploy 14 additional ground-based interceptor missiles in Alaska by 2017, a move which apparently reflects that Washington is taking North Korea's long-range missile threats more seriously.The Pentagon also plans to set up a new radar station in Japan to beef up its capability to detect any missile fired from the secretive communist nation."I'm announcing a series of steps the United States will take to stay ahead of th

North Korea fired off short-range missiles into the East Sea on Friday amid heightened tension following its February nuclear test, a military source in Seoul said."A North Korean military unit on drill test-fired two shots of short-range missiles, presumed to be KN-02 missiles, into the East Sea" the source said.The source did not say the exact time of the launching."The launch was seen as testing its capability for short-range missiles. It seemed to be conducted on a military-unit level, not a

 영화전문 주간지 '무비위크'가 창간 12년 만에 폐간된다.무비위크는 12일 공식 트위터를 통해 오는 22일 571호 발행을 끝으로 발행을 종 료한다고 밝혔다.이 잡지는 2001년 창간해 '씨네21'과 함께 국내 영화 전문지의 명맥을 이어왔다.무비위크의 폐간에 따라 영화 주간지는 '씨네21'이 유일하게 남게 됐다.'씨네21'과 '무비위크' 외에도 1990년대부터 2000년대까지 '키노' '프리미어' '필름 2.0' 등 여러 영화 전문지가 나왔지만, 무가지 출현을 비롯한 매체 환경의 변화로 잇따라 폐간됐다.무비위크 측은 "사업부 개편에 따라 '무비위크' 제작진은 4월부터 중앙일보가 발행하는 영화잡지 '매거진 M'으로 통합, 새로운 업무를 시작할 예정"이라고 전했다. 무비위크는 2007년 중앙일보 계열로 편입됐다.<관련 한글 기사>Local film weekly ‘Movieweek’ goes out of businessBy Claire LeeLocal film weekly Moviewe

 Prescribing drugs to boost memory and thinking abilities in healthy children and teens to study is misguided, U.S. researchers say. Study author Dr. William Graf of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., said some parents request doctors to prescribe attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs for their children who don't meet the criteria for ADHD, to help them study for tests."Doctors caring for children and teens have a professional obligation to always protect the best interests of the chi

Early birds evolved from feathered dinosaurs with four wings but soon ditched "training wheels" for more efficient two-winged flight, Chinese scientists say.In 2003, a group of Chinese researchers excavated six fossils of flying dinosaurs with wings on their hind legs, dubbing them Microraptors."When we published that ten years ago there was some suspicion whether the fossil was faked," Xing Xu from Linyi University in Shandong province said.Now Xu and colleagues have described another find supp

Samsung Electronics seated three different chief executives as part of its efforts to improve operational efficiency and grant more responsibility to each unit the CEOs will lead on Friday, following a board meeting. The world’s top handset, television and chipmaker said that it will establish a three-way leadership system as the company separated its businesses into three different units early this year. Kwon Oh-hyun, vice chairman and the CEO of Samsung’s flagship arm, will take charge of the

China's parliament installed bureaucrat Li Keqiang as premier Friday, putting him in charge of running the world's second-largest economy in a final step of a landmark power transition.Li, who is expected to be in office for a decade, faces the challenge of steering the country towards more balanced development, with domestic consumption by a larger middle class playing a greater role."I announce that comrade Li Keqiang has been chosen as premier of the People's Republic of China," said Yan Junq

Both mothers and fathers in the United States report having trouble juggling family and work, a study released Thursday said. The Pew Research Center said an examination of longterm data shows the roles and attitudes of men and women with children are converging. The center said half of men and 56 percent of women report having trouble with the dual role of parents and employees. Both genders are almost equally likely to say they wished they could be full-time parents, Pew said. But men are stil

U.S. soldier under investigation on suspicion of sexually harassing S. Korean womanA 22-year-old American soldier was under investigation Thursday on suspicion of sexually harassing a South Korean woman in an elevator, South Korean police said.The Army private fist class, known only by his initial Q from the US K-55 Air Base, allegedly forced the 27-year-old woman to look at obscene photographs shown on his cellphone in an apartment elevator in Pyeongtaek, a provincial city 70 kilometers south o

A pair of Italian developers have created an alarm clock smartphone app designed to help users wake up with math games and other tasks.The FreakyAlarm app, created by Enrico Angelini and Gabriele Di Lorenzo, has a basic mode where users must take pictures of objects or barcodes before bed then photograph the same objects or barcodes to shut the alarm off in the morning, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.The app also has an "evil" setting, which requires users to solve difficult math equa