Kim Sang-hun, a noted business consultant, recently advised on the opening of “Silver Day,” a caf run by the silver generation of those over 65 years old.Kim lent a hand in working out the details, from selection of location to analyzing business feasibility. His firm, Start Business, consulted on interior and exterior designs, facility management, menu and purchase of ingredients as well as staff

Temperatures soar past 30°C as across the countryTwo people died due to sweltering heat that swept the country after a three-week-rain front subsided on Sunday afternoon. Both were women in their 80s in South Chungcheong Province.According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 84-year-old woman died of heat stroke while working in a field on Monday. Another 89-year-old woman f

The national pension fund will invest more overseas to guarantee a profitable yet secure source of interest for subscribers, the National Pension Service said Tuesday. Having focused on overseas bonds since its overseas investment kicked off in 2001, the NPS headquarters said it would diversify its investment portfolio. The public corporation owns several pieces of overseas real estate including t

Choi Sun-hee, a 56-year-old housewife, recently bought the national pension policy, although she was not obliged to. She will be paying around 140,000 won a year for the next 10 years and will start receiving around 250,000 won every month from then. “It is a bank savings program with the highest interest rate, you can say,” she said.Choi admitted that she wasn’t too keen to join the pension progr

Korea hosted the International Pension Conference to discuss issues surrounding the world’s most influential investment funds from July 11-13. The forum drew 37 heads of pension services worldwide who manage a total of 3,620 trillion won ($3.4 trillion) worth of assets.Representatives from powerhouses including Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, Canada’s Canada Pension Plan Investment and

Korean has long been thought of as a difficult language to learn, and now a U.S. website, the ThirdAge (www.thirdage.com), has ranked it the fourth most difficult language to learn, at least among English native speakers. The website, which calls itself the biggest site for baby-boomer generation women, said that Korean has a “different sentence structure, syntax, and verb conjugations that makes

A lawyer here announced Thursday that he will lead a class action against Apple Inc. for violation of privacy with its iPhone “tracker” device. All eyes are now on whether Apple will aggressively defend against the litigation, which may affect the majority of the country’s 3 million iPhone users and inflict billions of won in losses on the business giant.Apple’s iPhone 4 (AP-Yonhap News)According

Travelers to Asian and African countries should take extra care against contracting cholera, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday, as the first cholera patient this year was reported a day earlier. Quarantine officials of Incheon International Airport said a tourist who had traveled to Deli and Varanasi of India between July 2-8 was detected with cholerae 01 Ogawa in hi

 Yoo Jun-hyun With the advancement of civilization, people are now able to control their environment. The term “air-conditioningitis” can often be heard during the summer. Air-conditioningitis occurs when the body cannot adjust properly to the sharp differences in temperature between the cool air-conditioned indoors and the warm outdoors. Air-conditioning in an office building, a bank, a hotel or

ATLANTA (AP) ― The debate about the dangers of eating too much salt has gained a new wrinkle: A federal study suggests that the people most at risk are those who also get too little potassium.Potassium-rich foods, including fruits and vegetables, have long been recommended as a dietary defense against heart disease and other chronic illnesses. The new research is one of the first and largest U.S.

SYDNEY (AP) ― Australia’s liquor industry launched a voluntary program to label its products with health warnings Tuesday, possibly to pre-empt future criticism that it is contributing to excessive drinking that is part of the national culture.About 80 percent of alcohol sold in the country - beer, wine and spirits - will carry the warnings, primarily aimed at teenagers and pregnant women, said Tr

LONDON (AP) ― Gilead Sciences Inc., one of the world’s biggest producers of AIDS drugs, will allow some of them to be made by generic manufacturers - potentially increasing their availability in poor countries, particularly in Africa, officials said Tuesday.In the first deal of its kind, the Foster City, California-based pharmaceutical company has agreed to allow four of its AIDS drugs to be made

Jaseng’s Royer says Oriental medicine focuses on balance of inner energyMany Koreans visit Oriental medical doctors for stamina or chi improvement. Yet, the field is less visited for treatment of ordinary diseases, industry insiders admit.But Oriental medicine is slowly earning a reputation for seeing the disease and the body condition from a larger perspective. It is the hot spot for foreigners s

The government needs to establish a body dedicated to cultural diplomacy using the country’s soft power, a group of foreign affairs experts said Wednesday calling for a related law. At the Korean Public Diplomacy Forum in Seoul, experts said the government had not made the most of the nation’s soft power. “Though the country has seen remarkable economic and technological successes including hostin

A road collapses after heavy rain hits Wanju, North Jeolla Province. (Yonhap News)Fifteen people died and five went missing during the massive downpour that swept the country over the weekend. The damage is expected to increase since the state weather agency forecast that heavy rains would blanket the nation by the end of next week. The National Emergency Management Agency on Monday said the rainf

A soldier had killed himself at the Marine Corps Second Division near Seoul just a day before Monday’s shooting rampage at his division, military officials said Friday, as investigations continued into the case that killed four soldiers. Authorities said they are investigating whether habitual bullying was rampant among marines at the division in Ganghwa, Gyeonggi Province, leading to the two trag

Assailants given light penalties while victims fight trauma, prejudiceOn May 21, a group of Korea University medical school students went on a trip to suburban Seoul. It should have been fun and refreshing.However, for one 24-year-old female student, it turned into a nightmare. During a party at a retreat, three male classmates induced her into drinking drugged liquor, until she became unconscious

A group of doctors here have found a gene that could detect the possible recurrence of breast cancer. If cancer treatment is effective, recurrence remains a major threat. The finding could contribute to improved treatment for breast cancer, Prof. Kim Lee-su of Hallym University said.When there are cancer cells, and when teh cancer spreads to the lymph nodes, normal cells’ production of αB-Crystall

Pyo Hong-ryullRadiation therapy, together with surgery and chemotherapy, has become one of the three most commonly used methods for treating cancer today. Since the discovery of X-ray, many improvements ― such as the linear accelerator (LINAC), 3-Dimensional conformal radiotherapy and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) ― have been seen in the field of radiotherapy. Proton therapy can be

The official jangma, or rainy season, has reached its peak with up to 200 millimeters of rainfall pounding the nation throughout the week. Heavy rain like this will be a disappointment for most joggers and outdoor activity fanatics. Some people enjoy exercise in the rain but doctors advise people to keep to indoor activities. Dr. Park Won-ha of Samsung Medical Center suggested ways to enjoy safe e