MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in Liberia, the World Health Organization said Friday, a setback for the country which had been declared free from Ebola transmissions in January.Health authorities at the Redemption Hospital in the densely-populated New Kru Town suburbs of Monrovia said a 30-year-old woman died of Ebola.The woman died Thursday night, said the head of Liberia's Ebola response, Tolbert Nyenswah.Health workers prepare to collect the ashes of people th

Hours later, after the last piece has been consumed, it is the memory of the rice served at Sushi Matsumoto that lingers, how each oblong orb under its blanket of fish was consistently warm, pillowy and subtly seasoned. 　“With sushi, one should not only focus on the fish, the rice needs to be good as well,” head chef Matsumoto Mizuho explains.  Head chef Matsumoto Mizuho focuses on serving classic nigiri and edomae sushi, one carefully crafted piece at a time. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)　Goo

At K Auction’s Hong Kong sale on March 25, Korean monochrome paintings, dubbed Dansaekhwa, led strong sales, proving its steady popularity among international collectors. 　A 1975 abstract painting by Kim Whan-ki fetched 2.2 billion won ($1.8 million). All six paintings of Park Seo-bo were sold. A white monochrome painting by Chung Sang-hwa sold for 710 million won, higher than its highest estimate of 473 million won. 　“We could see that the Dansaekhwa boom was continuing. They attracted attentio

An Egyptian man who hijacked an EgyptAir plane during a routine domestic flight to Cairo and forced it to land on the island of Cyprus on Tuesday has surrendered and was taken into custody after he released all the passengers and crew.An EgyptAir Airbus A-320 sits on the tarmac of Larnaca airport after it was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus on March 29, 2016. (AFP-Yonhap)His surrender ended an hours-long drama and standoff at the Larnaca airport in southern Cyprus. The hijacker had earlier freed

NICOSIA (AFP) – A hijacker who seized an Egyptian airliner and forced it to land in Cyprus has been detained, officials said on Tuesday."The hijacker has just been arrested," Cypriot government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said on Twitter, without providing further details.A man emerged from the aircraft and then walked across the tarmac with his hands up to two awaiting counter-terrorism police officers, an AFP correspondent reported.They laid him on the ground and searched him for around tw

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that new security laws that took effect Tuesday will strengthen Tokyo's ability to defend itself amid increasing threats as opponents took to the streets to say they risk hurling the country into war.Legislators in September passed the bills into law, a shift that could see Japanese troops fight abroad for the first time since the end of World War II.The approval was a milestone in Japan, where a constitution imposed by the United States afte

North Korea on Tuesday fired a short-range missile into the East Sea in another show of force, the South’s military said. The projectile took off at around 5:40 p.m. from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan and flew some 200 kilometers toward the northeastern inland areas, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.  A picture released by North Korea’s main newspaper Rodong Shinmun on March 11, claiming the short-range ballistic missile launch test. (Yonhap)　“Our military maintains tight readiness posture wh

Multilingual international lifestyle magazine Eastern Trends is emerging as the go-to source for in-depth, culture-related reporting on major cities in Asia. In its April edition, the magazine features perspectives on Korean television programs and their dynamic production process.The cover of the Eastern Trends April edition, featuring Korean actor Hong Jong-hyun (Eastern Trends)　Titled “Television, A Spectacular Frame,” the cover story peers behind the scenes of Korean TV production, with anec

The four cast members of “Youth Over Flowers - Africa” ended their nine-day trip from Namibia to the Zambia-Zimbabwe border in the last episode of the star reality travel program Friday. 　The four cast members from the tvN drama “Reply 1988” -- Ryu Jun-yeol, Park Bo-gum, Ahn Jae-hong and Go Kyung-pyo -- marked the end of their 3,800-kilometer cross-border trip by bungee jumping from the 111-meter tall Victoria Falls Bridge. The trip began in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, and stopped at major

TONGYEONG, South Gyeongsang Province -- This year’s annual Tongyeong International Music Festival opened its curtains Friday, celebrating its new theme, “Sounds of Tomorrow” with a performance by Korea’s first female-led orchestra.　Looking to showcase a mix of classic and modern compositions that are rarely heard nowadays, TIMF is holding performances daily until Thursday at the Tongyeong Concert Hall in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province.　Opening this year’s international festivities was the

Singer-turned-designer Victoria Beckham revealed four dresses for spring and summer exclusively for Korean consumers on mytheresa.com, an online luxury brand shopping website, Monday. “I picked these colors and silhouettes because I think these are well-suited to my Korean customers. They are cute, energetic and right amount of fun. We will have fun, but not too much fun,” said Beckham, at a press conference Monday in Seoul. Victoria Beckham (third from left) poses with Korean models wearing fou

In the new Web drama series “Click Your Heart,” released Thursday, viewers will be given a chance to choose the ending they want. The Web drama, featuring Kwon Mina of AOA and nine rookies of FNC Entertainment, will allow viewers to select from two stories of different casts and endings, a novel approach in the Web drama format. "It’s my first time acting in a Web drama with two different endings. I had a great time shooting with the actors and director Min Doo-sik,” said Kwon at a press confere

To the locals of Angola, Coreon Du needs no introduction. The 31-year-old artiste is widely talked about in Africa -- he is a singer, musician, TV producer and fashion designer.Last year, he was named by Forbes Magazine as one of 15 Young Africans Rebranding Africa. His critically-acclaimed 2010 debut album “The Coreon Experiment,” fused the sounds of his Angolan culture with Kilapanga -- a type of traditional folk music --and global influences such as pop, semba and jazz. His telenovelas “Winde

NEW YORK (AP) — Two Indian statues that are more than 1,000 years old were seized Friday from Christie’s auction house after investigators discovered they had been smuggled out of the country, eventually landing in New York.The antiquities were to be part of an auction next week called “The Lahiri Collection: Indian and Himalayan Art, Ancient and Modern.”Both are made from sandstone. One statue called “Stele of Rishabhanata” depicts a cross-legged teacher flanked by standing attendants. It is va

A huge graffiti image of toddler Aylan Kurdi -- pictures of whose dead body stirred global sympathy for migrants fleeing war and poverty -- confronts motorists, pedestrians and river traveler in Frankfurt.Thousands of weekday commuters using the Main river footpath and road bridge will see the 120-square-metre image of the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in September along with his mother and brother as they tried to reach Europe. The artwork on a peninsula about a 15-minute walk from the

U.S. networks are changing the way they develop and release new shows, and even commercials, as they seek to adapt to new TV viewing habits and profit from the “binge-watching” made popular by video streaming services like Netflix.The changes could help offset declining audiences and the trend known as “cord cutting,” as a growing number of Americans opt to go without traditional cable or satellite television service and rely instead on Internet streaming video.Viacom Inc’s TV Land network is de

A pair of Rembrandt portraits owned privately for more than 130 years went on public display in Paris on Thursday, bought under shared ownership by the French capital’s Louvre museum and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.The portraits date back to 1634 and depict Amsterdam trader Marten Soolmans and his wife Oopjen Coppit. They were painted by the Dutch master for the couple’s wedding and are considered a defining example of his work.Bought by Baron Gustave de Rothschild in 1877 and kept in France ev

Asian stocks climbed for the first day this week amid speculation central banks will provide additional stimulus to bolster global economic growth.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.5 percent to 125.57 as of 8:01 p.m. in Hong Kong, halting three days of losses. U.S. shares rebounded with crude oil on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting that may provide more insight on the potential for further steps to loosen policy and the trajectory of interest rates. The Reserve Bank

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) – The European Central Bank has cut all its main interest rates including a surprise reduction in the main refinancing rate to zero percent from 0.05 percent.It also reduced the interest rate on deposits held by banks at the central bank to minus 0.4 percent from minus 0.3 percent.And it expanded its monthly bond-buying program to 80 billion euros ($85 billion) a month from the previous 60 billion.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis imposed new financial accountability regulations on the Vatican's multimillion-dollar saint-making machine Thursday after gross abuses were revealed in two books.The rules require external vigilance over individual Vatican bank accounts created for beatification and canonization causes, as well as regular budgeting and accounting to make sure the donations from the faithful are being used as intended.The reforms were imposed after Francis tasked a fact-finding co