Government designates area a disaster zoneThe government on Monday designated the area in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, hit by an acid leak a disaster zone amid criticism over its belated response to the incident.Experts said it may take more than five years for the town to fully recover its agricultural land and crops, which are the main source of income and food for residents in the area.The

For decades, Jimmy Savile was a fixture on British television _ an eccentric, aggressively jocular host of children's shows and a tireless charity fundraiser. When he died last year at 84 _ by then knighted as Sir Jimmy _ he drew tributes from Prince Charles and thousands of fans.Now several women have come forward to claim “Sir Jimmy” was also a sexual predator who abused underage girls. The alle

A letter in which Albert Einstein dismissed the idea of God as a product of human weakness is being sold on eBay for a starting price of $3 million.The letter, handwritten in 1954, a year before Einstein's death, was addressed to philosopher Eric Gutkind. In it, Einstein discussed his views on religion, including calling “the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are ne

Libya's parliament ousted the country's new prime minister in a no-confidence vote on Sunday, the latest blow to hopes that political factions could agree on a government charged with restoring stability after last year's civil war.Mustafa Abushagur was the first prime minister to be elected after the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. He represented an offshoot of the country's oldest an

Kim Jang-hoon (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Kim Jang-hoon, a pop singer widely known for his generous donations to public causes and promotion of Korea overseas, confronts a major publicity crisis: mounting speculation about escalating conflict with his close friend and YouTube sensation Psy.Psy, whose “Gangnam Style” music video is sweeping the world, publicly said that Kim is his “guardian” wh

Almost all U.S. couples say they have taken a road trip together and 84 percent say the experience strengthened their relationship, a survey indicates.A survey of more than 1,000 U.S. couples by YourTango.com, a website on relationships, and the Ford Motor Co., found plenty of couples have a "back-seat driver" on board who "helps" the real driver negotiate the road:-- 32 percent tell the driver th

The grape seeds many disdainfully discard are humble little packages of powerful ingredients that possess multiple health benefits, a U.S. food expert says."The beneficial components of the grape seed are the proanthocyanidins. Studies conducted since the 1950s, have shown grape seeds to have a wide range of health benefits, most markedly for their role as a potent antioxidant and free radical sca

Seoul to get more powerful, longer-range ballistic missilesSeoul and Washington have agreed on revising a bilateral guideline to allow South Korea to develop more powerful ballistic missiles with a range of up to 800 km, up from the previous 300 km, Cheong Wa Dae said Sunday.The revision is expected to strengthen deterrence against North Korea as the maximum range, from South Korea’s central regio

Felix Baumgartner of Austria is pictured before his jump at the first manned test flight for Red Bull Stratos in Roswell, New Mexico on March 15. (Red Bull content poll-UPI)An Austrian aerial daredevil planning to leap and free-fall from a balloon 23 miles over New Mexico says he will go supersonic before his parachute opens.Wearing a pressurized suit and helmet, Felix Baumgartner will plummet fro

Israel scrambled fighter jets to intercept a drone Saturday that crossed deep into Israeli airspace from the Mediterranean Sea, shooting the aircraft down over the country's southern desert, the military said. The incident marked the first time in at least six years that a hostile aircraft has penetrated Israel's airspace, and Israeli officials said they were taking the incident seriously, raising

Two South Korean volunteer workers were killed and three others injured in a lightning accident in Sri Lanka, a state aid agency said Sunday. The two -- a 22-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman -- were killed by lightning on Saturday evening in the mountainous Haputale region in the central part of Sri Lanka, according to Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a state-funded agency in ch

A French fashion designer planning to open a Paris hotel has apologized for saying Chinese tourists would not be welcome to stay at the facility.Thierry Gillier, founder of label Zadig and Voltaire, said his comment during an interview with Women's Wear Daily was misunderstood, the BBC reported Friday.Gillier told the magazine the hotel "won't be open to Chinese tourists," but he now says the stat

A teen who tweeted an intruder was in her home was taken to a hospital for evaluation after police found her at a New Jersey Turnpike rest area, police said.Investigators said Kara Alongi, 16, was never in danger and the tweet was a hoax, The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger reported Wednesday.Clark, N.J., Police Chief Alan Scherb said after Alongi posted the message on her Twitter account about an intr

Two exoplanets have been detected forming a never-seen-before celestial alignment, a phenomenon so new it doesn't yet have a name, Japanese astronomers say.Teruyuki Hirano of the University of Tokyo and colleagues used data from the Kepler space telescope to probe KOI-94, a star seemingly orbited by four planets, looking for a momentary dimming of the star's light when the planets transited, or pa

Aerial view of Dokdo islets (The Korea Herald)Japan may unilaterally take its island territorial dispute with South Korea to the International Court of Justice, Japanese government sources told Kyodo News.The dispute concerns the Korean-controlled islands that lie between the two countries, which Japan also claims. South Korea refers to them as Dokdo, while Japan calls them Takeshima.The Japanese

A dwarf dinosaur weighing less than a modern house cat had a sharp beak and fangs like a vampire but was a plant-eater, a U.S. paleontologist says.The single specimen of the new species was originally chipped out of red rock in southern Africa in the 1960s but lay mostly unexamined in a fossil collection at Harvard University until Paul Sereno, a paleontology professor at the University of Chicago

Korean universities have gained ground in a recent global ranking due largely to increased funding, In the latest edition of the Times Higher Education World University rankings published Thursday (Korea time), Pohang University of Science and Technology rose to 50th place from 53rd last year. Seoul National University soared to 59th from 124th and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technolog

미국 미시건 대학의 연구진이 최근 금속에 강한 박테리아를 이용해 금을 만들어내는데 성공했다고 밝혔다.쿠프리아비두스 메탈리두란스란 박테리아는 자연 상태에서 독성이 있는 금산화물을 환원시켜 금 나노입자를 만드는 것으로 알려졌는데 연구진은 이 점을 이용해 독성 화학물인 염화금을 금으로 바꾸었다고 밝혔다.“우리가 하는 것은 미생물 연금술입니다. 자체만으로 가치가 없는 물질을 가치가 높은 귀금속으로 만드는 것이죠”라고 연구를 주도한 미생물학과 분자유전학 조교수 카젬 카셰프는 말했다.카셰프는 그의 동료인 전자예술과 인터미디어 조교수 아담 브라운과 함께 만든 전시물 “금속을 사랑하는 자의 위업 (The Great Work of the Metal Lover)” 자신들의 연구성과를 공개했다. 이 작품은 24캐럿 금으로 도금된 휴대용 실험기구, 유리로 된 생물 반응장치, 그리고 박테리아 쿠프리아비두스 메탈리두란스로 구성되어 있다.먼저 연구진은 쿠프리아비두스 메탈리두란스에게 염소와 금의 화학물은 염화금

A Michigan State University professor who stripped off his clothes in class was taken to a hospital and is not being charged with a crime, the school said.The university said police received a call just after 1 p.m. Monday about a man shouting in the hallway of the school's engineering building and they soon discovered the man, a professor, had stripped all of his clothes off in front of his calcu

A married British teacher who fled with a 15-year-old schoolgirl to France agreed Tuesday to be extradited, as his lawyer said the arrested fugitive wanted his "full story" to emerge.Asked if he was ready to be handed over to British judicial authorities for questioning, 30-year-old Jeremy Forrest, who was dressed in a checked shirt and jeans, told a court in Bordeaux: "Yes."During the 20-minute h