The number of foreign residents in S.Korea rose 1.5-fold in five years to top 590,000 in 2010, a nationwide census showed Monday.   The census, which is carried out by Statistics Korea every five years, also showed that there were 90 countries that had more than 30 nationals living in South Korea as of last year.   Of the total, 50.8 percent, or 299,000, were from China, including people of Korean

(Bloomberg)Emotions can spread between users of social network sites, U.S. media reported. San Jose Mercury News said that emotions have long been known to be contagious and social media were a new means of transmission, citing the research by Facebook data scientist Adam Kramer. Kramer studied about 1 million English speakers and their friends in different countries on the social network service

HAMBURG, Germany – The terrifying E. coli outbreak in Europe appears to have been caused by vegetable sprouts grown on an organic farm in Germany, an agriculture official said Sunday as the toll climbed to at least 22 dead and more than 2,200 sickened.Preliminary tests found that bean sprouts and other sprout varieties from the farm in the Uelzen area, between the northern cities of Hamburg and Ha

   A disgraced South Korean television celebrity was slapped Friday with a court arrest to be jailed for eight months for repeatedly gambling abroad and refusing to return home in an attempt to elude investigation.   Shin Jung-hwan, 36, rattled the South Korean entertainment industry when media reports said last August that he had gambled away hundreds of millions of won at a hotel casino in the P

Girls’ Generation ranked number one in Japanese Oricon Chart on June 1st, the day their first Japanese original album was released. The beloved Korean idol group, composed of nine members, sold 73,583 copies on the first day and pushed themselves to the peak of Oricon Daily Album Chart.According to their agent SM Entertainment, Girls’ Generation dominated reservation lists ahead of the release dat

  South Korea's income from tourism increased steadily in March and April, data showed Thursday, indicating that the country might have been insulated from the impact from Japan's devastating earthquake in March.   Foreign tourists' spending in South Korea reached US$770.1 million in April, up 6.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. South Korea's income from tourism rose 2

Queens, a district of New York, is to regulate foreign language signs by requiring English translations.Two Republican councilmen, Peter Koo from Flushing and Dan Halloran of Whitestone, are planning on introducing the controversial bill.When the new law is enforced, shop owners are forced to change their signs so that at least 60 percent is written in English. Some streets in areas like Flushing

Prosecutors said Tuesday they secured evidence that a scandal-ridden savings bank has used slush funds to lobby ranking government officials and influential politicians to prevent financial regulators from ousting the bank due to illegal loans and other irregularities.   The bank raised the slush funds by offering illegal loans worth trillions of won to more than 100 special purpose companies esta

On June 2, The Korea Herald will launch its new debate page “Voice” with the question: “Should South Korea scrap nuclear energy?” Each week, “Voice” will feature two contributors going head-to-head on a burning issue in Korean society. This space is also for you, the reader, to react to the issue and have your say. We also want to hear your thoughts on other subjects that matter to you, whether th

CNN on Monday published new photos of Marilyn Monroe on its website, offering a rare glimpse into her life before she became a star. Photographer Anton Fury came across the apparently unpublished photos at a garage sale. Fury paid $2 for a folder, which contained two envelopes of black-and-white negatives, in Parsippany, New Jersey, in 1980. Fury later took it home and discovered that the photos c

LOS ANGELES ― Boxer Antonio Margarito has undergone cataract surgery to repair what was considered a career-threatening injury to his right eye that he suffered in a lopsided loss to Manny Pacquiao in November.Margarito’s promoter Bob Arum, concerned about the fighter’s future before the May 19 operation, now says a “miracle” turn of events will allow the ex-welterweight champion to return to spar

LOS ANGELES ― Jennifer Yuh Nelson, the director of the new animated film “Kung Fu Panda 2,” might have been destined for a career in pictures. After immigrating to the United States from South Korea with her parents and two sisters when she was 4, Nelson spent her childhood in Lakewood, Calif., watching martial arts movies, playing with cars and drawing.As a young girl, she would sit at the kitche

(MCT)A house with three rooms and a huge garden in Maryland is now on sale for $515,000. However, there is one thing the agent selling the house would probably prefer you not find out: It’s the site of three murders.According to state law, the agent does not necessarily need to tell buyers about crimes that have taken place in the house.The most recent owner, Brian Betts, who was a principal at Ga

The Han river Floating Island (Yonhap News)An online portal operated by CNN recently introduced 50 reasons why Seoul is the world’s greatest city. Written from the perspective of a non-Korean, the list is beginning to grab international attention.Concerning the fact that Asian tourists have designated Seoul the first city to visit, CNNGo selected several reasons why. At the very top of the list wa

   BUSAN (Yonhap) -- The leader of a group of Somali pirates on Friday was sentenced to life in prison with three other pirates sentenced to prison terms of 13 to 15 years on charges of hijacking a South Korean freighter in January this year and shooting the ship's captain.(Yonhap News)

   BUSAN, May 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's prosecution on Friday sought a death sentence for the leader of a group of Somali pirates as well as lifetime imprisonment for three other pirates for their attack on a South Korean freighter early this year.   Capital punishment was sought for Mahomed Arai, 21, who allegedly shot the captain of the ship, the Samho Jewelry, and now faces charges of mariti

 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il returned home Friday after concluding a weeklong trip to China reportedly designed to promote bilateral economic and diplomatic relations.   Kim's special train crossed the China-North Korea border into the North's border city of Sinuiju earlier in the day after a 6,000-kilometer-long journey that took him to China's northeastern and prosperous eastern areas and Be

   TOKYO, May 27 (Yonhap) -- The upper house in the Japanese Diet on Friday ratified an agreement on the return of ancient Korean texts to Seoul, completing a legal process for the transfer considered key to improving bilateral relations.   The House of Councillors in Tokyo approved the ratification bill on a 145-86 vote, about a month after the House of Representatives, the lower house, passed th

  South Korea's current account surplus rose to the highest level in four months in April as robust exports overshadowed an increase in dividend payouts by local firms to foreign investors, the central bank said Friday.   The current account surplus reached US$1.88 billion in April, up from a revised $1.33 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the

Volunteering is evolving at a rapid pace in South Korea, and the outlook appears positive, helped by the concerted efforts of the country’s key sectors, an expert said Thursday. “Korea is recognized as the nation where volunteering is growing the most rapidly in the past 10 years,” said Charles Phillips, president of Service For Peace, an international volunteer organization, in an interview. “The