Rep. Park Geun-hye waves to her supporters at the Saenuri Party’s national convention Monday after being nominated as its presidential candidate. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Gathered for a single purpose, to secure the next government, thousands of ruling Saenuri Party members and supporters at KINTEX in Ilsan hoisted former chairwoman Park Geun-hye as their presidential candidate on Monday.In

Tony Scott (AP-Yonhap News)Prominent Hollywood film director Tony Scott, whose works included "Top Gun," has committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in San Pedro, California, The Los Angeles Times reported late Sunday.Citing unnamed Los Angeles police sources, the newspaper said Scott's body was pulled out of the water near the Vincent Thomas Bridge by police and US Coast Guard officials.Accordi

A signboard installed in front of the headquarters building of Macquarie Group Korea in Sogong-dong, central Seoul, shows the names and locations of the financial groups’ units. (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)Macquarie Korea Asset Management Co. said on Monday it was considering legal action against the screening of a documentary film on alleged business favors the Australian fund operator receiv

A 63-year-old former engineer may not fit the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. But Jinichi Kawakami is reputedly Japan's last ninja.In the public mind, this is the typical image of a ninja. (123rf)As the 21st head of the Ban clan, a line of ninjas that can trace its history back some 500 years, Kawakami is considered by some to be t

Ki Sung-yueng (SBS "Healing Camp")Football player Ki Sung-yueng gave behind the scenes stories for his team’s quest for the nation’s first-ever Olympic medal on SBS television talk show “Healing Camp” to be aired Monday.Ki, well known for his confident demeanor and candid comments, offered his point of view on what happened in the locker room, anecdotes about stoic head coach Hong Myung-bo, and ho

This file image of a frame grab taken from CCTV video on August 9, 2012 shows Gu Kailai (C), the wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, facing the court during her murder trial in Hefei. (AFP-Yonhap News)The wife of a disgraced Chinese politician was given a suspended death sentence Monday after confessing to killing a British businessman by poisoning him with cyanide in a case that rocked

South American nations on Sunday backed Ecuador's decision to grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, urging dialogue to end the crisis pitting Quito against London.Foreign ministers of the Union of South American Nations, meeting in Ecuador's biggest city Guayaquil, expressed "solidarity" with Quito and urged the parties "to pursue dialogue in search of a mutually acceptable solution,"

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange portrayed himself Sunday as a victim of an American “witch hunt” over his secret-spilling website in a defiant address from the balcony of an embassy where he has holed up to avoid extradition to face sex assault allegations. Surrounded by British police who want to detain him, Assange made no mention of the sex assault case in Sweden or how long he would remain in

An appellate court on Friday upheld a two-year prison term and a fine of 390 million won ($348,900) given to a cousin of President Lee Myung-bak's wife for receiving bribes from an ailing savings bank in return for influence peddling.Kim Jae-hong, the cousin of first lady Kim Yoon-ok, was convicted of taking 390 million won in kickbacks from the chairman of Jeil Savings Bank between September 2008

South Korean soccer player Park Jong-woo carries a sign given by a fan that reads “Dokdo Is Our Territory,” after winning the bronze medal match against Japan at the 2012 London Olympics on Friday. ( Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald)The head of South Korea's football governing body on Friday apologized for his agency's handling of the aftermath of a football player's politically-charged celebration at th

The powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday morning, after Beijing earlier in the week agreed to help Pyongyang revamp two trade zones near the Chinese border.The high-level talks are a sign that Beijing and Pyongyang are strengthening ties after Kim took over following his father's death last year. State media have said

South Korea will reject a reported proposal by Japan to take the issue of Dokdo, Seoul's easternmost islets claimed by Tokyo as its territory, to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), reaffirming its stance that Dokdo is "clearly a Korean territory historically, geographically and under international law," officials said Friday. Japan has considered asking the ICJ to resolve the issue of Dokdo

North Korea could build an arsenal of up to 48 nuclear weapons, several times more than it has now, if the communist state were able to step up its program unchecked, a US think tank said Thursday.North Korea's nuclear program is shrouded in secrecy, but the Institute for Science and International Security used limited available information to chart out different scenarios for Pyongyang's progress

Shitterton, a hamlet in Dorset, has been voted the most unfortunate name in Britain, findmypast.co.uk announced Wednesday.In fact, Dorset -- a county better known for its beautiful coast, the old city of Dorchester and the countryside described by novelist Thomas Hardy -- had three places in the top 10, making it the loser among counties, the Dorset Echo reported. Scratchy Bottom was in the No. 2

Pussy Riot members, from left, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alekhina sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia on Aug. 3, 2012. (AP-Yonhap News)The global campaign to free Pussy Riot is gaining speed: Supporters of the punk provocateur band are mobilizing this week in at least two dozen cities worldwide to hold simultaneous demonstrations an hour before a Ru

Unification Church has sent copies of a letter from its leader to followers around the world confirming news on the grave illness of its founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon and asking them to pray for his recovery, the church said Thursday.Moon, 92, is being treated in an intensive-care unit at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in southern Seoul for pneumonia, according to hospital officials.In the letter, Rev. H

(123rf)The lure of social status promotes overconfidence and helps explain why there is such an abundance of delusional confidence, U.S. and Spanish researchers say.The study, scheduled to be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, sheds light on why incompetent people are so often promoted over their more competent peers.Study co-authors Cameron Anderson, Don Moore and Jess

The ruling Saenuri Party said Thursday that it has expelled its former lawmaker Hyun Ki-hwan for being allegedly implicated in a money-for-nomination scandal ahead of April's parliamentary election.The decision reached by the party's nine-member Supreme Council comes after the central ethics committee rejected an appeal request made by Hyun on Tuesday. The move is also aimed at reducing the fallou

(123rf)The southwestern US state of Texas is battling an outbreak of the West Nile virus, with 17 deaths blamed on the mosquito-borne disease, authorities said Wednesday.Throughout the state 465 people have been sickened since the start of the year, putting it on track to have the most cases since the disease first emerged a decade ago, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.The county

(MCT)Police searching an apartment for drugs found a woman they believe was kept padlocked in a bedroom for long periods of time over the last several years — perhaps as long as a decade.State police said members of their street gang unit discovered the 44-year-old woman on Thursday as they searched the Paterson home of 42-year-old Michael Mendez, believed to be a member of the Latin Kings street