K-pop sensation Psy's "Gangnam Style" will now reach smokers as a Canadian tobacco company gears up to launch a new cigarette named "Gangnam" next month, a company official said Wednesday.The tobacco firm CT&G set up last year by South Koreans residing in Ontario, Canada, said three Virginia blend-typed cigarettes -- Gangnam, c38 and MIDAS -- will be released in mid-February. "One of our new arrivals will have the name of 'Gangnam,' riding on the huge popularity of Psy's 'Gangnam Style,'" said K

South Korea's industrial output grew at a weaker pace than a month earlier in December, raising worries industrial activities might be slowing amid toughened economic conditions, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries increased 0.8 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with a revised 3.2 percent on-year gain tallied in November.The output expanded 1 percent from a month e

Korea’s services account has swung into the black for the first time in 14 years, mainly thanks to robust transportation transactions, the Bank of Korea said Wednesday.This has helped the country to achieve an annual record in the current account surplus, the broadest measure of trade.Korea’s current account surplus reached a record high of $43.25 billion in 2012, remaining in the black for 15 consecutive years.The current account surplus increased $17.18 billion to $43.25 billion last year, sur

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly confirmed President Barack Obama's choice of Sen. John Kerry to be secretary of state, with Republicans and Democrats praising him as the ideal successor to Hillary Rodham Clinton.The vote Tuesday was 94-3. One senator _ Kerry _ voted present and accepted congratulations from colleagues on the Senate floor. The roll call came just hours after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved the man who has led the panel for the past four years.Kerry coul

BP PLC closed the book on the Justice Department's criminal probe of its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster and Gulf oil spill Tuesday, when a U.S. judge agreed to let the London-based oil giant plead guilty to manslaughter charges for the deaths of 11 rig workers and pay a record $4 billion in penalties.What the plea deal approved by U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance doesn't resolve, though, is the federal government's civil claims against BP. The company could pay billions more for environme

North Korea on Tuesday vowed "merciless" retaliation against the South for its support of U.N. sanctions, as Seoul urged Pyongyang to step back from a widely expected nuclear test.The perennially tense situation on the Korean peninsula has been stretched to its limit in the past week, with almost daily threats from the North that it is preparing to conduct a nuclear test as a riposte to the expanded sanctions.A lengthy commentary published Tuesday by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA

Rescuers helped drivers escape swift floodwaters and used helicopters to pluck stranded people from rooftops in northeast Australia on Tuesday after torrential rains flooded thousands of homes and businesses, killed four and forced thousands to huddle in shelters.Floodwaters peaked in most of the worst-hit areas by evening. Some communities that were initially expected to be inundated appeared to have escaped major damage, with levees holding back the muddy water in one city that was in the high

Twitter's iPhone video-snippet sharing service Vine had concerns about porn exposed on Monday after adult content was bared briefly in an "Editor's Picks" section.Twitter apologized for the mistake, blaming "human error" but providing little detail, and quickly removed the video.The globally popular one-to-many message sharing service last week launched Vine, a service that lets people share video snippets from iPhones or iPod touch devices.Perpetually looping video clips up to six seconds each

월요일 발표된 연구조사에 의하면 담배를 피우는 행동은 뇌의 자제력에 의해 결정된다고 밝혔다.연구가들은 중립적인 비디오영상과 흡연을 하는 사람들이 나오는 비디오를 보여준 후 실험 대상자들의 뇌의 혈류량 관계를 조사했다. 실험 전 연구가들은 몇몇 대상자들에게는 비디오 영상을 본 후 담배를 피울 수 있다고 말했고 나머지 대상자들에게는 실험이 끝난 4시간이 지난 후에야 담배를 피울 수 있다고 말했다.흡연자 10명의 뇌를 스캔 해본 결과 기억과 행동을 결정하는 후대상회가 결정적인 역할을 한다고 밝혀졌다. 스캔 결과 담배를 피우기까지 기다려야 했던 참가자들의 혈류량이 높았지만, 후대상회의 활동을 중단시킨 후에는 후대상회의 혈류량이 현저히 낮아져 담배를 피우고 싶어하는 충동이 줄어든 것으로 확인할 수 있었다.과학자들은 담배를 피우고 싶어하는 충동과 뇌의 관계에 관한 연구 진전에 따라 관련되는 뇌의 정확한 부분을 찾아내는데 집중하고 있다. (코리아헤럴드) <관련 영문 기사>Smoking addic

작년에 이어 올해도 경제 성장에 대한 부정적인 전망이 만연하지만, 21세기경제연구소 대표이자 “대통령을 위한 경제학”의 저자인 최용식 소장은 긍정의 경제학이 필요하다고 주장다. “경제에서의 비관론은 자기실현성이 있는 법이라서 정부나 기관에서 소극적인 예측을 내놓으면 현실도 그대로 따라가게 되어있다,” 라고 최소장은 말했다.“부정적인 기류 속에서 어느 기업이나 소비자가 투자와 소비를 하겠는가.”또한 정계나 언론에서는 가계부채나 고용률 등을 들면서 한국 경제가 위기 상황인 것으로 묘사하곤 하는데 이는 왜곡된 인식이라고도 전했다.“중요한 것은 가계부채의 금액이 아니라 가계자산의 총액, 그리고 상환 능력이다.”노무현 전 대통령의 경제 분야 멘토로 알려진 그는 차기 박근혜 정부의 경제 정책들에 대해서도 우려를 표했다. 특히 핵심 과제인 재벌 규제는 경제민주화가 아닌 공정 거래의 시각에서 접근해야 함을 강조했다.“복지, 소위 분배의 선순환이 그 자체로 목적이 되어서는 안 된다. 분배는 반드시

Police said Tuesday they have launched a probe into the cause of a fatal hydrofluoric acid gas leak that killed one worker and injured four others at the main plant of the world's largest memory chip maker Samsung Electronics Co.  Up to 10 liters of hydrofluoric acid, an acute poison that can damage lungs and bones and even affect the nervous system, leaked from one of the pipes at the Samsung plant in Hwaseong, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on Sunday, officers said.The leak occurred around 1:30

A Washington state man allegedly tied up his step-daughter and shot her with a BB gun more than 30 times, police said.The young girl's grandmother initially thought she might have chicken pox because of the red dots covering her body, but the girl said her stepfather, Stetson Tedder, 26, had hog-tied her and shot her with an airsoft gun as a form of punishment, The (Everett) Herald said. A hospital nurse counted 36 wounds on the girl's body.The airsoft gun Tedder allegedly used is designed to st

Searchers pulled 10 bodies from a well in northern Mexico on Monday, near the site where 20 members of a Colombian-style music group and its crew disappeared late last week, a state forensic official said.It was hard to determine how many more bodies were submersed in the water, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the case.Nuevo Leon state Gov. Rodrigo Medina earlier told a local television station, “We have evidence that in

Outgoing President Lee Myung-bak issued special pardons to 55 convicted criminals including some of his closest associates on Tuesday, inciting heavy criticism from his successor Park Geun-hye’s transition team and all political parties.Those granted pardons include former Korea Communications Commission chief Choi See-joong and businessman Chun Shin-il of Sejoong Namo Tour. The longtime confidants of Lee were serving prison terms for bribery. Other beneficiaries were former National Assembly Sp

Moody's Investors Service downgraded six of Canada's major financial institutions on Monday on concerns over high levels of consumer debt among Canadians and elevated house prices. The ratings affect Toronto-Dominion Bank, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank and the Desjardins caisse populaire.Moody's vice president David Beattie noted Monday that the banks still rank among the highest-rated banks in the world. TD is the highest rated at AA1 among the

Ranchers welcomed Japan's decision Monday to ease restrictions on U.S. beef imports, saying it will provide a boost to the American meat industry but cautioning that it will take time before exports to Japan reach their levels of a decade ago.Japan is one of the biggest importers of U.S. beef, despite restrictions that for years haven't allowed the import of beef from cattle older than 20 months instead of the industry standard of 30 months. Those restricted imports were only allowed after Japan

The U.S. military plans to set up a base for drones in northwest Africa to bolster surveillance of al-Qaida's affiliate in the region and allied Islamist extremists, a U.S. official told AFP on Monday.The base for the robotic, unmanned aircraft would likely be located in Niger, on the eastern border of Mali, where French forces are currently waging a campaign against al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.The base was first reported by the

A U.S. congressional delegation will travel to South Korea this week for a meeting with President-elect Park Geun-hye, sources here said Monday.Headed by Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the group is on a weeklong trip to Asia."Chairman Royce is currently leading a congressional delegation to Asia," an aide to Royce said.The delegation arrived in Taiwan and will also visit the Philippines, China and South Korea before it returns to the U.S. on Feb. 2, according t

South Korean manufacturers' business confidence for February rose to the highest level in four months, underscoring optimism that the incoming government will unveil economic stimulus steps, the central bank said Tuesday.The index of manufacturers' outlook on business conditions came in at 72 for February, up from 70 tallied for January, according to a monthly survey by the Bank of Korea (BOK). The index measures manufacturers' expectations for the coming month.It marked the highest level since

The Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix announced Monday that she is ending her reign after 33 years and passing the crown to her eldest son, who has long been groomed to be king but who will have to work hard to match his mother’s popularity.The widely expected abdication comes at a time of debate over the future of the largely ceremonial Dutch monarchy, but also as calm has descended upon the Netherlands after a decade of turmoil that saw Beatrix act as the glue that held together an increasingly divid