LONDON (AP) — Britain's Supreme Court has endorsed the extradition of WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange to Sweden, bringing the secret-spilling Internet activist a big step closer to prosecution in a Scandinavian court.But a question mark hung over the decision after Assange's lawyer made the highly unusual suggestion that she would try to reopen the case, raising the prospect of more legal wrangling

Kim Han-gill (Yonhap News)Former novelist Kim Han-gill retook the lead in the race to become the next chairman of the opposition Democratic United Party on Wednesday.He ranked No 1. in the regional vote for Gangwon Province with 179 votes, beating frontrunner Lee Hae-chan, who took third with 82. Former party spokesperson Woo Sang-ho came in second with 166.In terms of accumulated votes, Kim outst

Park Ji-sung (Yonhap News)Korean-born Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung will visit the southern coastal city of Yeosu Thursday to promote the World Expo 2012 currently underway, expo organizers said Monday.Park will appear at a "Big O" concert to be performed at the center of the 250,000-square meter exposition ground, they said, noting Park will attend the concert as a special guest, pray

THE HAGUE(AFP) - Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic went on trial Wednesday accused of carrying out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing and Europe's worst massacre since World War II."Ratko Mladic assumed the mantle of the criminal goal of ethnically cleansing Bosnia," prosecutor Dermot Groome told judges as the trial opened at the Yugoslav war crimes court in The Hague.Mladic, 70,

BEIRUT (AFP) - At least 15 civilians were "summarily executed" by regime forces in a neighbourhood of the central Syrian city of Homs overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday."After regime forces raided the neighbourhood of Shammas, 15 civilians were found summarily executed," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based watchdog told AFP, qualifying the killings a "mas

Seoul City announced on Wednesday that it will increase the number of hydrogen power systems for a stable electricity supply in case of blackouts or other emergencies.Under the plan, 29 hydrogen fuel cell power plants will be built and 102 hydrogen fuel cells will be installed by 2014. The facilities are expected to generate 230 megawatts of electricity per hour that could meet the energy demands

The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared producers of TV network MBC’s investigative program, “PD Notebook,” from having to compensate a group of viewers for airing inaccurate information.Justice Yang Chang-woo said the claims for damages did not have merit since the plaintiffs did had no connection to the content of the program. “The program targets a random audience and the pain they feel is stric

Prosecutors said Wednesday they have arrested the chief of a suspended savings bank over allegations he embezzled billions of won (millions of U.S. dollars) and gave out more than a hundred billion won in illegal loans.Lim Suk, the chief executive of Solomon Savings Bank, was arrested in Seoul late Tuesday after the prosecution determined he could destroy evidence related to the allegations he emb

NEW DELHI (AP) _ India is planning to test launch a new nuclear missile that for the first time would give it the capability of hitting the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai.The government has hailed the Agni-V missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), as a major boost to its efforts to counter China's regional dominance and become an Asia power in its own right. The test

 

Exotic pets becoming more common feature of nation’s householdsAre you considering “adopting” a pet? Dogs and cats are usually the first to be considered, but a growing number of people are choosing rather unusual animals. Snakes, scorpions, toads, parrots and spiders are rapidly settling in as new pets.Jang Se-won, a 23-year-old salesman, bought a snake as a pet 10 years ago when he and his famil

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs on Friday announced a set of guidelines calling for provincial administrations to accept the reality of climate change and upgrade anti-disaster measures accordingly. Experts say that weather on the Korean peninsula has turned subtropical due to global warming and climate changes. A section of a commuting railway between Seoul and Yeoncheon, Gye

Her face told me immediately that something was not right. My mother-in-law is usually cheerful and enthusiastic to greet us when we visit her home for the holidays, but this time her voice was feeble and her face was darkened by a smothered grimace. Then I noticed the limp and her hand bracing her back. “Mother, what happened?” I asked.“Oh, I fell two days ago. I slipped as I stepped down from th

LEXINGTON, Kentucky ― Five years ago, Bill Cole weighed 420 pounds, had little strength and less endurance, and generally avoided physical exercise.Cole, 49, is a Lexington real estate consultant. Before that, he taught sociology at the University of Kentucky and Morehead State University.“I was born with some foot problems and had a bunch of surgeries, which kind of gave me an excuse not to be ac

DALLAS ― Are kids growing up too fast?Dr. Michelle Fowers says too many are.“I think all the time about kids with grown-up illnesses,” says Fowers, a pediatrician at Baylor Medical Center in Irving, Texas.Societal pressures, poor nutrition, and inadequate or too narrowly focused exercise are causing serious health problems for kids, experts say. These problems include obesity, high blood pressure

A malignant tumor in the stomach, gastric cancer, is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in Korea. According to the National Health Insurance Corporation, 29,418 people were newly registered as gastric cancer patients in 2010, taking up almost 10 percent of the 218,884 new cancer patients that year.The high prevalence of gastric cancer here is due to Koreans’ diet pattern, said Dr. Lee Ju-ho of E

Voices calling for stricter safety standards at workplaces are growing louder after a slew of industrial accidents took several lives over the weekend. On Friday morning, a worker was killed when he suffocated while working inside a 3-meter-deep manhole in Namyeong-dong, central Seoul. Two others were immediately taken to a nearby hospital and one remains unconscious, police said. According to pol

Wary of response from pharmacists, drug firms hesitant to distributeThe sale of over-the-counter drugs in stores without pharmacies, first permitted on Wednesday afternoon, got off to a rocky start. “I wasn’t informed of any drugs to be stored today,” said a part-time worker of a Family Mart, the nation’s largest convenience store franchise, in Gangnam, southern Seoul, on Thursday morning. The sto

In this modern era of information, medical information is something that is sought by everyone. This means that, not only are many patients and guardians well informed, they also actively seek information about diseases. However, it is difficult to learn about emergency conditions unless you have been subject to them.   Song Keun-jeongCompared to other diseases, few people know about or understand

The sweltering heat after the three-week-long rain spell is bringing sleepless nights to most parts of the nation as the daytime temperature stays well above 33 degrees Celsius and the nighttime temperature remains at above 25 degrees Celsius on average. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment service, the number of people visiting medical facilities over heatstroke or sunstroke in