With less than 20 days to go, South Korea's southern island of Wando is putting the final touches to the country's first international seaweed-themed expo, organizers said Tuesday.The Wando Seaweeds Expo 2014 will be held on Wando, a remote island off the nation's southwestern coast, from April 11 for a month, organizers said. The expo, under the theme of "seaweeds and their role in mankind's future," will provide a chance to raise awareness of the importance of seaweed as an alternative food so

A group of North Korean defectors floated hundreds of thousands of propaganda leaflets into the communist nation Tuesday, denouncing Pyongyang for its deadly sinking of a South Korean warship four years ago.The event came on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the March 26 sinking that killed 46 South Korean sailors near the western sea border with North Korea."Now that four years have passed since the sinking of the Cheonan, the government has started to show less interest, while North Korea s

South Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should brace for possible volatility in the currency market as economic uncertainties are growing, local observers said Tuesday.At a meeting of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), analysts said that currency risks have been rising due to the U.S. Federal Reserve's tapering of its bond-buying program, slowing growth in China and the weakening of the Japanese yen, posing a threat to SMEs here.Bae Min-keun, an economist at LG Economic Research

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye had her foreign minister attend on her behalf a banquet hosted by the Dutch king for world leaders participating in an international nuclear security summit as she was feeling unwell, her spokesman said.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se attended Monday's banquet hosted by Dutch King Willem Alexander for leaders from 53 countries and four international organizations attending this week's Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, presidential

South Korean sci-fi thriller "Snowpiercer" took second place in the Chinese box office, posting a strong 8.2 billion won (US$7.5 million) in the opening week, the film's distributor said Tuesday.Released last Monday throughout China, the film was ranked No. 2 on the Chinese box office with 8.2 billion won, following 3-D Hollywood action film "Need for Speed," CJ E&M Corp. said, citing a Chinese box-office tracker.It marks the best opening for South Korean films released in China. "Snowpiercer" b

The first batch of South Korean survivors from a suspected terrorist attack in Egypt returned home Wednesday, three days after the bombing killed four people aboard a tourist bus.The bus was carrying 31 South Korean tourists along with Korean and Egyptian tour guides in Egypt's bustling tourist destination of Sinai Peninsula when an identified man boarded the bus and detonated explosives in an apparent suicide attack.The attack killed three South Koreans and the Egyptian bus driver. The bomber w

As thick black smoke rose from the barricades encircling the protest camp in central Kiev, a tense calm descended Wednesday over the capital and the European Union threatened sanctions against Ukraine following deadly violence between riot police and protesters in which at least 25 people died and 241 were injured.Thousands of defiant protesters faced rows of riot police who have squeezed them deeper into the Kiev's Independence Square, known as the Maidan, which has been a bastion and symbol fo

China's vice foreign minister has told North Korea's top diplomats that Beijing "will never allow war or chaos" on the Korean Peninsula, in a clear warning against Pyongyang's defiant continuation of its nuclear programs and provocations.Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, who began a four-day visit to North Korea on Monday, made the remarks during a meeting with senior North Korean officials, including Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, Liu's ministry said in a statement.The remarks by Liu we

South Korean pop singer Rain will showcase several new songs in Beijing next month, his management agency said Wednesday.Rain will appear before some 9,000 fans in China during his single showcase event scheduled for March 28 at the National Stadium in Beijing, Cube Entertainment said.It will be the first showcase to be staged by the singer in a Chinese-speaking country since the release of his sixth full-length album "Rain Effect." The album's two major tracks -- "30 Sexy" and "La Song" -- have

 HANOI -- A South Korean tourist was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the northern Philippine city of Angeles, the South Korean Embassy in Manila said Wednesday.The 65-year-old South Korean man, surnamed Hur, was hit by several bullets shot by two gunmen riding a motorcycle at around 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday (Philippine time), according to the embassy. He died at the scene.He was returning to a hotel with three other fellow travelers when the gunmen approached them, the embassy said. The other th

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who helped make his name smashing a valuable vase in the name of art, said Wednesday that he was miffed about another artist destroying one of his vases in Florida.Maximo Caminero was charged with criminal mischief after destroying a vase valued at $1 million that was part of Ai's exhibit at the Perez Art Museum Miami. The Florida artist said he smashed the vase Sunday to protest the institution's lack of displays of local artists.Ai said Wedne

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican as part of a weeklong European trip scheduled for March.The White House says Obama "looks forward to discussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality" during their March 27 meeting. Obama also plans to meet in Rome with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Enrico Letta.Obama's trip begins March 24-25 in The Hague, Netherlands, where he will partic

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese state media say police seized almost 60,000 suspects involved in intellectual property infringement cases with a total estimated value of 173 billion yuan ($28 billion) in 2013.The official Xinhua News Agency says more than 90 million tons of counterfeit and substandard goods were confiscated last year, and more than 1,000 criminal networks smashed.It also reported Tuesday that during a campaign against the sale of fake drugs online, police seized a record 300 million pil

BERN,  (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited a vocational high school in Switzerland on Tuesday in an effort to learn from the European country's advanced job education system seen as a key to the highly competitive economy.Bolstering cooperation in vocational training has been a top priority for Park's state visit to Switzerland, a small country with population of mere 8 million yet one of the biggest economies in Europe. The Swiss economy has often been cited as the most com

LONDON, (AFP) -- Former international prosecutors said Tuesday they have evidence from a defector proving that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has systematically killed and tortured around 11,000 people.A report by three top investigators commissioned by Qatar, which backs the Syrian rebels, examined thousands of pictures said to have been smuggled out by a former military police photographer.The report, which was first released in the Guardian and on CNN, shows evidence of starva

POMFRET, New York (AP) -- Police in New York State say a 49-year-old woman killed in a three-vehicle crash on a snow-covered road was visiting from Australia.Troopers say Carolanne Boulionis from Melbourne was driving a pickup truck too fast for the weather conditions on Route 60 Monday afternoon when she lost control and crossed into oncoming traffic in the Chautauqua (shuh-TAW'-kwuh) County town of Pomfret, 35 miles  (56 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo.Police say her pickup hit a truck, while

South Korea and China held their 13th working-level defense meeting on Tuesday to arrange bilateral consultations and exchange programs aimed at promoting military ties, Seoul's defense ministry said.Lee Jeong-gyu, the South Korean defense ministry's international policy director, met with his Chinese counterpart Hu Changming to coordinate the vice defense ministerial dialogue and this year's exchange plans between the two armed forces, the ministry said.The two sides agreed to have Chinese defe

BERN (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited a vocational high school in Switzerland on Tuesday in an effort to learn from the European country's advanced job education system seen as a key to the highly competitive economy.Bolstering cooperation in vocational training has been a top priority for Park's state visit to Switzerland, a small country with population of mere 8 million yet one of the biggest economies in Europe. The Swiss economy has often been cited as the most compe

Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, the current Korean Roman Catholic Archbishop of Seoul, has been included in the list of 19 new Cardinals to be named by Pope Francis next month. 　The 70-year-old is the third Korean to be appointed to the position, following the late Stephen Kim Sou-hwan (1922-2009) and Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk, who also served as Archbishop of Seoul until last year. 　Born in 1943 in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, Yeom graduated from the Catholic University of Korea with a degree in theology in

WASHINGTON, (AFP) -- Orbital Sciences Corporation's unmanned Cygnus cargo ship on Sunday made rendez-vous with the International Space Station on the company's first regular supply mission to the research outpost.The event took place at 1108 GMT just northeast of Madagascar over the Indian Ocean, according to the US space agency NASA's television network.Once Cygnus approached the orbiting lab, the space station's robotic arm reached out and grabbed the incoming cargo carrier.US astronaut Mike H