A federal court jury in New York began deliberation Thursday after hearing closing arguments in the trial of accused "cannibal cop" Gilberto Valle.Valle, a former New York City police officer, sobbed in court Thursday as his lawyer, public defender Julia Gatto, told jurors he had a penchant for "disturbing porn" and his alleged plot to kidnap, cook and eat women was a product of "sick thoughts" and "ugly fantasies" that should not land him in prison, the New York Post reported.Gatto argued that

A lawyer for a woman who says Michael Jordan fathered her teenage son is attacking the basketball hall of famer's allegation that her ex-husband has been established as boy's dad.Pamela Smith last month sued Jordan and asked that he take a paternity test and pay child support. Jordan has said he's not the father and filed motion to have her lawsuit dismissed.A lawyer for Jordan said in a court filing last week that Smith's divorce filings established her ex-husband as the teen's father. The resp

Water samples from an ancient lake buried under ice near the South Pole contain a type of life not found anywhere else on Earth, Russian researchers say.Bacteria found in probes of water from sub-glacial Lake Vostok do not match any of the 40-plus known subkingdoms of bacteria, Sergei Bulat of the Laboratory of Eukaryote Genetics at the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute said.“After excluding all known contaminants ... we discovered bacterial DNA that does not match any known species liste

The Senate confirmed John Brennan to be CIA director Thursday after the Obama administration bowed to demands from Republicans blocking the nomination and stated explicitly there are limits on the president's power to use drones against U.S. terror suspects on American soil.The vote was 63-34 and came just hours after Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, held the floor past midnight in an old-style filibuster of the nomination to extract an answer from t

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, and a furious Pyongyang threatened a nuclear strike against the United States.The sanctions drafted by North Korea's closest ally, China, and the United States send a powerful message that the international community condemns Pyongyang's ballistic missile and nuclear tests _ and repeated violations of Security Council resolutions. “Adoption of the resolution itself is n

Prosecutors investigating a match-fixing scandal in professional basketball said Thursday they plan to seek an arrest warrant for an active head coach for his role in rigging games.Prosecutors in Euijeongbu, north of Seoul, said they have confirmed star coach Kang Dong-hee's involvement in match fixing and can file for a warrant later Thursday.According to prosecutors, Kang allegedly took cash from two gambling brokers on four occasions during the playoffs in the Korean Basketball League (KBL) i

North Korea warned Thursday that a thermonuclear war can take place as the United Nations moves to impose tough sanctions against the communist country for conducting its third atomic weapons test last month.The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), said in a commentary titled "independence is more important than life" that the military has become stronger and whether there is a nuclear conflict or a war involving more powerful weapons, North Korea has the potentia

Seoul National University confirmed Thursday that a professor recently resigned after accusations of plagiarizing his thesis published in 2004.A 48-year-old surnamed Kim recently offered his resignation after admitting that he copied an article from Yale University for his article published by the Korean Association of International Studies.The plagiarism allegation first arose from an email sent to the KAIS alleging that Kim copied a Yale professor’s report written in 1983 and translated it int

The allure of confession pages is now attracting a younger group of students from secondary schools, junior colleges and polytechnics.Confession pages, set up by students in Singapore universities and first reported last week, are the latest craze here.This Valentine's Day, students are turning to their keyboards to profess their desires and share their unrequited feelings.And already, users are getting younger as some follow the example of their lovelorn counterparts at the National University

About 50 percent of South Korean banks' employees are women, but female senior bankers account for only some 4 percent out of local banks' total executives, pointing to the sector's still thick glass ceiling, data showed Thursday.Top lender Kookmin Bank and its other five rivals said the number of their combined employees stood at 81,234 as of end-February, out of which 48.8 percent bankers were women.But the number of women at the senior level is marginal in the Korean banking sector. In the ba

Time Warner announced Wednesday it would spin off its publishing arm Time Inc. by the end of the year, allowing the US conglomerate to focus on its television and film operations.Chief executive Jeff Bewkes said in a statement that a spinoff "provides strategic clarity" for the media-entertainment giant.The announcement comes after unsuccessful talks to sell some of the titles in the Time Inc. group, and as rival News Corp. is undergoing a similar split of its entertainment and publishing operat

The European Union has fined Microsoft (euro) 561 million ($733 million) for breaking a pledge to offer personal computer users a choice of Internet browsers when they install the company's flagship Windows operating system.The penalty imposed by the EU's executive arm, the Commission, is a first for Brussels: no company has ever failed to keep its end of a bargain with EU authorities before.In 2009, Microsoft Corp. struck a broad settlement with the Commission to resolve disputes over the compa

Inter-Korean trade jumped more than 15 percent last year but was still far short of that between China and North Korea, data showed Thursday.According to the data compiled by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), trade volume between South Korea and North Korea reached $1.98 billion last year, up 15.8 percent from a year earlier.But the 2012 annual trade amount between the two Koreas was just some 30 percent of North Korea's trade with its strongest ally China, the data showed.Last y

The proportion of Korean women in their 20s currently working or looking for work exceeded that of men in the same age group for the first time last year.The so-called economic activity rate for women reached 62.9 percent, surpassing men’s 62.6 percent in 2012, signaling change in the labor market.An increasing number of women are working alongside men, data by Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Employment and Labor showed.The increase in women’s activity rate is attributable to women pushing

The U.S. government believes North Korea, with our without the government's help, is producing narcotics and counterfeit cigarettes for shipment to China, according to an annual report.In the 2013 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the State Department said it has found no clear evidence that the North Korean regime is directly involved in such illegal activities.But the United States "cannot entirely rule out the possibility of official DPRK (North Korea) state involvement in the

A provincial education chief was detained Wednesday on a bribery charge, court officials said Thursday.Kim Jong-seong, chief of the South Chungcheong Office of Education, has been under investigation since last month on charges that the 63-year-old ordered government officials to take bribes worth 290 million won ($267,000) from people seeking to become state education advisors, in exchange for qualification test questions. The court said there is substantial evidence supporting his crime, accor

A U.N. diplomat says the Security Council will vote Thursday on a U.S.-China draft resolution that would impose some of the strongest sanctions ever ordered by the United Nations against North Korea as punishment for its latest nuclear test.The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting has not been announced publicly, said the resolution was put in its final form Wednesday and the council will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday for the vote.U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice expressed hope

영국에서 한 오디션 프로그램 출신 가수가 과거 자동차를 훔친 경력이 발각되는 사건이 발생했다.데일리 메일 등 영국 언론은 지난 5일 (현지시간) “X팩터”에 출연했단 가수 페이지 플레허티 (19)가 이날 뉴캐슬 크라운 법정에서 열린 재판에서 자동차 절도 혐의를 인정했다고 보도했다.플레허티는 지난 2011년 8월 29일에 영국 동북부 사우스 타인사이드에서 자동차 한대를 훔쳐 뉴캐슬까지 몰고 갔다. 그곳에서 그녀는 보행자를 치는 사고를 냈는데, 보도에 따르면 플레허티는 피해자에게 가짜 연락처를 주었다고 한다.플레허티와 연락이 되지 않아 안타까워하던 피해자는 몇 주 뒤, X팩터에서 공연하고 있는 그녀의 모습을 발견했고, 그녀는 곧 체포되었다. 플레허티가 X팩터에 출연할 당시 몸담았던 여성 4인조 그룹 “트위스티디(Twisted)”는 프로그램 도중 심사위원 켈리 롤랜드의 제안으로 멤버 크리시 피트가 팀을 탈퇴하면서 주목을 받았다. 롤랜드는 피트의 솔로무대를 듣고 “팀을 떠나는 것이 좋겠다”

The first-ever shipment of beef from Chile arrived in South Korea last month, a government agency said Wednesday, raising expectations imports will likely grow steadily due to a bilateral free trade deal.A 25.84-ton shipment of Chilean beef arrived here early last month, according to the Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency.South Korea and Chile implemented a bilateral free trade agreement in 2004, under which Seoul agreed to completely remove import taxes on up to 400 to

The U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Index broke its all-time record Tuesday and around the world stocks rose strongly, following better-than-expected economic data in Europe and the United States and a pledge from China, the world's second largest economy, that it would meet ambitious growth targets.On Wall Street, the Dow rose 1.1 percent to 14,278.42, passing all-time highs set in October 2007.  The S&P 500 advanced 1.2 percent to 1,542.96.In Germany, the DAX closed Tuesday 2.3 percent higher to 7,8