WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama has nominated Audrey Choi, a Korean-American investment banker, as a member of the Community Development Advisory Board, the White House said Friday.Choi, 44, was the only Korean-American member of Obama's transition team to prepare for his presidency four years ago. Nominating her to the position on the board, which advises on policies regarding the activities of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, Obama cited she brings "a depth of experi

South Korean handset maker LG Electronics Inc. said Saturday it spent more than 6 percent of its earnings on research and development through September of this year in a bid to develop high-end products.The company said it had allocated 2.26 trillion won (US$2.08 billion), or 6.06 percent of its sales of 37.4 trillion won earned during in the January-September period, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier.Market watchers said South Korea's No. 2 tech giant increased its research fund to d

Ulsan Hyundai Tigers of South Korea's K-League defeated Saudi Arabian rival Al Hilal 1-0 Wednesday in the quarterfinal action of the ongoing continental club championship.At Ulsan Munsu Stadium, about 410 kilometers south of Seoul, Brazilian forward Rafinha scored in the ninth minute and the victorious home side held on for dear life in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League actio

Korea’s World Cup soccer team beat Zambia 2-1 in a friendly match at Anyang Stadium in Seoul on Wednesday.Zambia, currently placed 44th in the world, went behind after midfielder Lee Keun-ho’s 16th-minute shot. Zambia’s Emmanuel Mayuka scored at the 28-minute mark. Korea again took the lead when Lee Keun-ho scored his second goal on 54 minutes, securing the win. By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldm.com)　　

 The union at Kumho Tire, South Korea's second-biggest tire maker, said Wednesday that it has decided to stage an indefinite walkout after no headway was reached on a wage deal with management.The strike, scheduled to start Thursday, comes just two days after the union ended a month-long partial walkout by 3,100 workers to iron out wage and other outstanding differences.Sources said that some gain

North Korean media on Wednesday identified the woman seen accompanying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a recent series of public appearances as his wife, confirming his marriage for the first time.According to North Korean media including its state TV monitored here, the woman is named Ri Sol-Ju. They reported that Kim and his wife attended a ceremony together to mark the completion of amusemen

Korea will set up an aid fund worth US$1 million to support development projects in five Southeast Asian countries, a foreign ministry official said Saturday.The fund, the amount of which will be gradually increased, will be run separately from South Korea's bilateral official development assistance to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, he said.The official said the deal was reached in Phnom Pen

Two 6-year-old female bears escaped from a farm on the outskirts of Seoul on Saturday, but one has been captured, a police officer said.The bears ran away after breaking out of their cage at the farm in Yongin, a city about 40 kilometers south of Seoul, around 10:30 a.m., police officer Wi Ma-seok said.No one was hurt at the farm, which is home to about 100 bears, Wi said.He said he heard that one

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber blew himself up Saturday in a wedding hall in northern Afghanistan, killing more than 20 people including a well-known commander in an attack that deals a setback to efforts to unify the nation's ethnic factions, Afghan officials said.Ahmad Khan Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek who is also a member of parliament, was welcoming guests to his daughter's wedding when

South Korean stocks are expected to move upward next week, trying to make up for the sharp losses seen in the last seven days, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) tumbled 3.2 percent from a week earlier to finish at 1,812.89 this week, as investors opted to sell off shares on disappointing U.S. employment data and a hike in borrowing costs for Spanish deb

TOKYO -- The powerful uncle of North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un has advised Kim's half-brother Kim Jong-nam not to criticize the country, a news report said Saturday.Jang Song-thaek told Kim Jong-nam to refrain from making comments critical of the power succession to foreign media, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, citing an unidentified source on

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) --  A journalist has been shot dead inHonduras, in the 21st deadly attack on the media in the violence-wracked Central American country in the past three years, a press watchdog said Friday.Adonis Felipe Bueso Gutierrez, 24, was leaving an Internet cafe in the northern city of Villanueva with two cousins on July 8 when he was shot, said Longino Becerra of the Committee for Freedo

NEW YORK (AP) -- Visa, MasterCard and major banks agreed to pay retailers at least $6 billion to settle a long-running lawsuit that alleged the card issuers conspired to fix the fees that stores pay to accept credit cards. As part of the settlement, announced late Friday, stores from Rite Aid to Kroger will be allowed to charge customers more if they pay using a credit card.The pact, which is bein

LG Display Co., the world's No. 2 maker of liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, said Friday it has agreed to pay US$380 million to settle a U.S. class-action lawsuit over alleged price-fixing in the LCD market.LG Display agreed to pay the amount to U.S. consumers and eight state governments, including the states of California and New York, to settle the case that was lodged in 2007, the company sa

Hallyu star girl group KARA has been appointed as PR ambassador for 2011 K-pop Cover Dance Festival, which begins its second round competition on Sept. 3. The festival celebrates the “cover dance” videos that K-pop fans around the globe are currently submitting online through www.coverdance.org for the preliminary round of the competition. The cover dance refers to emulating of the original choreography of popular K-pop dances. According to the Visit Korea Committee, more tha

Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon (Korea)Opening Aug. 11Action. Directed by Kim Han-min. When the second Manchu invasion of Korea occurs in 1636, a young man named Na-mi (Park Hae-il) loses her sister Ja-in (Moon Chae-won) and her fiancé on their wedding day. The Qing soldiers kidnap the couple after completely demolishing the town. Having a natural talent in archery, Na-mi takes the bow that used to bel

Western has a dust-up with aliensYou see the strangest things in the desert. Last year, for instance, if you followed a ridgeline here you would have discovered a massive alien spaceship and, nearby, James Bond strumming a ukulele beneath a wispy tamarix tree. “Wait around,” he muttered, “and Indiana Jones might show up too.”The man with the four-string uke was actor Daniel Craig, who is best know

Who Ate Up All the Shinga? An Autobiographical Novel By Park Wan-suhTranslated by Yu Young-nan and Stephen Epstein(Columbia University Press)Among the many novels by the late author Park Wan-suh, who wrote a great deal on the brutality of the Korean War, Korea’s ordinary families and women’s issues, her 1992 novel “Who Ate Up All the Shinga?” explores Park’s own family, whose fate was deeply affec

Trying on shoes at a department store, I was struck by how long it took for the salesperson to return from the stock room.“Where did he go?” I asked author Rachel Shteir, my new shopping companion.“Now, if you wanted to steal those, you would just take the pair you came in with and place them in the box, and wear the new ones right out the door,” Shteir whispered. “The Steal: A Cultural History of

In her life and in 12 novels, writer Dorothea Benton Frank never hesitates to put her broad sense of humor on display and show she can deliver a punchline.Frank’s newly published book, “Folly Beach.”Such as her impassioned answer to this question: What impressions has she formed of her fans from hundreds of book-tour appearances over the years?“This is the honest-to-god truth ― my readers are good