This artist's conception provided by the European Southern Observatory shows ESO's Very Large Telescope and a host of other telescopes' discovery of the most distant quasar found to date. This brilliant beacon, powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, is by far the brightest object yet discovered in the early Universe. (AP-Yonhap News)LOS ANGELES (AP) _ A team of Euro

This undated photo provided by Jean Weber shows her mother, Lena Reppert. The gravely ill 95-year-old woman had to remove her wet diaper at an airport so that she could be patted down by security screeners and nearly missed her flight, her daughter said Monday. (AP-Yonhap News)DESTIN, Fla. (AP) – A gravely ill 95-year-old woman had to remove her wet diaper at an airport so that she could be patted

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde poses before giving a television interview, Tuesday June 28, 2011 in Paris, after she has been chosen to lead the International Monetary Fund. She will become the first female managing director of the global lending organization.(AP-Yonhap News)WASHINGTON (AP) _ French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was chosen Tuesday to lead the International Monetary

Prince Albert II of Monaco and his fiancee Charlene Wittstock attend to the St Jean Religious Parade , Thursday, June 23, 2011, in Monaco. Prince Albert II of Monaco and his fiancee Charlene Wittstock of South Africa, will wed on July 1 and 2.(AP-Yonhap News)MONACO, France (AFP) - Monaco's royal palace Tuesday angrily denied media rumours that princess-to-be Charlene Wittstock tried to leave the p

(AFP-Yonhap News)Cattle under 30 months of age allowed, as with U.S. beef importsThe government has decided to lift its import ban on Canadian beef after blocking them for about eight years over mad cow disease concerns, allowing local consumers to buy Canadian product once feared to affect humans. The Agriculture Ministry said Seoul and Ottawa agreed to resume imports of Canadian cattle younger t

People attend a world record attempt at a photocall to highlight the release of the film "The Smurfs" in 3-D at the O2 Centre in london on the june 25, 2011. Simultaneous Smurf gatherings took place in 12 countries, all to be counted as part of a world record attempt which they broke. (AFP-Yonhap News)  (Xinhua-Yonhap News) (AFP-Yonhap News) <한글 기사> 4천여명 스머프날 기념 코스프레..기네스 경신지난 53년간 사랑을 받아온 만화 '개구쟁

South Korean national football team celebrates winnning against Jordan on Thursday in the regional Olympic football qualification. (Yonhap News)AMMAN, (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday advanced to the third and final round of the regional Olympic football qualification, despite a 1-1 draw against Jordan here.Substitute Hong Chul scored the second-half equalizer for South Korea and gave the visit

SEOUL, (Yonhap) -- South Korea's consumer confidence declined in June from the previous month on concerns that rising inflation and growing household debt could crimp consumer spending, the central bank said Friday.The consumer sentiment index (CSI) -- a gauge of consumers' overall economic outlook, living conditions and future spending -- stood at 102 for June, down from 104 for May, the Bank of

WASHINGTON, (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama issued a public notice Thursday to extend the national emergency in relation to North Korea that provides a legal and administrative basis for sanctions against the nuclear-armed communist nation.On the basis of the national emergency declared in 2008 under the National Emergencies Act, the Obama administration slapped tougher sanctions on Pyongy

TOKYO/MOSCOW, (Yonhap) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il are planning to hold their first meeting later this month or early next month in the Russian Far East, news reports claimed late Thursday.Citing local officials and Russian public security officials, Kyodo News reported that the two countries are considering having a summit around next Thursday on the o

Global millionaires’ ranks rose by 8.3 percent last year as the Asia-Pacific region overtook Europe for the first time, according to a report by Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management. The number of individuals with at least $1 million of investable assets increased to 10.9 million after markets rebounded following the financial crisis, according to the 15th annual World Wealth Re

In this Saturday, March 19, 2011 file picture, evacuees from Futaba, a town near the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, arrive at their new evacuation shelter at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, near Tokyo. (AP-Yonhap News)NEW YORK (AP) – A magnitude-6.7 earthquake rattled northeast Japan on Thursday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.It was the

 

U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon (AP-Yonhap News)UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ The U.N. General Assembly voted unanimously to give Ban Ki-moon a second term as secretary-general Tuesday, praising him for strengthening the world body's role and visibility in difficult circumstances.The 192-member assembly applauded loudly as it adopted a resolution giving the 67-year-old South Korean diplomat another fiv

BEIJING, June 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has recently created a special police task force and bought large amounts of anti-riot gear from China in an apparent attempt to cope with any possible riots in the North, a source said Tuesday.The communist North purchased tear gas, helmets and shields through Chinese merchants in China's northeastern city of Shenyang in recent months, the source said.The

 

India's oldest inmate Brij Bihari Pandey was released at 108.LUCKNOW, India (AFP) - Prison authorities in India have released the country's oldest inmate, 108-year-old Brij Bihari Pandey, who was convicted of a murder he committed at the age of 84, officials said Saturday.Pandey, a Hindu priest, was freed on Friday by a court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on humanitarian grounds as prison

Canucks fans jump onto a destroyed car during a riot in Vancouver, Canada, June 15, 2011. (Xinhua-Yonhap News)Riot police look on as two police cars burn during a riot in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia Wednesday, June 15, 2011 following the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the Stanley Cup hockey final.(AP-Yonhap News)VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) _ Almost 150 p

The number of mobile phone users in North Korea has topped 500,000, according to a cell phone service provider's data disclosed Friday, in a sign of growing mobile penetration in the isolated country.Egypt's Orascom Telecom has been providing mobile services in North Korea since 2008 through Koryolink, a joint venture set up with the North.The number of subscribers in the North jumped to more than

This artist's image provided by the University of Warwick shows a star being distorted by its close passage to a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. (AP-Yonhap News)LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Astronomers think they have solved the mystery of an extraordinary flash spied in a faraway galaxy, saying it came from a massive black hole that devoured a star after it wandered too close.The awesom